June 22: Cash provided a fairly positive update on Margot Wednesday, telling reporters the early testing results “are looking better than not” (Topkin link). He’s facing an extended absence in any event and a specific timetable won’t be known until the club has an official diagnosis, but Cash indicated Margot could still return this season.
June 21: Tampa Bay has placed both Margot and Kiermaier on the injured list. Infielder Jonathan Aranda is up for his Major League debut, and outfielder Luke Raley has been recalled as well.
Topkin tweeted this morning that the team expects Margot’s absence to be “significant,” and Jim Bowden of The Athletic suggests there are those in the organization who fear an ACL injury to Margot. The Rays announced that the results of Margot’s MRI are still pending and are continuing to refer to it as a “knee sprain” for the time being.
June 20: The Rays are likely to place outfielders Manuel Margot and Kevin Kiermaier on the 10-day injured list, manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Both players made early exits from tonight’s loss to the Yankees, and Margot in particular seems to be facing an extended absence.
Margot had to be carted off the field in the top of the ninth inning. Playing right field, he leaped into the wall in pursuit of an Aaron Hicks fly ball. He landed awkwardly on his right knee after the collision and had to be carted off the field. Cash said after the game he’s been diagnosed with a knee sprain and ominously noted “it doesn’t look good.”
Kiermaier, meanwhile, departed after the second inning. The team later announced he was dealing with inflammation in his left hip, and that issue will apparently require he miss at least a week and a half. It marked the second time in five days that Kiermaier had to make an early exit, and while his latest issue is different than the Achilles inflammation that forced his departure last Wednesday, it’ll lead to an absence of some kind.
Needless to say, the loss of a couple regular outfielders will force Tampa Bay to dip into its depth. Randy Arozarena has started at designated hitter in each of the past two nights, but he’ll now head back to left field on a more or less everyday basis. Highly-regarded rookie Josh Lowe was recalled before tonight’s game after a six-week stint in Triple-A Durham. He figures to assume regular reps in either center or right field, but it remains to be seen how much of an offensive impact he’ll make. The 24-year-old has only a .179/.257/.328 line through his first 75 MLB plate appearances; he posted big numbers with the Bulls but also struck out at an alarming 31.2% rate in the minors.
Tampa Bay has a pair of out-of-options backup outfielders on the active roster in Brett Phillips and Harold Ramírez. Both players could assume larger roles with Margot and Kiermaier out, but each would probably be miscast as an everyday player. Phillips is an excellent defender but is hitting .172/.238/.291 with a 41.6% strikeout rate. Ramírez is performing at the plate (.297/.337/.386) but has rated as a well below-average defender throughout his career.
The Rays could turn to a loose platoon arrangement between the left-handed hitting Phillips and the righty-swinging Ramírez in right field with Lowe playing center, particularly if they anticipate Kiermaier’s absence being on the shorter side. Former Dodger Luke Raley is on the 40-man roster and hitting well in Durham, and he could be recalled to add some offense-first bench depth. It seems likely the club will at least poke around the market for potential external additions, though, considering the amount of uncertainty with each of Lowe, Phillips, Ramírez and Raley.
It has been a rough stretch for the Rays, who’ve been without their primary middle infield of Brandon Lowe and Wander Franco and their #1 backstop Mike Zunino for weeks. The losses of Margot and Kiermaier will leave the club without five of their regular position players, and it’s little surprise the team has sputtered of late. Tampa Bay has dropped six of their past seven games to fall to 36-31. They now sit a half-game back of the Red Sox for the final Wild Card spot in the American League.
The rough injury news wasn’t limited to what happened tonight, as Cash also provided a discouraging update on reliever Nick Anderson pregame. The right-hander has been on the IL all season after undergoing a UCL brace procedure last October. His initial recovery timeline suggested a possible return around the All-Star Break, but Cash said he’s still feeling elbow discomfort and will go for further evaluation tomorrow (Topkin link). More will obviously be known in the coming days, but it seems unlikely the 31-year-old will be back on a major league mound in the near future.
This team cannot take a break. Their IL is literally all their good players except for Choi and Randy.
RANDY good, really ?
