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Rays Notes: Yarbrough, Sanders, Franco

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Rays left-hander Ryan Yarbrough is going to start tonight’s game against the Athletics, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The southpaw has yet to make his season debut, as he landed on the injured list in April with groin tightness.

On a Tampa Bay team that frequently rotates players on and off the roster, Yarbrough has been one of the more consistent members of the club. Over the four seasons beginning in 2018, he’s appeared in 107 games, throwing 499 2/3 innings with an ERA of 4.30. He doesn’t miss a ton of bats, as evidenced by his 19.5% career strikeout rate. However, he’s limited walks to a career rate of 5.2% and has also been good at limiting hard contact.

The Rays have a decent number of potential starting pitchers on the injured list right now, including Shane Baz, Tyler Glasnow, Brendan McKay and Luis Patino. The club has already resorted to a few of their patented bullpen games to get through the first month of the schedule. A healthy and effective Yarbrough could be a valuable stabilizing force for a staff that’s been heavily worked in the season’s early going.

When Yarbrough comes off the IL, he might be switching places with righty Phoenix Sanders, reports Topkin. Sanders threw an inning in last night’s game and was supposed to head back out for a second until an issue with his back arose, according to manager Kevin Cash. Sanders, who turns 27 next month, is in his first MLB season and is off to a good start. Through 10 innings on the year, he has a 1.80 ERA, with nine strikeouts and just two walks.

As for Wander Franco, he’s been dealing with some hamstring tightness that kept him out of Sunday’s game. The issue doesn’t seem to be overly serious, as he was back in the lineup on Monday. The club tried to convince him to avoid running hard when possible, which he’s found difficult. “The coaches have said that to me,” Franco tells Topkin, “but (running hard) is definitely the way I’ve played since I was a kid, and that’s the form I’m going to play.” In last night’s game, Franco spent some time on the basepaths after hitting a couple of singles. He was pinch-hit for in the ninth inning, though the Rays were already up 6-1 at the time. Signed to an 11-year extension in the offseason, Franco figures to be the face of the Rays for the next decade-plus. The hamstring issue doesn’t seem to have hurt his bat at all, as he’s currently hitting .322/.341/.575 on the season, good enough for a wRC+ of 174.

Rays Option Josh Lowe, Designate Robert Dugger

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The Rays have optioned rookie outfielder Josh Lowe to Triple-A Durham and designated right-hander Robert Dugger for assignment, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The moves reduce the Rays’ active roster count from 28 to 26.

Lowe, one of the sport’s top prospects, broke camp with the big league club after Tampa Bay’s late-spring trade of Austin Meadows to Detroit. The lefty-hitting outfielder has gotten off to a slow start, however, hitting .188/.257/.344 with one home run over 71 plate appearances. Lowe’s 38% strikeout percentage and 67.9% contact rate are both far worse than this year’s respective league averages (22.9% and 75.8%). Lowe also had an elevated 26.2% strikeout rate in Triple-A last year, but he more than offset that with 22 homers, 26 stolen bases and a robust 13% walk percentage.

There’s still plenty of time for the 24-year-old to put things together well enough and allow his combination of power, athleticism, and plate discipline to overcome swing-and-miss issues. Yet for the time being, the Rays will get him more run against minor league pitching to try to work through those contact concerns. Tampa Bay will proceed with an outfield of Kevin Kiermaier, Manuel Margot, Randy Arozarena, Harold Ramírez and Brett Phillips. Of that group, only Arozarena could be optioned, making Lowe the odd man out as rosters shrunk if the Rays didn’t want to risk losing Ramírez or Phillips on waivers.

Between Lowe’s early struggles and the Rays’ outfield depth, there’s a case to be made for his option strictly from a baseball perspective. Depending upon how long he’s in the minor leagues, though, the assignment could have an effect on his window of team control.

Lowe entered this season with 26 days of MLB service, MLBTR has learned. Players are credited with a full service year upon reaching 172 days on an active roster. That means he needs to spend at least 146 days in the majors this season to end the 2022 campaign with over one year of service. Lowe spent around 25 days on the roster before being optioned, leaving him approximately 121 days from the one-year threshold. There’s still time to reach that mark, but if the optional assignment lingers into June, Lowe’s path to free agency after the 2027 season could come into question.

