The Rays are set to sign right-hander Cory Rasmus — the younger brother of outfielder Colby Rasmus, who recently signed a one-year deal with Tampa Bay — to a minor league contract, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (on Twitter).
After a brief MLB debut with the Braves back in 2013, the younger Rasmus spent the bulk of the past four seasons in the Angels organization. Though he found success in both 2013 and 2014 with the Halos, the past two seasons were a struggle for Cory, as he pitched to a combined 5.56 ERA in 45 1/3 innings. The 29-year-old is predominantly a fly-ball pitcher with below-average velocity and some control issues, but he’s nonetheless racked up 121 strikeouts in 123 Major League innings to date. He also comes with a nice Triple-A track record, having compiled a 3.01 ERA with 10.5 K/9 against 4.5 BB/9 in parts of three seasons at that level.
Tampa Bay is deep in right-handed bullpen options, with Alex Colome, Brad Boxberger, Danny Farquhar, Shawn Tolleson and one of Matt Andriese or Erasmo Ramirez (whichever is not in the rotation) all likely to crack the big league ‘pen to open the season. Beyond that, the Rays have a slew of right-handers already on the 40-man roster. Among the names from which they can choose are Kevin Gadea (a Rule 5 pick out of the Mariners organization), Ryan Garton, Ryne Stanek, Chase Whitley and Austin Pruitt, to name a few.
La Russa isnt smart anymore though. Did see the Diamondbacks last year…
youtube.com/watch?v=m6mYmwB221c
Colby facing his brother in 2013.
So this is probably why the Rays got Colby so cheap, by signing his brother too. Rays also did this with Draft pick Lowe last year, signing his brother in latter round.
The brother thing is cool & all but it rarely ever works out to be more than just a P.R. Stunt. Take it first hand from a Padre fan here that has seen way more than my fair share of them & in most cases like this one you have one brother who has had a nice little track record of success while the other is pretty mediocre.
See:
Justin Upton – Melvin Upton
Adrian Gonzalez – Edgar Gonzalez
Brian Giles – Marcus Giles
Jerry Hairston Jr. – Scott Hairston
Tony Gwynn – Chris Gwynn
On the bright side, the Rasmus brothers are unlike the groups I mentioned that played for the Padres because one is a hitter the other a pitcher.. The bright side being, you don’t have to hear your corny announcer call it a BRO.b.i every time one drives in another lol one of many reasons the Padres don’t have a championship to their name because we care about dopey story lines like these instead of what’s really important, winning ball games.