The Rays announced Tuesday that right-hander Aaron Slegers cleared waivers after being designated for assignment and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Durham. He’ll remain with the organization but won’t occupy a spot on the club’s 40-man roster.
Slegers, 26, went from the Twins to the Pirates to the Rays in the offseason via a series of DFAs and has started the year slowly in Triple-A. Through seven starts and a total of 33 2/3 innings, the towering 6’10” righty has a 6.15 ERA with 5.4 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 1.87 HR/9 and a 31.6 percent ground-ball rate. Slegers appeared in eight games with the 2017-18 Twins but, despite a previously strong track record in Triple-A (prior to 2019), he limped to a 5.90 ERA in 29 frames with Minnesota. He entered the year with a career 3.54 ERA at that Triple-A level, so there’s still some hope for a rebound that puts him back on the Rays’ radar for a promotion later in the year.
It always seems that these very tall guys take a while to get going (see Randy Johnson).