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Rays Have Looked Into Availability Of Hunter Pence

By Jeff Todd | July 22, 2019 at 3:13pm CDT

The Rays have checked in with the Rangers about the availability of outfielder/DH Hunter Pence, according to MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter). The possibility of a match was first noted by MLB Network Radio’s Jim Duquette.

It’s not known how serious the talks are, but it does seem reasonable at this point to presume that Pence can be had. The Rangers had dabbled with pursuit of a postseason spot, but a slide has left the club staring up at an all-but-insurmountable 6.5-game gap from the second Wild Card spot. Given the circumstances, the Texas club is likely to dangle its pending free agents — if not a few other assets.

On the Rays’ side, the organization has seen its own postseason position erode steadily over the course of the season. It’s hard to imagine them catching the division-leading Yankees. It’ll take a big effort even to win a Wild Card spot. The two positions are held presently by the Indians and Athletics, with the Rays one game back and the Red Sox also posing a serious threat.

While the Tampa Bay team is obviously going to attempt to improve, it doesn’t have sufficient incentive to truly go for broke. That makes it hard to imagine the Rays giving up too much future value for rental assets. In the case of Pence, however, the acquisition cost will likely be rather manageable.

Pence has had a heck of a bounceback season at 36 years of age. He’s through 232 plate appearances of .290/.349/.581 hitting with 15 home runs. Statcast credits the veteran with a strong 43.1% hard-hit rate and 91.4 mph average exit velo, along with a 10.5 degree launch angle that’s about double his numbers in recent seasons. Pence has outperformed his contact quality, but not by a huge amount (.387 wOBA vs. .365 xwOBA).

That said, it’s still worth wondering whether Pence will be able to sustain this kind of outburst. And he hasn’t been trusted with many innings in the outfield after several seasons of somewhat poorly reviewed glovework. His contract is quite affordable — $2MM with $1.25MM in incentives — but there probably isn’t an abundance of demand. Unless National League teams see Pence as an option to slide back out to the field rather than functioning mostly as a DH, as he has in Texas, the primary pursuers would seem to come from the American League ranks. Yet most of the AL contenders have accounted for their bat-only plate appearances.

The fit with the Rays isn’t flawless, either, but it’s possible to imagine how Pence would fit on the roster. In terms of existing DH possibilities, the club has a rotating cast of possibilities on the right side but no clear bat-only piece. In terms of left-handed hitters, Ji-Man Choi has been increasingly crowded out by Nate Lowe at first base. Choi is a strong option when facing right-handed pitching but has struggled mightily in limited opportunities against southpaws. Pence, who has long maintained limited platoon splits and thrived both with and without the platoon advantage this year, could share time with Choi or replace him entirely as a primary DH.

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Tampa Bay Rays Texas Rangers Hunter Pence

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View Comments (31)

Comments

  1. h0wmyd0ing

    4 years ago

    Where would Tampa Bay find him at bats? He is bat-only… and they really don’t have that many to give unless BLowe is worse off than it has been made out to be or he is a secondary move if they part with someone else to get an arm.

    Reply
    • thebighurt619

      4 years ago

      They can move pham to cf put garcia in the OF and put pence at dh.

      Reply
      • jbigz12

        4 years ago

        Can they? They can then tell Kiermaier to go kick rocks? That makes their team far far worse.

        Reply
        • thebighurt619

          4 years ago

          Hes injured, alot. Currently gonna miss 10-15 days if not more due to a thumb injury. So when he gets injured they can use that lineup.

        • robluca21

          4 years ago

          That’s doable but when KK comes back he had to play . You dont sit the best defensive center fielder in the league . Especially when hes hitting at an ankle league average clip

          Regardless I think they could still find at bats for pence .

  2. JDGoat

    4 years ago

    I don’t think Duquette ever said they looked into him. He said they’d be the perfect fit and you might as well book the press conference now or something like that. I may have misheard something, but I don’t think this is what was said.

    Reply
    • JDGoat

      4 years ago

      Nevermind i misread the tweet lol.

      Reply
  3. yanksallday

    4 years ago

    Deadline so lame so far…what gives???