Dugger was just added to the big league club yesterday. He worked 5 1/3 innings of three-run ball in mop-up relief during the team’s loss to the Twins. That seemed as if it’d make him a quick DFA candidate, considering his 87 pitches took him out of commission for a few days. Dugger couldn’t be optioned, so the only way to take him off the active roster was via DFA.

Tampa Bay signed Dugger to a minor league contract in Spring Training. The 26-year-old has made five appearances and worked 16 frames with Durham, posting a 3.94 ERA with 13 strikeouts and seven walks. By calling him up yesterday, the Rays assume the risk of losing him from the organization. They’ll presumably place him on waivers in the coming days, and Dugger would have the right to refuse a new minor league assignment if he passes through unclaimed by virtue of having previously been outrighted in his career.

Rays Make Multiple Roster Moves

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10:02 am: The Rays are also placing Ji-Man Choi on the injured list due to loose bodies in his elbow, per Solondz. The move is retroactive to April 28. Isaac Paredes is being recalled to take his place on the roster.

Losing Choi is certainly a blow to the club, as he’s off to an incredible start to the year. After 53 plate appearances, he’s slashing .357/.491/.595, good enough for a wRC+ of 226. No timeline has been given for his absence.

Paredes, along with a draft pick, was the return the Rays received for sending Austin Meadows to the Tigers. Just 23 years old, Paredes already has 57 games of MLB experience. He hasn’t done much in that time, hitting .215/.290/.302. However, he’s done much better in the minors, including this year. In 19 Triple-A games this season, he’s hitting .270/.356/.500, 125 wRC+. He’s split his time between third and second base this year, giving the Rays another versatile infield option, alongside Yandy Diaz and Taylor Walls. With Choi out, Diaz could get the bulk of first base playing time, with Walls and Paredes taking starts at third or coming off the bench.

9:32 am: The Rays have selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Robert Dugger, reports team broadcaster Neil Solondz. Fellow righty Javy Guerra has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Once he gets into a game, this will be the fourth straight season of MLB action for Dugger. He made his debut with the Marlins in 2019 and pitched for them again in 2020, before spending 2021 with the Mariners. He hasn’t had much success in the majors so far, throwing 70 2/3 innings with a 7.39 ERA, 14.4% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 36.1% ground ball rate.

He’s off to a decent start this year, making five starts for the Triple-A Durham Bulls. He’s only thrown 16 innings over those five starts, but with gradual lengthening, throwing two innings, then three innings twice and four innings twice. He has a 3.94 ERA, 19.1% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate. The Rays currently have ten pitchers on the injured list, putting a strain on the remaining members of the staff. Furthermore, MLB rosters are going to be shrinking from 28 to 26 tomorrow, with all teams limited by a 14-pitcher maximum. The Rays currently have 15 arms on their active roster, meaning the staff will have to be squeezed after today’s game. Dugger’s ability to cover multiple innings could be valuable in taking a load off some of his teammates. He is out of options, however, meaning he will have to be exposed to waivers if the club continues its usual roster churn and needs another fresh arm down the line.

Guerra, also 26, spent his entire big league career with the Padres until being acquired by the Rays a couple of weeks ago. In 7 1/3 innings this year between the two clubs, he has an unfortunate 11.05 ERA in that small sample size. He doesn’t have a ton of innings on his record overall, as he was a shortstop prospect that switched to pitching in 2019. Also out of options, he’ll likely head onto the waiver wire in the coming days and see if another team gives him a shot. Despite the lack of results so far, he can hit triple digits on the radar gun, which could be enough for some team to take a shot at harnessing that weapon.

Rays Claim Ben Bowden

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The Rays have claimed left-hander Ben Bowden off waivers from the Rockies, the teams announced. Tampa Bay had an open spot on its 40-man roster so no corresponding move is needed. Bowden has been optioned to Triple-A Durham. The Rays’ 40-man roster is now full, while the Rockies’ roster is now at 39 players.

The Rockies never formally designated Bowden for assignment or announced that he’d been placed on waivers, though it’s hardly uncommon for teams to simply try to clear a roster spot in this fashion without first announcing the player’s placement on waivers.

