April 22: Rays general manager Erik Neander said this morning in an appearance on 95.3 WDAE that the organization hopes to be without Meadows for “a few weeks” (Twitter link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).
April 21: The Rays have placed outfielder Austin Meadows on the 10-day injured list due to a sprained right thumb. This was one of a series of roster moves made by the club this morning, as Tampa Bay also activated utilityman Joey Wendle from the IL, optioned righty Jake Faria to Triple-A, and called up utilityman Andrew Velazquez and right-hander Emilio Pagan. Right-hander Hunter Wood has also been placed on the paternity list.
Meadows’ status is the headline from this bunch of items, as the 23-year-old has been a major contributor to the Rays’ early run to the top of the AL East. Meadows has hit a blistering .351/.422/.676 with six homers over 83 plate appearances this season, showing the potential that made him one of the game’s top prospects coming up in the Pirates’ farm system. Pittsburgh dealt Meadows, Tyler Glasnow, and prospect Shane Baz to the Rays for Chris Archer last July in a trade that is already looking like a major success for Tampa, given how Meadows and Glasnow have excelled in 2019.
While losing Meadows is a blow, Wendle is a more than solid replacement in the corner outfield slots. Wendle was a breakout star in his own right in 2018, hitting .300/.354/.435 over 545 PA to earn a fourth-place finish in AL Rookie Of The Year voting. Wendle only appeared in four games this year before hitting the IL due to a hamstring strain, which opened the door for Brandon Lowe to blossom as the everyday second baseman.
The Rays’ penchant for lineup flexibility will likely mean that Wendle sees time all over the diamond, and while the bulk of his experience is as an infielder, Wendle did start 13 games in left field last season. Velazquez is also likely to see some time in the corner outfield positions, as well as providing further depth behind Kevin Kiermaier in center field.
What a horrible trade for the Pirates.
It hasn’t been that bad. Archer has done pretty well.
Tyler was never going to succeed here.
And while no one wants to notice, Archer is currently a big part of the best starting staff in MLB.
“Horrible trades” don’t make you a discernibly better team.
The Pirates have been aided by a relatively weak early season schedule. Granted much of that has been on the road, but still it comes with a caveat.
No one would have guessed that Glasnow would be doing what he is doing now. He always had the talent but never came close to harnessing it in the Majors. He could get away with being wild and walking a bunch of guys in the minors because not enough good hitters to hurt him. Meadows was expendable because of Martin and Reynolds, Both playing well in Pittsburgh right now. Meadows never has shown power till this season. Will be interesting to see if it continues after he sits for a couple of weeks. Baz has been a bust so far in pro ball. Not a horrible trade by any means.
I applaud the Pirates for making a big move but I have no idea why they felt they had to overpay so much for him?
Seems like they gave up twice as much as the majority of other teams did when they traded for pitchers- Paxton, Gerrit Cole, Sonny Grey, Alex Wood, etc.
Granted, I was not a huge fan of Glasnow, he had severe control issues that seemed to disappear, but he and Meadows was too much, let alone another young arm in Baz. Pittsburgh can really use Meadows this year
All I can figure is the Pirates must’ve felt Glasnow wasn’t who they thought he was and hoped to cash-in on what was left of his prospect status while they could. Rays must have a pitching guru who figured it out quick, which makes the trade appear lop-sided. But alas, at least Archer is no slouch either. Can’t win ‘em all.
WSox got 2 high end prospects for Quintana with Jimenez/Cease. That was the Rays comp to ask when shopping Archer……Meadows/Glasnow seem to fit the bill.
Rumor had it that the Sox asked for Glasnow and Bell and more for Quintana. Other names brought up were Keller, Newman, and Meadows. .People around Pittsburgh wanted to part with whomever the Sox wanted for Quintana. Now, even though Archer panned out for the Bucs so far, everyone crying because 2 of the names in the Archer deal panned out as well. Bet if the same deal was made for Quintana, all of those who wanted to move Glasnow and Meadows then would be crying now because Glasnow and Meadows are doing well.
Part of the reason the Bucs felt comfortable trading Meadows is how much they liked Jason Martin (acquired in Cole trade) and Bryan Reynolds (McCutchen trade). Martin has been excellent in a small MLB sample so far, and Reynolds is now up because of the Marte injury. Archer has also been much better this year so far than he was last year. The biggest issue I see now with trading Meadows is the fact that the Pirates have had no true CF backup since that time, so if Marte misses any considerable length of time they are in big trouble.
Polonco was a CF in the minors till the moved him to the corner because of McCutcheon. Reynolds and Martin mlbtraderumors.com/2019/04/rays-place-austin-meado… played CF a bunch in the minors. No idea what their defense is like but they do have guys with experience.
LOL! No idea why the line showed up in the comment. Obviously was not paying attention!
I didn’t realize Reynolds and Martin had CF experience (I’ve always heard them described as corner OFs) and I had forgotten Polanco played it, so I appreciate the correction. From what I can tell only Reynolds has played it recently, and that’s who they are putting there now.
