The Rays deepened their infield mix with yesterday’s signing of Amed Rosario to a one-year contract, but despite the 28-year-old’s experience as a starting shortstop in both Cleveland and in New York, he’ll be ticketed for a multi-position role with his new club. Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that Rosario will likely see time at both middle infield spots and in the outfield corners. Trade acquisition Jose Caballero, meanwhile, is still viewed as the starter at shortstop due to his superior glovework.
Injuries and/or performance can always change those plans, particularly with the entirety of spring training still to play out, but it seems Rosario will be used to spell several players and to boost the team’s production against left-handed pitching. The righty-swinging veteran is a career .298/.339/.467 hitter against lefties (121 wRC+) but has posted a rather hollow .262/.296/.374 line in his career against right-handed pitching.
Entering the 2023 season, Rosario looked like he could be in line for a notable multi-year deal once he reached free agency. From 2021-22, he’s posted a solid .282/.316/.406 batting line (103 wRC+) with enough defensive aptitude to be valued between 5.2 wins above replacement (via FanGraphs) and 6.2 WAR (Baseball Reference). He stumbled with a .263/.305/.378 slash in 2023, however, and seemingly wasn’t able to find a team willing to put down a significant bet that he could rebound to his previous status as a viable starter at the shortstop position.
The move to a utility role will be a new one for Rosario, who’s played the overwhelming majority of his career at shortstop. He logged 190 innings with the Dodgers at second base in 2023, following a deadline swap that sent him to L.A. in exchange for Noah Syndergaard, and he logged a combined 171 innings in the outfield from 2019-22 with the Mets and Guardians. Rosario has just 48 career innings in left field and none in right field. He’s tallied more than 6400 innings at shortstop in his career. While Rosario lacks experience in the outfield, he does still rank in the 95th percentile of MLB players in terms of sprint speed, per Statcast, so he should have the raw ability to cover ground in the corners. His route-running will presumably be a point of focus in camp.
Rosario’s addition helps the Rays take a more patient approach with a number of their young infielders. Junior Caminero and Curtis Mead are widely considered to be among the game’s top prospects (Caminero, in particular), and the Rays also have young infielders Jonathan Aranda, Osleivis Basabe and Austin Shenton on the 40-man roster. Aranda is down to his final minor league option year and probably ticketed for a big league look to begin the season, but the others each have multiple options remaining.
Tampa has a history of making small little moves that end up paying big dividends later. Rosario’s a decent buy-low, bounce back candidate; he’s got some speed and if he’s motivated I believe he could help a team.
He hits like crazy for a month then goes cold the rest. His brother did the same
His brother?
Eddie Rosario? Unless I got that wrong…
Yeah, sharing a surname doesn’t guarantee direct relationships
Eguy Rosario is my favorite sibling out of the three
I thought they were brothers? Unless I’ve just been misinformed. I never said the surname alone
I thought I read somewhere they were brothers, but I’m flat out wrong. Sorry for my ignorance in this matter
It’s all good. I’m just playing
I think this is the perfect role for him. You don’t want to see him every day because of his splits and subpar defense. Will be a great platoon partner for Lowe at 2B.
Seems like he’s more than a utility player, but like Atlanta, these team moves are far more smarter than I am. I just like to watch
He’ll get a multi year deal after this season, you heard it here first.
Safe prediction, especially since we’re used to seeing it happen often.
“Rays Planning Utility Role For Amed Rosario”
Seemed obvious
This isn’t the deal Tim Anderson’s agent wants to see. It’s probably hard going from making $14-16M a year to bring a below replacement level player getting contract offers in the $1-2M range. I’d take it in a heartbeat. But that’s the going rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if multiple Boras clients sign before someone like Anderson takes a deal like this one.
Decent move for the Rays. They must see something in him that can help the roster instead of prospects. Calling up Mead I thought would be the easiest solution.
I would expect Anderson to retire or go to Japan before taking a $1-1.5M offer to get 350-400 PA.
Why would he retire instead of play and build value?
Because he would be offended. I’m not saying that he SHOULD be offended. But he would be.
Expect Rosario to end the year with at least three Saves
That hack Adams is at it again. “Meanwhile” should never come in the middle of the sentence, set off by commas. It has to START the sentence. Adams is bafflingly incompetent.