The Rays have designated catcher J.P. Arencibia, outfielder Daniel Nava, and righties Brandon Gomes and Kirby Yates for assignment, the club announced. Tampa Bay will add righties Jacob Faria, Taylor Guerrieri, and German Marquez to the 40-man roster along with infielder/outfielder Taylor Motter and rising lefty prospect Blake Snell.
By parting with Arencibia, the club appears to have chosen to keep Rene Rivera around behind the dish, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. The 29-year-old Arencibia still benefited from his time in Tampa Bay, though, as he put on a power show in his 73 plate appearances and figures to have boosted his free agent stock. Nava, soon to turn 33, never really got going last year and will probably be left looking for an opportunity on a minor league deal this winter.
On the pitching side of the ledger, the 31-year-old Gomes has seen his share of action in the Rays’ pen over the last five years, throwing a total of 167 innings of 4.20 ERA ball. He could land an MLB deal with a team looking for reliever depth. As for Yates, the 28-year-old righty was hit hard last year, but will enter the market with 10.1 K/9 vs. 3.5 BB/9 on his ledger over 56 1/3 career MLB innings.
Notably, also, the move will save Tampa Bay some money. MLBTR projected Arencibia ($1.4MM), Nava ($1.9MM), and Gomes ($900K) to command salaries that are not insignificant for a team with Tampa Bay’s tight payroll.
Rivera over Arencibia? HELLO?
Absolutely. RIvera didn’t do much with the stick, but was tremendous behind the plate. Arencibia hit in limited action but he is historically a terrible hitter with terrible OBP. I’ll take solid performance behind the plate if Rivera can just hit a little bit better in 2016.
What have you done for me lately with this situation in my opinion. Rivera did nothing for the team aside from catch and he looked like a second coming of Molina. Fans saw a masher with Arencibia, whom did get limited time. I would of rather seen them give Arencibia a shot again. But I know that Rivera and Casali would be the best bet for the team. Especially with Casali healthy.
The cardinals should take a look at arencibia
Rene Rivera, overrated defensively?
I guess you didn’t watch many Rays games this year. He was fantastic behind the plate.
No brainer, Arencibia can only help as a DH. I’m so happy to see Yates gone, has no businees being a major leaguer…
Same with Gomes. He was with the club way longer than he should of been.