29 teams would gladly take Arozarena off Tampa Bay’s hands, dummy
Name calling because you disagree with someone. We all know what you are now, how sad for you
That A’sfaninUk, never fails to be a complete obnoxious tool. Every day.
…regardless of namecalling, he’s right here. Sorry if it hurts feelings, but it was a dumb take.
He has the lowest baseball IQ I have ever seen and at 28 that is not going to change. he also has BorASS as his agent. Next hot streak(sell high) send feelers out to see what you can get.and my feelings not hurt, but his name calling says everything you need to know about him
A Rookie of the Year Award and five elite playoff performances stretching across two years is one heck of a ‘hot steak.’
Watch him play every game then get back to me. Either way he will be gone by the end of 2023, for the reasons I stated above
*The New York Mets have entered the chat*
Don’t talk to us about injuries and not catching any breaks.
It wouldn’t shock me if Margot is done for the year. Certainly looked like an ACL injury.
I truly hope Margot only has a knee sprain as I want the Rays at full strength all the way.
How the hell did Hicks not get close to an inside-the-parker had he been running hard out of the box? Dude is no position to admire a possible longball.
He got a triple out of it. The CF got there quickly and threw the ball in. Can’t blame Hicks for that; he had no chance at a HR.
Did you watch the game….probably not based on your comment….YBC is totally correct as Hicks immediately began his admiring act at home plate which may or may not have robbed him of the chance at an inside the Parker………whichever way you look at it, he’s in no position to assume the ball is gone and not go hard out of the box…..
Are one of these position players pitching tonight?
I’m probably the only one on these boards with a soft spot left for Hicks but I can’t find any way to defend it. On a 2-2 count and one out, JD was on first gunning to steal second base. Or you can call it a hit-and-run. By the time the ball reach the wall, he was at second base waiting to see if the ball would be caught. If JD was clogging the basepaths, I would understand but he wasn’t. The game was tied at 2 a piece in the ninth. Absolutely no reason for Hicks not to bust it out unless he’s not at 100% health..
Does any player run hard all the way these days? Most folks seem to consider hustle to be passé. The world we live in.
Oh, brother.
The good old days weren’t always good.
And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.
It not about hustle in this case, Hicks was busting it once he realized it wasn’t out. This is about celebrating success (which is fine) before the success is achieved. Admire your bomb all you like but it better reach the seats. If Margot doesn’t collapse Hicks either stays at 2nd or could have been thrown out.
That is EXACTLY about hustle. It doesn’t matter why you didn’t bust it out of the box. You don’t bust it out of the box, you’re not hustling, whatever the excuse is. Is admiring a HR a necessary part of the game? Is watching a homer instead of running not a terrible move when it turns out that it wasn’t actually a homer? You’re presenting a pretty lame defense (excuse really) for bad play.
Nothing wrong with not running out of the box if you hit it into the seats.
Nothing wrong with hustling out of the box til you know if you hit it into the seats.
I’m all for hustling out of the box until you know it’s in the seats. I’m not going to cast aspersions at “the world we live in” because some players don’t so.
How about having a rule that if you don’t reach first base by whatever the slowest guy in MLB time is, you’re out. Speed the game up. Let’s go.
“the slowest guy in MLB.” You can just say Yadi. Of course, that will have to change next year since he’ll be retired.
The optimum word being “IF” you hit the ball in the seats. In this case he did not so who cares?
I think Yadi beats Kirk from Toronto in a race.
Admire your bomb all you like but it better reach the seats.
====================================
I hate that about as much as anything in sports. I’m cool when someone launches one 450 feet. But when players stop to admire a mundane 340 foot shot, I always wonder why. It’s not that special.
JoeBrady: As an aside, I can’t stand the celebratory HRs when a team is down several runs, or they’re getting spanked in the series, or they’re behind in the division. I’ll use the Jays as my example (many teams do it, not to pick on the Jays). But if you’re getting your teeth kicked in, putting on the HR jacket after a long ball is….just plain silly. I don’t get it.
And Hicks is LAZY. I’m very reluctant to call any player lazy because I didn’t even call Sanchez lazy. But Hicks has demonstrated this in the field, during ABs, and in instances like this, where he takes the most casual approach unless he absolutely *has* to give max effort – and even then, he struggles to do so. He reminds me in many ways of Cano, only about 1/4 the talent.
