The Rays have placed left-handed pitcher Jeffrey Springs on the Covid-related injury list due to a close contact situation, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’ll swap places with Yandy Diaz, who comes off the Covid-IL after just a day.
The virus seems to be floating around the Rays team, as some staff members have tested positive in recent days. That was followed by catcher Francisco Mejia testing positive on Friday, which landed him on the injured list. Diaz was placed on the injured list yesterday after experiencing some symptoms. However, he must have tested negative due to his quick return.
As for Springs, the 29-year-old is off to a great start this year. He’s thrown seven scoreless innings out of the bullpen for the Rays, with a 34.6% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate. Until he returns, the club will have Brooks Raley, Colin Poche and Jalen Beeks as the available lefties in their bullpen.
Diaz is off to a fairly standard start to the year for him, hitting for contact but not a lot of power. His .275/.383/.326 line adds up to a 127 wRC+, with his 10.6% strikeout rate well below his career rate of 16.2%, which was already better than league average.
Great pitching by the Rays yesterday. The extra inning is so incredibly stupid. 5 runs in one inning after the beautiful artwork of both pitching staffs. Truly stupid and a waste of a great game. Get rid of the stupidity. Real baseball right now. We need more 1 – 0 games not more 10 – 9 games. Idiots.
Right on whyhayzee. Starting runner on second is so dumb. If they have to start extra innings with a runner on base then make it on first base so you have to earn it more that way.
I hate how the extra runner starts in the 10th. Extra inning games rarely made it past the 12th before the dumb rule. The whole rule is a cheap solution to a problem that didn’t need fixing.
If they’re going to insist on it, there should be one out. Balance it. There were two hits and five runs in the tenth inning. That’s not even remotely related to baseball.
Good thing he was able to pitch 2 no-hit innings yesterday before he came into close contact with someone.