by Seth Trachtman Updated On: June 25, 2021, 3:50 pm ET Coming off his worst season, albeit severely shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, Robbie Ray was at a crossroads entering free agency. Fortunately, the Blue Jays kept the faith and are being rewarded. The left-hander is having an odd but splendid season in Toronto, flashing the best velocity of his career and ironically showing off the best walk rate of his career (6%) after a career-worst and embarrassing 18% walk rate last season. Ray has had a lot going against him in finding success this season, including two months of home games at hitter-friendly Dunedin, but he’s been able to overcome an AL-high 18 home runs allowed to post a 3.35 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 14 starts. He also happens to have a brilliant 11.5 K/9, marking the sixth consecutive season that he’s carried a K/9 of at least 11.0. Among MLB starting pitchers, only Max Scherzer and Chris Sale have better overall K/9 rates than Ray (11.8) since 2016, showing the upside he possesses.