The Rays are very far from “full strength all the way”. Thanks for the kind sentiment though
Dude?
I was really hoping Margot was going to make that catch (and be fine). Instead, not only did it end up being the gaming winning hit for NY, it may very well have been Margot’s last game of the season as that injury looked nasty. If he did tear something in his knee, hopefully it was the MCL and not the ACL, and certainly not both.
While I’m not a Rays fan, I hate seeing players get injured and Tampa has been cursed with major injuries all season long. It’s impressive that they are still over .500 given all of the games lost by key players and pitchers. For a team with a payroll well under $100M, their depth is very impressive but there’s still only so many injuries that even a deep team can sustain before it ends up tanking their season.
Looks like his right knee buckled when he landed awkwardly. I guess there’s a possibility that he just sprained it but chances are at least one of his ligaments ruptured inside of his knee…poor guy! They have become the Tampa Bay injuRays this year.
I was really hoping he wouldn’t make the catch, but I am sorry he was injured. Hopefully it is just a sprain and no structural damage to his knee.
Jonathan Aranda time!
Do you always pay your debts?
He’s a fake Lannister… a Fannister?!?
I hope Margot is okay. I hate to see him come back and have such a great season, only to have it end this way. This is such a big loss for the Rays. Hope he recovers quickly and can get back in the field.
Stand down Margot stand down please, stand down Margot
Stopped watching the Rays the first month of the season. The tinkering of the infield defense every single day starting with 3 guys that couldn’t play 1B and were dropping throws, was costing them games. They don’t hit enough to play bad defense, and they always burn out pitchers.
Obviously this year is over. 2023 will be interesting not only for the Rays but for all teams with the ending of the shifts. We’ll need to see the details of the rule and how teams try to flaunt it.
Not that it’s a huge help, but I’m guessing Mercado is available today or tomorrow for cash considerations
He will for sure be on the Rays or Pirates by July
Rays now have 54% of their payroll on the IL. And 5 out of 9 everyday starters. Plus 5 very capable starting pitchers and 5 high leverage relievers. No team can withstand this. It’s impressive they’ve played this well
Any idea how many of these 15 players are expected back this year?
The Rays have no margin for error with their tight budget. This was bound to happen sooner or later. Unlike the Yankees, when they got wiped out by injuries in 2019 and were able to get lucky with one replacement after another, the Rays can’t just throw money at the problem. I assumed the odds would start catching up to them this season with three other play-off contenders in their division. But it’s an innovative organization: I wouldn’t bet against them staying in the race til the end.
“tight budget” but signs Wander (and Longo) to deals twice as big as the largest A’s contract in history. Stop acting poor when you aren’t.
In fairness they are poor. Just the A’s are worse. Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) said it best: “The problem we’re trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there’s fifty feet of crap, and then there’s us. It’s an unfair game.”
Hate to see anybody get hurt like that but on the bright side it should force them to give Lowe regular at-bats. If they are ever going to win a championship they need Franco and Lowe to both become elite offensive players.
Lowe’s strike out percentage in the minors is kinda of alarming, but I agree with this statement
What do you mean? You’re talking about the Rays, they are the #1 prospecting team in MLB, they have dozens more MLB star ceiling guys in their system than anyone else at all times. If Lowe is a 4th OF, maybe Aranda is the elite offensive player instead? Weird to put it on those 2 guys, the Rays contend anyway no matter what happens….
As fan in UK is not wrong. For once.
Hopefully manny doesn’t miss much time. Heal up!
Yes! finally get to see Aranda!
I bet Raley and Aranda will absolutely mash
Josh Lowe is not the Rays best positional prospect, I think that IF Jonathan Aranda currently is the Rays’ best prospect. I would place IF/OF Miles Mastrobuoni as their 2nd best prospect. Mastrobuoni has the speed the Rays like in the OF.
Mastrobuoni is almost 27, has never been on the Rays’ 40-man roster, and spends more time playing on the infield than in the outfield. He is not a top-30 prospect in the system. Josh Lowe (early struggles notwithstanding) is the best position player prospect, and Curtis Mead, Xavier Edwards, Carson Williams, and a number of others are next.
Whenever you whine n grine