Now 27 years old, Bowden was the No. 45 overall draft pick by the Rockies back in 2016. Praised by scouting reports for a plus changeup, Bowden has regularly missed bats at a high level in the minors (34.4% strikeout rate) but has also yielded too many free passes over the years (11.1% walk rate). Heading into the 2021 season, FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote about Bowden’s inconsistent fastball velocity, noting that when he’s in the mid-90s with his heater he looks like a viable big league reliever. However, Bowden doesn’t always maintain that velocity, evidenced by the 92.6 mph he averaged on his heater in last year’s MLB debut.

That 2021 debut wasn’t a pretty one for Bowden, who posted a grisly 6.56 ERA in 35 2/3 innings. True to form, he showed the ability to miss bats (23.7% strikeout rate, 11.4% swinging-strike rate) but also issued far too many walks (11.9%) and was uncharacteristically susceptible to home runs (1.51 HR/9). Bowden had a huge showing at Double-A in 2019 and fired 11 2/3 shutout frames in Triple-A last year. This season in Triple-A, however, he’s been tagged for seven runs on six hits and six walks in just 7 2/3 innings. He’s fanned 11 of the 34 hitters he’s faced, maintaining that impressive strikeout prowess, but he’ll need to improve his command and more consistently get the best out of his heater if he’s to emerge as a legitimate big league bullpen option.

Tommy Hunter Works Out For Teams

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Veteran reliever Tommy Hunter didn’t pitch after May 18 last season, spending the remainder of the 2021 campaign on the injured list — first with the Mets and then with the Rays, who acquired him as a financial counterweight in the trade that sent Rich Hill from Tampa Bay to New York.

Neither the Mets nor the Rays announced a formal diagnosis for Hunter beyond the Mets’ original indication that he was dealing with a lower back injury. As it turns out, Hunter missed the remainder of last season after undergoing back surgery, Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reports (Twitter links). Furthermore, Ghiroli adds that Hunter is now healthy and recent held a bullpen session attended by scouts from upwards of a dozen teams, reaching the mid-90s with his heater during that showcase.

Hunter, 35, appeared in just four games with the Mets last season but was sharp in that brief time, logging eight shutout innings with a 6-to-3 K/BB ratio and an above-average 47.8% ground-ball rate. Solid work out of the ’pen is nothing new for Hunter, who since moving to the bullpen on a full-time basis in 2013, has compiled 402 innings of 3.18 ERA ball with a 20.7% strikeout rate, an outstanding 5.3% walk rate and a solid 45.9% grounder rate. He’s seen that strikeout rate jump in recent years (23.2% from 2017-21) without significantly increasing his walk rate (5.3%).

Unfortunately for Hunter, injuries are also nothing new for him. There’s little doubt that he’s a talented late-inning arm, but Hunter has dealt with back, forearm (twice), hamstring and calf strains dating back to 2017, and he missed a good portion of the 2016 season following sports hernia surgery as well. Since Opening Day 2016, he’s averaged just 32 innings per season (34 if you exclude the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, which skews the number a bit even though Hunter was healthy for it).

Hunter has pitched for seven big league teams and carries a career 3.21 ERA out of the bullpen. Given the lengthy layoff from pitching, he might require a minor league tune-up before he’s able to jump back onto a big league roster, but bullpen-hungry teams will surely be interested in taking a low-cost look at a pitcher with his track record if he’s indeed healthy now.

Rays Notes: Zombro, Yarbrough, Stadium

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Right-hander Tyler Zombro made his return to the mound last night with the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate — the first time he pitched in a regular-season game since last season’s horrifying injury. Zombro, struck in the head by a 104 mph comeback liner early last June, underwent emergency brain surgery and had his skull stabilized with 16 plates and 36 screws, as detailed by MLB.com’s Adam Berry. That Zombro fully recovered is a triumph in and of itself, but returning to the mound in less than a year’s time seems nearly impossible to fathom. Last night’s return came on the road against the Norfolk Tides (the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate), and in a particularly classy scene, the entire Tides dugout emptied to laud Zombro with a standing ovation as he took the mound (video link). Zombro’s teammates and many of the fans in attendance followed suit. “That’s been one of the moments that certainly hit me the hardest,” Zombro tells Berry. “…I think it all came kind of full circle there and definitely was a symbol of me ‘completing the journey’ to be back to performing in Triple-A.”