They already have 2 OFrs on IL and one rehabbing in AAA. Why would they need Meadows on the IL ? At 12 & 6 in the NL Central, would the Pirates be undefeated ?
IDK…maybe because he’s…. INJURED? Just a guess though.
No, I think you miss understood the point. The point was if the Bucs still had Meadows he would have been on the IL now if he had the same thumb injury occur so he would have been no help.
Pirates are 12-7, nice try.
Note–this was posted yesterday. and updated today. Can’t remember the time but @leowalter prob posted before the end of the Pirates loss.
Coulda shoulda woulda.
They made it & the Rays say…
Thank You Pittsburgh!
😉
Nice having players that can multiple positions!
Go Rays!
Play Wendle on the infield. He was better than Robertson last year and should play,3rd, ss, and 2nd. They really should have traded him in the off-season. He’ll have to reestablish value and probably won’t bring back more than he’s worth to the team. They need a real bat in the middle of the lineup. I’ve loved what Lowe, Diaz, Meadows, Garcia, and Pham has done but put a prime Ortiz, Pujols, Etc there and the rest falls into place and they win two of the last three more than likely. Has anyone noticed how bad they’ve been with the bases loaded.
I miss those devil rays jerseys.
Well should I keep him on my yahoo fantasy team on my bench till he gets better or drop him for now since he will be out a few weeks ?
On the real side of things I hope he gets better
Uhmm, part of the reason the Pirates were OK with trading Meadows is that he’s never been able to stay healthy.
Regarding Glasnow, the Pirates should do a thorough examination of why Glasnow failed here and succeeded there. Seriously. Hire 3 different former GM’s to conduct independent reviews of what went wrong and submit independent reports. Then have all 3 work together to issue a joint report identifying what the Pirates did wrong and what the Rays did right.
Having said that, I’m hesitant to give the Rays too much credit without knowing exactly what they did. Glasnow’s problems were always mental (never seen a human looks so scared on a mound). It’s entirely possible the reality of a team trading him (and thus giving up on him) put his career into focus and awoke something in him. It wasn’t like the Rays worked with him for a few weeks, tweaking this and that and then he emerged. He got to TB within 24 hours of his first start, in which he was very good, leaving little time for coaching.
Honestly, if you told me that all the Rays did was hand him a Xanax and said “swallow this”, I’d believe it. And if you told me they didn’t, I might still believe it. It was fear and a lack of confidence that sank him here. The change in TB was pretty instant.
Whatever the reason, the Pirates need to find it to ensure their player development dept. is doing it’s job.
He has been consistently good this year; last year he had some hiccups with the Rays. I don’t know why you refuse to accept that the Rays coaching staff may have actually done something to help here…look at the team’s history, and you can see pitchers often turn a corner there. I am not a believer in coincidence myself. The Rays have always taken a different approach–they give more freedom to pitchers, but also emphasize high heat–and maybe this is the difference. It could have been a minor psychological tweak, who knows? But there is nothing wrong with being willing to give an organization credit…
Couild have been the Ray’s staff. Could have been a change of scenery where he was not necessarily looked at as the ace of the staff in waiting like he was in Pittsburgh when Taillon had his TJ surgery and he was able to relax. Could be just another year older and wiser. No matter why, he has been lights out this year. Have not watched him pitch this year so has he moved to high heat more? He had a nightmare of a curveball and used it a lot before. Maybe a new set of voices got him to move away from the curveball when he used it a lot in Pittsburgh.
Offering alternate theories that have yet to be considered without drawing any conclusions =/= “refus(ing) to accept the Rays coaching staff might have actually done something to help.”
In fact, I said the Pirates should hire outside minds to examine “what the Rays did right” thus giving them credit. And, in fact, even both of my alternate theories still fit into the category of what the Rays did right.
Teams getting more out of a player than another team happens without necessarily being an indictment on any of the teams. Rays got more out of Glasnow and Meadows than the Pirates did. Pirates got more out of Archer and Dickerson than the Rays did. Pirates got more out of Vazquez (Rivero) than the Nats did. Astros got more out of Cole than the Pirates did. And on and on.
Side note on Cole….Looks like Cole is back to where he was with the Pirates so far this year. After his Super hot start last year, he cooled down some in the 2nd half. Trades take a while to hash out That trade looks very good for both sides so far.
As I was typing remembered that the gave up 5 (4 earned) runs in the first and went to look at what he finished with……..Ouch! 9 runs (8 earned) in 4 1/3..That hammered the already ERA that was over 4. A little off of the luster to the trade now for the Astros
Why do these players insist on sliding headfirst? It’s not faster and they are far more likely to get hurt. No fundamentals anymore.
See the slide by Polanco…….. I do actually agree with you. More chance of injury going in headfirst. I guess, after seeing players adjusting their hands mid slide to avoid tags, that would be the main reason for a head first slide.
It is faster. Just not faster to 1st base.
He wasn’t sliding headfirst. He slid feet first on a triple and there was a play at the bag. As he slid, he reached down to make sure he didn’t slide past or pop off and jammed his thumb into the ground as he tried to grab the base.