    Reply
    • thebighurt619

      4 years ago

      Most deals wont happen until we approach july 31st.

      Considering theres no august waiver wire trades you should see things pick up about a week from now if not sooner.

      But id expect majority of deals to be done on july 31st as teams try to use the deadline to their advantage in hopes someone overpays or outbids themselves.

      Reply
      • Matt Galvin

        4 years ago

        Between 28th and intil midnight on 31st a GM’s Trade Deadline Meetings. Also some Teams that are Sellers think they are still in it,

        Reply
  4. 24TheKid

    4 years ago

    Domingo Santana would be a much better fit for the Rays. Would love to see the M’s get Liberatore but I don’t see the Rays parting with him for anyone. Maybe something like Elias, Santana and Gearin for Brujan and McClanahan.

    Reply
    • jbigz12

      4 years ago

      Two middle relievers and Domingo Santana for a top 100 prospect and a rising left handed starter? No, thank you.

      Reply
      • Lennon's Dad

        4 years ago

        That was two boring middle relievers and Domingo Santana!

        But Brujan alone for Santana and a decent non-40 prospect that won’t be Rule 5 eligible or Tui would make some sense.

        Reply
    • 24TheKid

      4 years ago

      Yeah, now that I’ve reflected on it, that’s actually a pretty terrible offer. But I will say, Elias’s stats are really skewed by Tim Beckham’s defense on Saturday.

      Reply
    • Lennon's Dad

      4 years ago

      Not hard to see a Santana-Brujan swap happening. Maybe Tui included to balance out the years of control.

      Reply
      • 24TheKid

        4 years ago

        I didn’t realize how much Elias’s value has tanked recently. I think that if Elias was still pitching to the sub 3.5 ERA and 10 K/9 that it wouldn’t have been crazy to ask for McClanahan and Brujan. But I do agree with you that Santana should definitely be able to get back a top 100 prospect like Brujan. He has 2.5 years of control which is different than any of the other bats recently dealt at the deadline.

        Reply
    • Ejemp2006

      4 years ago

      Rays business plan does not allow trading good talent to try for a compete.

      Reply
  5. hiflew

    4 years ago

    Since when is 6.5 games with over 2 months to play an “insurmountable deficit?” All you need to do is make up a game a week. With the defeatist attitudes from some baseball fans and writers, it is amazing that you even get out of bed in the morning.

    Reply
    • Lennon's Dad

      4 years ago

      Not insurmountable, but there are also 5 better teams ahead of them. Not an easy task.

      Reply
      • giants number 1 fan

        4 years ago

        Not sure easy, but in no way insurmountable

        Reply
    • bobtillman

      4 years ago

      What makes you think they get out of bed in the morning?

      Reply
    • KierMayor

      4 years ago

      Rays fan here. They also told us we’d never be able to catch the Red Sox when we were 8 games back at the start of September.

      Then game 162 happened.

      You have plenty of time to catch any of us. Oakland, TB, Boston and LAA are all prone to collapses.

      Reply
  6. jb19

    4 years ago

    AL West > AL East

    Reply
    • TrimReaper

      4 years ago

      No….

      Reply
    • Baseballdude242

      4 years ago

      what’s the al west record vs the al east this year?

      Reply
      • bluenova8413

        4 years ago

        West is 51-45 against the East

        Reply
        • Ejemp2006

          4 years ago

          Oriole and Blue Jay are so so so bad bad bad!
          West has superior this year and maybe always going forward because of Silicon Valley fueled shift of wealth and talent toward Pacific coast.

  7. lowtalker1

    4 years ago

    That’s probably the best photo y’all have ever used

    Reply
  8. uvmfiji

    4 years ago

    Should’ve kept Cron

    Reply
    • Ejemp2006

      4 years ago

      Seriously? Or jokes?
      Rays should have stole EE from Seattle instead. Give back good prospects so Seattle eat lots of money.
      Cron keeping wasn’t ever the answer.

      Reply
  9. timewalk42

    4 years ago

    Solid veteran in the club house

    Reply

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