The Rays have optioned left-hander Ryan Yarbrough to Triple-A Durham today and recalled fellow lefty Garrett Cleavinger to take his place, the team announced today. Yarbrough had started last night’s game against the Red Sox, and as the Rays have two days off next week, his next turn in rotation may have been skipped regardless.
Indeed, with rosters set to expand to 28 on the first of September, the move could well be a temporary measure to give manager Kevin Cash an extra arm in the bullpen. The move marks the first trip to the Rays’ active roster for Cleavinger, who was acquired from the Dodgers in an under-the-radar deadline move that sent minor league outfielder German Tapia to Los Angeles. In 4 1/3 innings across four games with the Dodgers this season, the 28-year-old southpaw posted an unsightly 10.38 ERA (and 2.08 WHIP), though he’s compiled a 2.37 ERA across 31 Triple-A innings between Oklahoma City and Durham. In the majors, he’s thus far posted a 4.70 ERA (6.25 FIP) across 23 innings in parts of three seasons with the Phillies and Dodgers.
The move marks the latest setback in what’s been an up-and-down year for the 30-year-old Yarbrough. After opening the season on the IL with groin tightness, the lefty has struggled to find consistent success, posting a 4.87 ERA (4.49 FIP) across 68 1/3 innings in the same sort of hybrid role he’s occupied since his 2018 debut.
While these numbers bear a striking resemblance to his 2021 output (5.11 ERA, 4.45 FIP), they still fall well short of his career marks (4.37 ERA, 4.10 FIP). Yarbrough’s advanced stats don’t offer a clear reason for the decline. His strikeout rate has dropped a bit, from 20.3% across his first three seasons to 17.9 % in the last two, but he’s continued to limit hard contact, allowing a hard-hit rate (the percent of balls in play with an exit velocity of 95 mph or more) of only 29.6%, nearly 10% below the league-wide average while his walk rate has inched downwards.
Regardless of the cause of the dip, it will be interesting to see how the Tampa front office handles Yarbrough in the offseason. He’s making $3.85MM this season in his second season of arbitration eligibility and could be a non-tender candidate for the financially constrained Rays.
Saw ‘recall’ in the headline before seeing the rest of it and immediately figured it was about the Anaheim MLB baseball team recalling someone to replace Mike ‘HGH’ Trout because of Trout going back on the IL. Fragile guy.
Sounds like you have some major reading comprehension issues that could be solved be learning instead of trolling.
Dude what? lol You’re really trying to force some troll comment about Trout on a completely unrelated article? That story was a made up rumor by some guy. Come back when someone is actually popped for PED’s weirdo.
Very minor nitpick: Chargois actually started last night’s game. Yarbrough came into the game in the 2nd inning as the “follower.”
Yarborough was terrible. So many better options to put him out there.
Thanks. Not nitpicking, just facts. Gotta get those right.
I’m surprised the Rays still have options remaining on Yarbrough.
Thinking the same… How in the world is he eligible to be optioned?
Figured this could be the only reasoning…
“A player’s option years do not need to be used in succession. Any player with fewer than five years of Major League service time and an option year remaining can be optioned to the Minor Leagues.”
Cleavinger is a true, 3 outcome pitcher. Strikeout, walk or HR. If he could just harness his fastball and avoid the excess walks, he could be a dominant relief pitcher. What kills him and other pitchers of the same pedigree are the walks. He walks two and then gives up a dinger: he gets charged with 3 ERs on just one hit. His strikeout totals are very impressive though…he’s some you can dream on but he’s 28 years old now. It’s either time to overcome the control issues or be ‘content’ with yo-yo status the rest of his career (up, down, up, down between the majors and the minors).
Well, the Rays are the ones who can help him do that.
I could see the Cubs taking a chance on Yarborough for 2023. They have enough minor league depth to offer a couple of lottery tickets to the Rays, and take Yarborough to arbitration.
Even with his struggles this year, he would be an upgrade over Alec Mills, who has been their sixth starter/swing man for the last couple of years.