July 10: The Rays have officially announced that Franco and Kiermaier have been placed on the 10-day IL, while lefty Jeffrey Springs has been placed on the 15-day IL due to right lower leg tightness. Righty Calvin Faucher was also optioned to Triple-A Durham. To take over those four spots on the roster, they have indeed recalled Raley and Aranda, as well as lefty Josh Fleming and righty Phoenix Sanders.
July 9: The Rays have lost two regulars to the 10-day injured list, as Wander Franco and Kevin Kiermaier have both been sidelined. As reported earlier, Franco left today’s game due to an injury in his right hand and wrist area, and manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that the initial diagnosis is that the injury is related to Franco’s hamate bone. Franco will visit doctors on Monday to determine the extent of the problem, and if surgery is required, he could miss roughly 6-8 weeks.
Franco had to be removed after his very first at-bat, a first-inning strikeout against Hunter Greene. On the second-last pitch of the plate appearance, Franco looked shaken up after fouling off a Greene fastball, and he was replaced in the field for the bottom of the inning.
Kiermaier played most of Saturday’s 5-4 loss to the Reds, as the center fielder was replaced for a pinch-runner after singling in the ninth inning. During the game, however, Kiermaier experienced more discomfort in his left hip — that same issue forced Kiermaier to the IL in late June, though he missed only the minimum 10 days before being activated.
Given the recurring nature of the hip problem, it seems likely that Kiermaier will miss more than 10 days, though the upcoming All-Star break could cover four days of that IL stint. Unless the Rays want to monitor Kiermaier to ensure that the hip soreness is entirely behind him, Kiermaier could be activated as early as July 22, when the Rays kick off their second half with a series in Kansas City.
Even if Franco can avoid surgery, he’ll still need at least a few weeks of recovery time. The second-year star has hit .260/.308/.396 over 247 plate appearances this season — still above-average (1o4 wRC+) production, but naturally a letdown given the high expectations created by Franco’s top-prospect status and excellent 2021 rookie season. Franco got off to a great start before quad injuries hampered his play in May, and that quad problem eventually sent him to the IL for four weeks.
Topkin writes that outfielder Luke Raley and infielder Jonathan Aranda are likely to be called up to replace Franco and Kiermaier on the active roster. Aranda made his MLB debut in cup-of-coffee fashion earlier this season, playing in two games. He’ll likely step into Taylor Walls’ utility infield role, as Walls will probably resume everyday shortstop duty (as he did during Franco’s last IL stint).
Raley is also a left-handed hitting outfielder, so in that sense, he’s an easy replacement for Kiermaier in Tampa Bay’s outfield mix. However, there’s obviously no way to easily replace Kiermaier’s all-world defense, though backup Brett Phillips is a solid defender in his own right (even if right field is Phillips’ best outfield position from a glovework standpoint). Phillips and Josh Lowe are the likeliest candidates to handle center field while Kiermaier is out, and Vidal Brujan also figures to chip in up the middle. Manuel Margot is out until at least late August due to a patellar tendon strain, and while the Rays are optimistic Margot will play again in 2022, anything he can contribute going forward might be seen as a bonus.
While neither Franco or Kiermaier have excelled at the plate this season, their twin absences will likely only intensify the Rays’ already clear need for more hitting help at the deadline. Especially if Franco is sidelined until September, Tampa will need more consistent production from the lineup if the team is going to both qualify for the postseason and then be legitimate contenders in October. As usual, the Rays aren’t likely to break the bank on a new acquisition, but position-player depth (whether an everyday name or a multi-positional part-timer) certainly seems like a priority.
Nelson Cruz again?
Be surprised if TB made any rental trades. With NY and HOU playing so well and piling injuries holding court and focusing on next season seems reasonable.
I get that Vidal Bruján is versatile.
The problem is that he’s poor on defense wherever they play him, and his hitting line is:
.167 / .230 / .246 / .477 with an OPS+ of 42. He’s stolen 4 bases and been thrown out 5 times.
