The Rays announced that right-hander Shane Baz has been reinstated from the injured list and optioned to Triple-A Durham.
Baz, 25 next month, underwent Tommy John surgery in September of 2022 and missed the entire 2023 season. The club planned to bring him along slowly here in 2024 after that missed season and he also injured his oblique in March.
He started the season on the IL but has been rehabbing in recent weeks. He’s made four starts for Triple-A Durham this month, logging 12 innings. His most recent outing was yesterday, when he threw 76 pitches over four innings, striking out four, walking three while allowing three hits and one earned run.
The Rays could arguably use him in the majors, given the number of injuries they are dealing with in their rotation. Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen and Shane McClanahan all underwent elbow surgery last year and are on the shelf. They have recently been joined by Zach Eflin and Jacob Waguespack.
The current rotation consists of Aaron Civale, Taj Bradley, Zack Littell, Ryan Pepiot and Tyler Alexander. Both Civale and Alexander are struggling this year, with each having an earned run average over 5.00.
Prior to his surgery, Baz was trending towards making a significant impact for the Rays. He had a 4.02 ERA in his first nine major league starts, striking out 28.9% of batters faced while giving out walks just 7.2% of the time. His work in the minors was even more impressive, as he had a 1.68 ERA at Triple-A in 2021 and 2022, part of the reason why he’s been considered one of the top pitching prospects in the league in recent years.
Given his obvious talent, there’s a case to be made for plugging him into the rotation now. Each of Civale and Alexander have more experience, but they also have options and could be moved to Triple-A, or to a long relief role in the bullpen.
Instead, the Rays have optioned Baz to Triple-A for more work at that level. Perhaps that is a way of monitoring his workload in an environment where wins and losses don’t matter as much, which is a fair consideration. Baz hardly pitched in 2022 either due to elbow issues prior to his Tommy John surgery, so he’s several years removed from a significant innings tally. His career high is the 92 frames he tossed in 2021, which isn’t even that high for a starter and is now a few years in the rear-view mirror. He also hasn’t looked to be in good form on his rehab, with 11 walks to just eight strikeouts and an ERA of 6.00.
Though there’s some logic to keeping him in Durham and monitoring him, it will nonetheless have consequences for Baz. The righty came into this season with two years and 14 days of major league service time. Had he stayed on the active roster or injured list all season, he would have finished this year at 3.014, just enough to automatically qualify for arbitration and to be on track for free agency after 2027. If he ends up spending significant time on optional assignment, he could alter both of those trajectories, though he could still get to arb as a Super Two guy even if he’s shy of the three-year mark.
For now, he’ll continue with whatever plan the Rays have for building him up over the remainder of the season. Perhaps his return to the big leagues will be motivated by an injury to one of his teammates or it could just be based on some sort of workload checklist that Baz has to hit.
He does need more rehab time, but the Rays are also going to leave him in AAA long enough to maximize his service time.
That’s the TB way caring only about service time.
I don’t think so….but of course you’d think that way.
Yes, which is why he’s burned 2 years of service time on the injured list instead of being optioned at the beginning of last year.
Feels like service time manipulation. But hey it’s the Rays so I am probably just being paranoid. The Rays wouldn’t do something like that…..
How could you possibly think this? Dude has pitched half a season and probably will be arbitration eligible this offseason. There’s lots of other ways they could have manipulated service time other than optioning a guy who has pitched terrible during his rehab assignment.
“Service time manipulation”…It’s no wonder it continues to occur, because many people give the people most responsible(The MLBPA)a complete pass. You do realize this a collectively bargained and negotiated part of the current CBA don’t you? The MLBPA is so concerned with getting the Max Scherzers, Manny Machados & Justin Verlanders their piles of life altering money, they pretty much throw 95% of their union members under the bus with bad negotiated terms.
That’s just simply not true as the MLBPA has done quite a lot for the league minimum salaried players over the last decade, more than any previous cba has done for them at least.
They don’t throw 95% of union members under the bus either, if they did then the cba would be voted down by 95% of the union and wouldn’t pass. What you’re referring to is the age old American paradox: you can’t get enough done for the little guy because each of the little guys thinks they’re gonna be a big guy some day.
He hasn’t really pitched in 2 seasons. Let him build up some innings in Durham.
He is in AAA because they have 5 (or more) better options for the Major League Rotation. It’s not service time manipulation if you are bad
How do you develop a pitcher if he throws not a lot of innings, gets hurt, then you have to build the innings back up. By the time you can use him like a real starter, he’s out the door.
This isn’t manipulation. This is doing what is allowed by collectively bargained deals mutually agreed on by a union paid by the players.
Still manipulation…..
“Still manipulation”…I’m pretty sure I heard you making the same claim about the Baltimore O’s, when the Holliday kid didn’t make the season opening roster, remember?..Why am I envisioning you in a dark room, with all the walls covered in tin foil and newspaper clippings?
Dude are you honestly telling me you don’t think teams manipulate service time?
Just say that. And we can go from there.
“Don’t think teams manipulate…we can go from there”…Using the collectively bargained terms of a contract is not “manipulating service time”…By definition, teams using these terms to their advantage is not “manipulation” of anything. And I notice you didn’t even comment about how wrong you were about the Holiday kid. Freudian slip, right?
Yes playing by the rules but not the spirit of the rules is manipulation.