More on the Rays…

  • Lefty Ryan Yarbrough made a rehab outing yesterday in hopes of a quick return to the roster, but he retired just one batter, walked four hitters and threw only 10 of his 27 pitches for strikes. Yarbrough, on the shelf since April 8 due to a groin strain, has yet to pitch in a big league game for Tampa Bay so far in 2022. The 30-year-old southpaw is hoping to bounce back from a career-worst year in 2021, when he logged a 5.11 ERA in a career-high 155 frames. He pitched well this spring (one run in 8 1/3 official frames), but it’s not yet clear when he’ll return to the club. Tampa Bay has been (quite successfully) using setup man J.P. Feyereisen as a an opener with Yarbrough, Luis Patino, Shane Baz, Yonny Chirinos, Tyler Glasnow and Brendan McKay all on the injured list. The team hasn’t made any kind of formal announcement regarding Yarbrough’s status, but given the short nature of that outing and the ugly results, it’d be a bit of a surprise to see him activated without another rehab appearance.
  • Major League Baseball nixed the Rays’ convoluted split-city plan with Montreal back in January, and St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch now tells John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times that he believes there’s a path forward for the Rays right at home in St. Petersburg. While Romano notes that a move to Tampa is the team’s preferred option, they’ve been unable to work out the necessary funding to facilitate such a move (hence the outside-the-box Montreal plan). Welch notes that the city of St. Petersburg has hired new financial consultants to explore whether the possibility of a mixed-use development similar to the Braves’ Battery development surrounding Truist Park could be plausible. Major funding from Pinellas County’s tourist tax would still be required, but Welch struck an optimistic tone that the team and the city could eventually figure out a workable plan. Of course, there’s been no shortage of optimism regarding various stadium plans in recent years, and the team has nevertheless continually found itself back at square one after each has fallen through. The Rays’ current lease at Tropicana Field runs through 2027.

Rays Place Jeffrey Springs On Covid-IL, Reinstate Yandy Diaz

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The Rays have placed left-handed pitcher Jeffrey Springs on the Covid-related injury list due to a close contact situation, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’ll swap places with Yandy Diaz, who comes off the Covid-IL after just a day.

The virus seems to be floating around the Rays team, as some staff members have tested positive in recent days. That was followed by catcher Francisco Mejia testing positive on Friday, which landed him on the injured list. Diaz was placed on the injured list yesterday after experiencing some symptoms. However, he must have tested negative due to his quick return.

As for Springs, the 29-year-old is off to a great start this year. He’s thrown seven scoreless innings out of the bullpen for the Rays, with a 34.6% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate. Until he returns, the club will have Brooks Raley, Colin Poche and Jalen Beeks as the available lefties in their bullpen.

Diaz is off to a fairly standard start to the year for him, hitting for contact but not a lot of power. His .275/.383/.326 line adds up to a 127 wRC+, with his 10.6% strikeout rate well below his career rate of 16.2%, which was already better than league average.

Rays Notes: No-Hit Bid, Suzuki, Yarbrough

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The Rays tossed nine no-hit innings against the Red Sox today, but while the no-no was erased during a wild tenth inning, Kevin Kiermaier’s walkoff homer gave Tampa a 3-2 victory.  Six different Rays pitchers combined to hold Red Sox batters without a hit or a run over the game’s first nine innings, yet the Tampa Bay lineup was also shut out (on two hits) against Boston pitching.  The Sox finally broke out for two hits and two runs in the top of the 10th, yet the Rays roared back in the bottom half of the inning for what might already be the most unusual win of their season.

This is the 15th time in Major League history that a would-be no-hitter wasn’t broken up until extra innings, and only the second time that such a game was tossed by more than one pitcher.  Matt Garza’s gem on July 26, 2010 remains the only no-hitter in Rays franchise history.  Tampa has been on the wrong end of no-hit games on five occasions, with three of those five being perfect games (from Mark Buehrle, Dallas Braden, and Felix Hernandez).

