The Rays have agreed to minor league contracts with right-handers Dylan Covey and John Curtiss, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Both pitchers will be in Major League camp as non-roster invitees this spring. Tampa Bay also re-signed fleet-footed outfielder Johnny Davis, although he’ll report directly to minor league camp.
Covey, 28, recently elected free agency in lieu of an outright assignment from the White Sox. He’s appeared in each of the past three seasons with the ChiSox, showing promise at times but ultimately posting unpalatable results. In 250 1/3 big league innings, he’s pitched to a 6.54 ERA with 6.2 K/9, 4.1 BB/9, 1.62 HR/9 and a 50 percent ground-ball rate.
The Athletics drafted Covey in the third round back in 2013, and he was Chicago’s Rule 5 pick in 2016 three years later. Like many Rule 5 pick, Covey had a brutal rookie year, but he survived on the roster, allowing the Sox to keep him in following seasons. The righty was impressive early in 2018, logging a 3.45 ERA/3.54 FIP with a huge 60 percent ground-ball rate through his first eight starts. That success quickly unraveled, though, and Covey struggled through the majority of his remaining time on the South Side. The Rays will hope they can help him rediscover that early 2018 form, although Tampa Bay has enviable pitching depth as it is with Charlie Morton, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Ryan Yarbrough and Yonny Chirinos all in line to start games in 2020.
Curtiss, meanwhile, bounced from the Twins to the Angels to the Phillies on a series of waiver claims and minor league deals in 2019. The former sixth-rounder (Twins, 2014) was once a well-regarded bullpen prospect in Minnesota’s system but has yet to find success in the big leagues (13 runs in 17 1/3 innings). Curtiss was shelled in Triple-A in 2019 but was very good there in 2017-18, pitching to a combined 2.49 ERA with 94 strikeouts in 79 2/3 innings. Control has long been an issue for Curtiss, though, as even in that solid 2017-18 run in Triple-A, he issued 41 free passes (4.6 BB/9).
As for Davis, the Rays plucked him out of the Mexican League last August and rushed him to the big leagues as a September call-up/pinch-running specialist. He had a strong year in Mexico in 2019, slashing .300/.353/.392 and swiping 54 bases. That showing and his brief cameo in the Rays organization late in ’19 will earn him a look in the upper minors with the Rays in 2020, it seems.
Low-risk, high ceiling guys, and if the Rays can turn any pitcher into a viable option, then why not Covey and Curtiss?
Tampa Bay draft selections, player development, and scouting is absolutely first class. I really wish DET had the FO knowledge TB does.
Same with my Rangers, the Choo and Fielder deals kind of made our FO hesitant on spending any money now. Though I will say that I think people are rushing the Rangers to get competitive again, and if Bob Simpson and Ray Davis told Jon Daniels to go full rebuild 3 years ago , JD could do it. We would’ve had one on the best farms in the game right now, if Daniels was told to go full rebuild 3 years ago. Now we are adding payroll, and trying to rush something that wasn’t done all the way in the first place.
The Rays do these under the radar signings every year and typically one guy works out over the course of the season
before anyone says anything about how the Rays usually get value out if guys like this, i will tell you that there is no talent to extract here. maybe curtiss can be serviceable, but not Covey.
Covey has a 95 m.p.h. sinker. If they move him to the pen, and get him to improve his control, he could absolutely be a decent option.
Watch the Rays use there voodoo magic and covey pitches 3.30 era 3.7fip and 9ks per 9 in 160 innings lol.
I’ve read that Covey may benefit significantly from simplifying his repertoire, scrapping his hard but hittable curve and relying even more on his slider/sinker and his fastball, if I remember the analysis correctly.
Davis would be a lot easier to stash at Durham until the Rays needed a late-season pinch runner and possible defensive replacement if only he could get his AAA on-base percentage at least as high as his minor-league career average (.336).
And from Johnny Davis’s perspective, regular ABs in an age-29 season with Durham has got to be preferable to another year further off the MLB radar in the Mexican League.
Good for Covey. The Rays have exactly the type of coaching and analytics depts. he needs.
Two guys looking for work as no one wanted them and watch the Rays turn one or both into something useful as in Oliver Drake.
Oliver Drake… the legacy. Gets DFA’d by like 5 teams and then pitches effectively with the Rays for a short period of time. We’ve seen this movie before.
I hope the Red Sox do the very same thing with Chaim Bloom at the helm.
It’s smart baseball–the. signed players will work hard and the existing players realize that’s the MO and look what happens to some of the players signed to Minor League contracts. and have a good Org to move through..
Bloom will be looking for waiver deals from Morning to Night.