The Rays have done some strange things this year. Their infield defense has not been this bad in quite some time. Their infielders work together like the White Sox defenders do. Perhaps someone can introduce them to one another.
Brujan cannot hit
Time for Brujan to step it up and shine. Otherwise he’ll just be known as a AAAA player.
I know the Rays usually make smart moves, but what was the point of keeping Kiermaier over Meadows? It makes no sense from any angle.
They tried to move Kiermaier……
1. He’s being paid $12M his year, $13M next and will be a FA.
2 Meadows is being paid $4M this year, and had 2 years of arbitration ahead of him.
Many teams that could have used Kiermaier – such as the Phillies and Padres – were up against the luxury tax. In any case, because of his salary and only one additional year of control they wouldn’t have given up much for Kiermaier.
The Rays got back 23 year-old Isaac Paredes with 4 years of control after this year as well as playing this year of a salary of $700k.
I’m a Kevin Kiermaier fan. He may well be the best defensive CF in MLB, but he doesn’t hit well. One other thing – when the shift goes away next year many players will be hitting better. Kiermaier has never hit well even before the shift went into place. That’s an extremely high salary he’ll be getting to primarily be a defender in 2023. Not a lot of teams can afford that.
He’s not owed $13m next year; it’s a club option vs a $2.5m buyout. The Rays will obviously pay the buyout. But a team acquiring him last winter would have owed him $14.5m, not $25m.
Still pricey for his offense, though.
No one wanted keirmeier, but someone was dumb enough to take Meadow’s salary Thanks Avila
Players nowadays are all a bunch of Gold Bricks or Alibi Ikes. Enough with the excuses, get back on that field and start playing to earn your contract..
??? A lot of guys play injured. Teams put them on the IL in order to protect their investment long term. These guys today aren’t just requesting or complaining- this is based on X-Rays, doctors assessing stuff based on their expertise and experience.
If Wander Franco BS’ enough IL stints because he doesn’t want to play then they’ll void his contract- look at what happened to Yoenis Cespedes when he overstated injuries to be paid by the Mets to play farmer on his horse ranch in Florida.
You cannot void a players contract if he chooses to rest a diagnosed injury that occurred during a game.
Bryce was playing injured but other than that these guys don’t play injured at all. They all seem to gravitate to the IL for the smallest of things. Bruises oh sorry contusions, thumb sprains, toe sprains. Not since the last few years have I ever seen guys go down over a sprained or bruised thumb or finger but I’ve seen it dozens of times now it’s sad. Protecting investments is what a team will say to protect their soft player from ridicule. Do you really think a team is cool with a $20M plus a year guy sitting for a sprained thumb? I don’t and I can guarantee they’re not cool with it. When you see “precautionary” it means the guy could play but probably doesn’t want to.
Lol horse ranch in Florida.
Yeah, they never walked to school barefoot in the snow uphill, both ways, like you did, with nothing in their lunchbox except dirt and a thermos full of pond water.
Buncha sissies, right?
See how your hand feels after getting jammed fouling of a 100 mph fastball and get back to me. See if you can even hold a bat afterwards. It hurts getting jammed fouling off a 70 mph pitch. I couldn’t even imagine what a 100 mph or close to it would feel like.
Maybe he is referring to “lower leg tightness”?
Tough break for Franco and the Rays, and for fans wishing to see him play. Wishing him a quick recovery.
Remember last year how the Yankee fans were crying about how many injuries the team had and how it was hurting their playoff chances? I haven’t heard a single Rays fan complain and they have by far the most injuries in baseball.
Wait, are you saying the Rays have fans? Every time I put on a Rays game all I see are empty blue seats.
And there it is! No thread is complete without “tHe RayS haVE nO FaNs aT theIR GaMeS”
These jokes are so beyond outdated and so not funny whatsoever
Stale for sure but not outdated. Despite their success, they are still bottom 3 in attendance every year. Only Miami and OAK rival their ineptitude at drawing eyes to them.
@AllAbout Good point. Had this been an Aaron Judge injury post (knock on wood), we’d have close to 200 comments here.