Some more notes from St. Pete…

  • Seiya Suzuki was known to be on the Rays’ target list during the offseason, and the club was apparently prepared to make a big investment.  Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that the Rays’ offer to Suzuki was “close” to the five-year, $85MM deal the outfielder eventually landed from the Cubs.  Between this push for Suzuki and the Rays’ even more surprising interest in Freddie Freeman this past winter, it could hint that Tampa Bay is prepared to be more financially aggressive than usual in its pursuit of a World Series, which might set the stage for some interesting trade possibilities as the deadline approaches.  It also seems like the Rays were onto something with Suzuki, given how he has been on fire for the first two weeks of his Major League career.
  • Ryan Yarbrough is set to throw a rehab start at Triple-A today, Rays manager Kevin Cash told The Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin and other reporters.  If all goes well, it could line Yarbrough up to be activated from the 10-day injured list in time to start the Rays’ game with the Mariners on Thursday.  Yarbrough has yet to pitch this season due to a groin injury.  Working as a reliever, opener, bulk pitcher, and traditional starter over his four MLB seasons, Yarbrough has a 4.30 ERA over 499 2/3 career innings with Tampa.

Rays Place Yandy Diaz On COVID-IL, Promote Vidal Brujan

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The Rays have placed infielder Yandy Diaz on the COVID-related injury list, according to team broadcaster Neil Solondz (Twitter link).  Infielder Vidal Brujan has been called up from Triple-A to take Diaz’s spot on the active roster — earlier today, The Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin reported that Brujan would at least be joining the Rays’ taxi squad.

Diaz is showing symptoms but there hasn’t been any word about a positive COVID test, so it is possible the IL placement is simply for precautionary reasons.  If so, Diaz could be back within a couple of days’ time as long as he continues to test negative for the coronavirus.  The veteran infielder has been an on-base machine early in the season, hitting .275/.383/.325 over his first 47 plate appearances of the 2022 campaign.

While Diaz is out, the Rays will get another (possibly brief) look at a top prospect.  Brujan made his MLB debut last season but in limited fashion, appearing in only 10 games and delivering only two hits over 26 plate appearances. Brujan also received his first taste of Triple-A ball last season and performed much better, hitting .262/.346/.440 with 12 home runs over 441 PA, while also stealing 44 bases from 52 chances.

Some knee issues have limited Brujan to just five Triple-A games thus far in 2022, and he has split time as a third baseman and a shortstop.  Originally seen as a shortstop candidate, Brujan has most recently seen action at multiple positions in the infield and outfield given that Wander Franco has Tampa Bay’s shortstop position locked up for the foreseeable future.  It stands to reason that Brujan will focus on third base for now if he is to serve as Diaz’s short-term replacement, but his eventual position at the MLB level remains to be seen (assuming he doesn’t evolve into a super-utility type).

Francisco Mejia Tests Positive For Covid-19

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The Rays announced that catcher Francisco Mejia has been placed on the Covid-related injured list after a positive test. Fellow catcher Rene Pinto was recalled to take his place on the roster.

Under the league’s 2022 health-and-safety protocols, players who test positive are subject to a 10-day absence from the club, though it’s possible to be reinstated in less time if the player has gone 24 or more hours without a fever, received a pair of negative PCR tests, and been given approval from a team physician and the MLB/MLBPA joint committee (a panel of one league-appointed and one union-appointed physician).

Acquired by the Rays as part of the deal that sent Blake Snell to the Padres, Mejia has been excellent in his time in Florida. Although he was considered one of the best prospects in baseball while in the minors, he struggled in his first tastes of the big leagues with the Indians and Padres. As a member of the Rays last year, however, he hit .260/.322/.416 for a wRC+ of 108 and 1.4 wins above replacement, in the estimation of FanGraphs. This year, he was off to a blistering start, hitting a pair of home runs in seven games and slashing .348/.333/.652, 193 wRC+.

Although that type of production would be impossible to sustain over a larger sample, it’s still a blow for the Rays to lose a hot bat. Mike Zunino will likely get the bulk of the playing time behind the dish in Mejia’s absence, though he’s started 2022 with a line of .040/.074/.080. That’s a tiny sample of eight games, however, and Zunino’s line from last year was a healthy .216/.301/.559.

Pinto, 25, was just added to the club’s 40-man roster in November and will make his MLB debut as soon as he gets into a game. In 12 Triple-A games so far this year, he’s hitting .268/.388/.341, with an excellent 16.3% walk rate in that small sample.

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