The Rays have recalled young outfielder Austin Meadows to the MLB roster, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported. Also joining the club are righties Austin Pruitt and Chih-Wei Hu as well as southpaw Hoby Milner.
Among these new additions to the active roster, the 23-year-old Meadows is the most interesting. That’s due not only to his top-prospect status and his recent acquisition — in a swap that also brought Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz to Tampa Bay in exchange for Chris Archer — but also his strong offensive output this season.
Before the swap, of course, Meadows had impressed in a 165-plate appearance debut in the majors. Though his success was predicated in no small part upon a .345 BABIP, it was hard not to like the .292/.327/.468 line (with five homers and four steals) he produced against major-league pitching.
At the same time, though, Meadows had continued his less-than-stirring work at the highest level of the minors, so it was fair to wonder whether that was simply a mirage. The longtime top-100 prospect had hovered in the .700 OPS range in three attempts at Triple-A Indianapolis.
Since arriving in the Rays organization, however, Meadows has thrived. It’s only a 26-game sample, but he laid waste to the International League pitching over 106 plate appearances, slashing .344/.396/.771 with ten home runs.
Whether or not that showing ought to elevate expectations for Meadows is perhaps debatable, but it certainly increase the excitement of his promotion. Of course, he’s not likely to receive a long look just yet. But with Carlos Gomez set to hit the open market at season’s end, it’s possible that Meadows could be in the mix to crack the roster as part of the corner outfield rotation in 2019.
As ever, service-time considerations must be noted as well. Meadows was on the Pittsburgh active roster for 59 days already and will now add another dozen to his tally. That means he could well top a full year of MLB service next season even if he’s held down to open the year.
The only piece I was really upset they gave up for Archer, and even more now after a handful of Archer starts.
Archer had a great outing tonight; Glasnow reverted to his old self, Meadows just now cracked the majors, & Baz is in single A. Trade still could be a good one for the Pirates. Meadows may crack the Rays lineup, not sure, but in reality wasn’t going to in Pittsburgh. Frazier is more valuable also, because he can play IF & OF
He had a great outing against the ROYALS
Glasnow reverted to his old self and still has a better WAR than archer in less innings lmfao
Who cares about WAR, how about walks, innings per start, ERA, K’s, you know, real baseball stats. A lazy person uses new metrics as indicators.
Sure it could turn out good for The Pirates, but that’s not what it looks like right now. And plus the good outing was against The Royals. Glasnow hasn’t reverted to his old self either. His last start, he went 6 innings of no run ball and only walked 2. The start before that, he went 7 innings, and only gave up 2 runs to The Indians.
Pirates give up too soon on players, look at what Bronson Arroyo did after they put him on waivers.
Like Tony Pena for Andy Van Slyke, Mike Lavailure, & Mike Dunne as long as you’re going way back in time. The Pirates are fine, they have no room for Meadows, Glasnow was a bust in the NL, might be ok in the AL with 75% weak teams , but he is wild.
I’d make that trade 100 times out of 100.
The Indians would be also rams in the NL
Tony Pena was an all star catcher already so I miss your point..
My point is the Pirates may have given up too soon on Glasnow.
I bet the Mets regret giving up on Nolan Ryan and the Phils giving up on Fergy Jenkins.
Glasnow may not become a HOFer like these guys but could become a very good pitcher.
“To qualify for the Super Two designation, players must rank in the top 22 percent, in terms of service time, among those who have amassed between two and three years in the Majors.”
So does anyone know how close Meadows is to this? He didn’t play that much in the MLB this year so I didn’t think he was very close.
Through the end of the year he’ll have roughly 80 days of service time. It probably is a day or two over that. He’ll be well under by 40-50 days or so.
Thank you! That’s what I was thinking. As long as he was under 120, he should be okay.
But I was confused by what the writer meant by this because I didn’t think next year would matter.
“That means he could well top a full year of MLB service next season even if he’s held down to open the year.”
Pirates fans are going to hate that trade for years to come.
I already like Glasnow more than Archer. If Meadows becomes an everyday outfielder, then it’s a super lopsided trade. Then if Baz even makes the Rays someday, it’s just an extra kick in the pants for the Pirates. Archer will probably continue to be average with a handful of good starts, but his ERA will hover around 4.50 so it’s certainly not Ace-like, even if he is affordable.
It was super lopsided before they added baz. Archer had been league average for two years by that point. Just wild from the jump.
You’re a moron for liking Glasnow over Archer. Glasnow is a thrower, not a pitcher. He threw mostly 3-5 innings per outing for the Rays & looked good early against the bottom feeders, got roughed up against the big boys. He won’t be a starter for you next year. Meadows May start, but he will underwhelm you. A corner OF that won’t hit 20 HR or drive in more than 75 won’t produce much for you in reality, it’s why he was expendable. Baz, who knows, he’s a kid in single A. He could someday make the majors or maybe never pan out. Archer will be a stud next year, & you’ll have 3 underwhelming guys. Wait & see.
Sounds like a Pirates fan in denial. Face it, you got curb stomped in that trade.
Glasnow is looking like a pitcher than a thrower on The Rays now. Take out that one bad start from early September, and he has a 2.95 ERA.
Yeah outside that one bad start from Glasnow, he looked pretty good and at times dominant. That’s more exciting than Archer who has just been average. We’ll see what happens, but Glasnow certainly has more upside and has looked better so far in a small sample size.
Glasnow doesn’t certainly have more upside than archer. They both COULD be frontline starters if they put it all together but archer is at least an established pitcher. The rays certainly got a haul for him but he has a ways to go as a pitcher.
