The Rays have sent down lefty Ryan Yarbrough in favor of infielder Andrew Velazquez, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
Yarbrough, 27, was recalled yesterday following an April 24th demotion, but was not needed given the postponement of the Rays’ Sunday tilt in Baltimore. Yarbrough has been scored upon in four of his five appearances this year, resulting in an 8.10 ERA in 16 2/3 frames. He’ll head back to Triple-A Durham following a 2018 season that resulted in a fifth place Rookie of the Year finish, with a lone vote from Dick Scanlon of the Lakeland Ledger. Scanlon’s was the only Rookie of the Year ballot to omit Shohei Ohtani. Last year, Yarbrough was able to rack up 16 wins serving as the Rays’ self-termed “bulk guy” or primary pitcher, the hurler who follows the team’s opener. In this capacity, Yarbrough made 32 relief appearances, averaging about 3.7 innings each time.
Velazquez, 24, made his big league debut for the Rays last year as a September call-up. According to the Baseball America Handbook, Velazquez’s “ability to play an excellent center field, second, shortstop, or third base makes him a useful utility-man.” Indeed, Velazquez has logged innings at all of those positions for the Durham Bulls. A seventh round pick of the Diamondbacks in 2012, Velazquez was shipped along with Justin Williams to the Rays for Jeremy Hellickson in November 2014.
The Rays, currently owners of the best record in baseball, will move to a 12-man pitching staff for the time being. This puts the Rays in the minority for the American League, where two-thirds of clubs run with a 13-man pitching staff at the moment.
a lone vote from Dick Scanlon of the Lakeland Ledger. Scanlon’s was the only Rookie of the Year ballot to omit Shohei Ohtani.
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In a fair world, Lakeland would no longer get to be a city after this.
Insert eyeroll. Oh no, someone who thinks differently than I do! Tar and feather, immediately!
Differing opinions are fine, if they’re still educated ones. Stop defending an awful uneducated opinion.
Rays have a 14 day stretch ahead of them when they have 4 off days; kind of weird schedule-making (then they have like 25 games in 24 days). 12 pitchers, especially their pitchers, should be fine.
That ” writer ” should lose his voting privileges after omitting Othani. Letting nerds who’ve never played an inning of competitive baseball vote on MLB awards is a disgrace. Smh.
Homerism at its finest. A Lakeland (FL) writer picked Wendle 2nd and Yarborough 3rd, both representatives of the Rays.
Totally! In my opinion, the ballot is Torres, Othani, Andujar. I know I am biased toward Torres, but it is not unreasonable like voting for Yargabour
Ohtani missed 1/3 of the season. That is when pitchers usually make their adjustments to rookie hitters. Torres fell off quite a bit in the second half. Could have been the injury or it could have been the pitching adjustments. Andujar hit better as the season progressed. If he was even an average defender he would have been a 5 WAR player. Ohtani got over half of his value being a DH and missed half the year. Imho it should have gone to Andujar but Ohtani did deserve it more than Torres.
Andujar was horrible on defense. -56 DRS, good for the worst mark by any fielder ever. Also -21.8 UZR, not good. Torres did fall off but he was not hurt and was an all-star
calm down. I know it is tough when people have a different opinion than you, but it happens.
If you truly think Yarborough is even in the same category as the other candidates, or was more deserving than Ohtani and Torres then you are beyond help and not worth arguing with.
Funny stuff. Haven’t seen Dick in years. he must be getting up there near 80 by now. he was the Sports editor for the old Winter Haven news Chief way back in the 1970’s. Used to see him at about every Winter haven Red Sox game.
He used to give me photos he’d take sometimes of players and a team photo 1 year. Was/is a nice guy.
Haven’t seen Dick in 80 years? Must have a big gut??
Your reading comprehension skills must be on par with 3rd world country skills. Try concentrating this time perhaps, or better? Don’t post.
He was making a genitalia joke…
Instead of celebrating the boy-next-door Trout, the quiet dignity of Betts, the swallow-the-room-whole enthusiasm of Lindor, and professionalism of Ohtani, MLB seems to approve writers who argue whether or not Ohtani is “technically” a rookie……..Meanwhile, a day doesn’t go by that an NFL or NBA star is arrested……
And they wonder why attendance is hemorrhaging……
Rookie or not a rookie after playing in Japan should have stopped being a discussion when Ichiro won ROY almost 20 years ago and Hideo Nomo 5-6 years before him.
MLB can take the NBA approach and ask writers to stir up drama by saying “can Mike Trout win the big one” after an 0-for-4 against Baltimore in May. Seems the hell, fire and brimstone approach is working with NBA fans.
Or MLB can take the approach of the NFL by questioning leadership and preparation without any evidence. That’ll fire up the fanbase.
Instead we are witnessing baseball writers patting Alex Cora on the back for saying no to a White House visit. Don’t care if he does and don’t care if he doesn’t. Glad the writers have their priorities in-order.
Why are people like Scanlon allowed to vote for these things? Just like the sports writers that didn’t vote at all for Verlander the year Porcello won the award. I believe they were from Tampa.
He omitted Ohtani because he didn’t think he should qualify as a rookie.
That doesn’t excuse him putting Yarborough over Torres, pure homerism