And Holliday got sent down. And I bet you anything he gets called back up later in the year once super 2 can be avoided.
I did this whole thing for my team the Cardinals to see if there were a lot of weird coincidences with when guys get called up. And there was.
I bet Jordan Walker gets called up in about 2 weeks because that’s when he can be recalled and if never sent back down can avoid being a super 2.
Wait and see what happens. Just wait and see.
People also still seem to be missing the fact that he’s not currently pitching like he’s a major league pitcher. Guys with options left who have a 7ish ERA in AAA, as well as starters who can’t get to the 5th inning, generally don’t get to go to the majors.
Spirit of the rules don’t exist in business. MLB is a business. If you told a car salesman that they could sell their car for more or save money by not letting people test drive it for the first month. Not one person would let people test drive the car if it meant getting more value in return.
They do if you’re owned by the Grand Service Time Manipulator, aka Pittsburgh Pirates. See: Paul Skenes, who started 7 AAA games this spring but never had enough innings to earn a win.
Blackpink, it is not manipulation. Typically when you use the term manipulation in the derogatory sense the party being manipulated is unaware of the manipulation.
In this case the players have paid a 3rd party union to negotiate a deal that gives the teams the ability to decide when to call up or send down a player. This is know ahead of signing any contract and is outlined in detail.
The MLBPA has done their constituents a disservice by continuing to allow this to not be renegotiated properly.
Aim your disappointment to the proper channels which would be the MLBPA for not correcting this issue in many contracts over the years.
Yes the MLBPA is at fault.
It’s still manipulation.
Union negotiated, player approved manipulation.
You say player approved. Well the people we are talking about here aren’t actually players yet that’s kinda the point.
Unions are nonsense. They protect the few at the cost of the many.
So far Baz has a 5 ERA in the minors to start…maybe the Rays know more than we do about where he was at.
Everyone cries manipulation but can’t name a single successful claim made against a team
Make a claim against a team you will get blackballed chief. Everyone knows that.
Kris Bryant made a claim against the Cubs. He wasn’t blackballed.
His case was a slam dunk. And did he win it?
Nope!
“Everyone knows that”…If by “everyone” you actually mean only you, then I would tend to agree.
This is not a case of service time manipulation. Not by a long shot. Folks need to remember that Baz only has 40 IP at the Major League level, and is hardly an established major league pitcher. His results in AAA this year are also pretty bad – 6.00 ERA; 6.62 FIP; 1.92 WHIP; 13.6% K Rate; 18.6% BB Rate. I wouldn’t be surprised if he spent most of the year in AAA, getting Major League time only when the Rays are out of the Playoff Race.
He’s pitched 12 innings. Why are you quoting stats for a guy who’s pitched 12 innings this year?
What do you want me to do, provide a detailed analysis of his pitching? I provided stats because they are easy to provide and understand. I understand their limited utility given the same size, but they tell the story. That story is Baz hasn’t pitched in nearly 2 years, he’s walking nearly 20% of batters, he can’t strike anyone out, and he doesn’t look better than the guys in the Rays’ rotation right now. It’s pretty straightforward.
Joel is shooting himself in the foot here!
It’s 12 innings and he hasn’t pitched in 2 years. He needs more work at a lower level right now to get straight.
So he can injure himself again when it means nothing? Really they’re stuck. Give him more time at AAA and he’ll become another AAAA player on the team. Push him onto the ML roster and watch him get rocked and lose confidence. Honestly, I prefer the latter because even if he isn’t ready for the big leagues yet, it will give him a better idea next year of what he’ll have to face and allow him to try and adjust throughout the year instead of at the end of the year / next year. So they can’t pay him for another year? So what. If he prices himself out of Sternberg’s bubble so be it. I want the players who can help the team win now. I don’t want to wait another year just to get hopes up as he blows his elbow out again in ST.
Maybe I’m just tired if the Rays way. I don’t want to see Walls, Siri, Jackson in the team anymore. Time for the Rays to move on to the future instead of patch working a team together and trying to barely make the postseason. I’ll be fairly disappointed if they aren’t big sellers this season. If they can even find any takers for Civale or Siri, I’d be ridiculously overjoyed.
He’s shaking off the rust- like two years worth.
He’ll be called up when his stamina and control return. On a positive note, he hit 97 last start and is already finding the zone better than his initial two outings.
Hope he comes back right. Genuinely had some of the nastiest stuff in the minors/majors when healthy. Especially the rays deserve at least one bright spot this season
Genuine question – what’s the benefit of activating him just to option him and burn an option year? Couldn’t they have left him rehabbing on the IL until they wanted him on the major league roster?
Theirs a limit to how long a player can be on rehab assignment
Ahhh, gotcha. Thanks!
He’s got no eyebrows. He grows eyebrows and he won’t have sweet running into his eyes and he’ll see the strike zone better.
Come back, Shane.
Glued his arm back on. Thr Ray’s buy TJS’s by the bulk.
What would anyone named Niekro know about TJS?
As a Rays fan, I really hate the Rays. The way they do business will never win a championship and they have proven that time and time again. They have only gotten worse and worse the past 4 years… And yes, I’m including the ‘everyone had career years’ year of 2023. The problem is only the fans care. Owners don’t care, Cash doesn’t care, and Neander doesn’t care.