I couldn’t agree more. Archer has been terrible. Glasnow has out pitched him so far. And, with Polanco now out 7-9 months, Austin would really look good in RF.
Uh, no. Glasnow hasn’t out-pitched him; you can’t compare 3 innings with 6. Austin wouldn’t even beat out Frazier for RF if Polanco is out long (but he could be back by late April).
Since the trade
Archer has: 8 starts, 39.1 IP, 5.49 ERA.
Glasnow has: 9 starts, 44.1 IP, 4.06 era
You’re not comparing 3 innings to 6, Glasnow has more innings per start than Archer despite being stretched out his first few starts as a Ray.
Dcahen is a bucs fan in denial.
Do the math, using up to date numbers. Archer since trade; 9 starts, 46.1 innings or 5.1 innings per start. Glasnow since trade; 9 starts 44.1 innings or 4.9 innings per start. Glasnow does not have more innings per start. He’s also 1-4. Archer is 2-3. Not greatly impressive numbers admittedly, but don’t say Glasnow has out-pitched Archer, when in reality he hasn’t.
Christ pal. You just compared their win and loss record. You’re just asking to get blasted. Glasnow was also just getting stretched out into being a starter again. It’s not surprising he hasn’t been taking the ball deep into games. It’s way too early to draw any final conclusions on this deal but you need archer to produce now. The rays have 20 years of control out of the trio they received. If you’re splitting hairs about archer v glasnow right now I’d hate to see the outcome in a few years.
Pirates “fans” have, for years, been demanding that the team trade for MLB players and insisting that they don’t care how many prospects it takes to do it.
But, you are still right.
Hating things is what the “fans” truly love.
I hated it from day one. Thought Archer was not a no.1.. Meadows had potential to be better than Polanco. who has peaked.. Shocked at how well Glasnow has done, knew he had a million dollar arm but a bit of a head case.
So is KK gonna get traded, or Mallex?
KK is making a lot of money for the Rays and he’s getting older. Which is an issue because he has gotten hurt a lot already, hits around league average or less, and relies on his speed/defense to be an above average player. I love KK, but I could see the Rays trading him if they get a good deal.
I think they should keep all 4 OFers. Pham, KK, and Meadows all have had injury issues most of their careers, so there should be plenty of at bats to go around when that eventually happens.
Rays are slowly but surely becoming a sneaky good team. They just need the TJ bug to move on.
Can’t find it now but pretty sure it was ESPN. Talking about a baseball writers poll on Cy Young winners. Said deGrom for NL award. I’m good with that but it said Chris Sale for AL award. Blake Snell wins hands down.
Ya I think it should be a pretty easy decision this year. Degrom without question in the NL and then probably Snell in the AL. There is an argument to be made about Sale, but by the end of the year Snell will likely have at least 30 more innings thrown
Ridiculously awful trade for the Pirates. Just putrid. And that’s me being nice.
Jury’s still out. Archer could have showed tonight what next year will be like. Glasnow will turn out to be nothing, Baz is too far away to tell anything, & Meadows, the blue chip for TB will never overwhelm you with power, so in a corner OF position, he will be less than Corey Dickerson.
Your comments are so funny
I mean, he’s not wrong, but it’s just not looking like that right now.
Changing subjects…. If Oakland, Tampa Bay and New York all finish with 96-66 records, how will MLB break the tie? 96-66 means winning out for TB so it’s not likely to happen but it could. 96-66 means Oakland goes 5-6 against LAA, MIN and SEA which seems like a low estimate but it could happen and 96-66 means NY goes 4-8 in their final 12 which is not likely simply because 3 are against BAL so if they play like they have all year they should take 2 of 3 in BAL meaning they would need to go 3- 6 in their final games with TB and BOS. For TB to get to 96 they need to sweep the Yankees which I think they can do so that means if Boston takes 3 of the final 5 games with NY the Yanks end with 96 wins. So, it all comes down to TB winning out. If they do, it could be a two or three way tie for the wildcard.
So two questions: How does a three way tie-breaker work and who gets home field if Oak and NY have the same record? What is that tie-breaker?
I just got a response back from a different source and they said a 3 way tie reverts to the three-way H2H first using an A=B=C system where the best record can choose any of the 3 spots but likely would choose A which gives them Monday off while B & C play at B’s location. The winner of the B/C games plays at A on Tuesday. Tampa Bay sweeping NY would mean they have the A slot and it would come down to best intra-divsional percentage to determine the B slot between NY and Oak. Wow, what a nightmare!!
This could happen in the National League, in fact, it’s far more likely to happen there since it would take extreme circumstances for all three to tie in the AL. Checking the NL numbers, it’s too hard to say who has the advantage because of the games left and all the ties between teams.
Chris Archer never really was that great. You can have the greatest peripherals ever but when they never back up your bottom line stats what good is it? He is basically Jeff Samardzija.
Chris Archer was always overrated to me.. sure he had a few good years but never consistent. Even if Archer bounces back next year can’t see Pirates ever winning this trade.
The problem with a 3 for 1 or a 4 for 1 deal is the singular player usually has to be a really good player and stay healthy.
These trades takes 2-3 years usually to really tell the complete picture.
If Gerritt Cole had gotten hurt,it would not have been a good trade for Houston,but they only traded “extra” players who they did not need.They would not trade any highly valued prospects.
Archer needs to become at least a strong #2 to make this trade anywhere near even in all probability.The Pirates deemed the young players as “extra” because at the time of the trade they did not have immediate roles for them,and they were tired of waiting for Glasnow and Meadows to blossom.It does not bode well for the Pirates developmental coaching staff if they have blossomed this quickly under the Rays tutelage.
It does seem that NH got “taken” with the inclusion of Baz.He is the true wildcard.