The Rays have designated southpaw Erik Bedard for assignment in order to clear roster space for right-hander Joel Peralta, who is coming off the disabled list, the team announced.
The 35-year-old Bedard pitched 75 2/3 innings in a Rays uniform this season, tallying a 4.76 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 33.6 percent ground-ball rate. The former Orioles ace has seen his results diminish over the past few seasons, and he averaged a career-low 87.9 mph on his fastball this season. That drop in velocity likely has something to do with his 7.6 K/9 — also a career-low.
Bedard has yielded an identical .707 OPS to right-handed and left-handed hitters alike in his career to this point, though he developed a reverse-platoon split in 2014. Opposing lefties weren’t fooled by Bedard, slashing a healthy .273/.333/.494 against the veteran Canadian. Bedard signed a minor league deal with Tampa this offseason and made the team out of Spring Training. He’ll join a slew of players in DFA limbo, all of whom can be seen in MLBTR’s DFA Tracker.
