The Rays have selected right-hander Kevin Herget from Triple-A Durham and optioned righty Luis Patino back to Durham in his place, per a team announcement. Tampa Bay had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so Patino’s option is the only corresponding move necessary.
It’ll be the Major League debut for Herget, a 31-year-old former 39th-round pick who has spent nine years grinding through the minor leagues. He’s in his first season with the Rays organization after spending the vast majority of his career in the Cardinals’ farm system. While this is Herget’s fifth season with at least some time spent at the Triple-A level, he’s unquestionably had the finest results of his career in 2022, logging a 2.45 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate, a minuscule 3.4% walk rate and a 34.4% ground-ball rate.
The Rays don’t necessarily need a spot starter at the moment, as Shane McClanahan and Drew Rasmussen are lined up to start Friday and Saturday. They’re currently listing Sunday’s starter as TBD, although Corey Kluber would be on regular rest if he were to take the mound that day. Herget could potentially get the ball for that series finale against Kansas City, but if not, he’ll add some length to the bullpen for the time being.
It’s a quick trip back to Triple-A for Patino, who impressed yesterday with 5 2/3 innings of shutout baseball against the Royals. However, with McClanahan, Rasmussen, Kluber, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Yarbrough all healthy and pitching well of late, he’ll apparently continue to get his innings in at the Triple-A level while awaiting a more permanent spot in the rotation. The 22-year-old ranked as one of the game’s best all-around prospect prior to his big league debut, and while he’s yet to solidify himself as a mainstay in the Tampa rotation, he’ll likely be afforded the opportunity to do so before too long.
Good for him. 39th Round, 9 years grinding in the minors. Shows a good statline in AAA. He deserves this.
Seems like we are having a lot of nice stories like this one this year with prospects.
Ok
of course, a guy they found in indy ball who is now crushing AAA.
And he was even mediocre in Indy ball. 4.24 in 3 starts (17 IP) and 5 homers given up. I guess they liked his SO/W rate of 6.33. (19 SO and 3 BB)
The indy ball meta is finding guys with high velo and K rates and then polishing them. For example, I figured Bubby Rossman, who got a cup of coffee for the Phillies this year, was that kinda type. Guy has a blazing fastball and strikes guys out like crazy but gets poor results otherwise. That K/Bb rate is something to work with for sure.
I’ve had this question with my son. Is it worth ten+ years of minor leagues and horrible money for a month or two in the majors? Most would have started a career making a nice living outside of baseball by then.
It’s worth it for the ones who do that, and it isn’t worth it to the one who quit. Seems pretty straightforward.
I’m willing to bet that if you polled the ~10,000 or so players who have debuted in the majors and finished their careers with 2 or less years of service the overwhelming response would be it was worth it, whether they accumulated that service after 9 years in the minors or bit by bit year after year matter not.
An in-law of mine has 30-ish plate appearances and one homer in the Bigs… we talk often and he said EVERYTHING he went through to get those 30 PAs was worth it and he would do it all again for 30 more.