The Rays have re-signed right-hander Michael Flynn to a minor league deal, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams on X. The righty, who is represented by Dynamic Sports Group, receives a spring training invite and will make a salary of $900K in the majors next year if he gets there.
Flynn, 28, has yet to make his major league debut but was recently part of a deadline deal. He joined the Rays a few months ago, coming over in the trade that sent infielder/outfielder Amed Rosario to the Dodgers.
Prior to the 2024 season, Flynn had spent time in the minors with the Pirates and Mariners but had allowed 7.05 earned runs per nine innings in his 97 frames. That was surely a misleading ERA, as he had solid strikeout and walk rates of 25.3% and 8.4% in that time. His 4.36 FIP for that stretch perhaps better represents his work, with his unfortunate .364 BABIP and 55.3% strand rate pushing extra runs across the plate.
He reached free agency after 2023 and signed a minors deal with the Dodgers. He went on to throw 42 1/3 innings in that organization, between Double-A and Triple-A, with a 4.25 ERA. He struck out 33.1% of batters faced with a 9% walk rate.
That strikeout rate surely intrigued the Rays and motivated them to take a flier on Flynn in the Rosario deal. Unfortunately, Flynn spent time on the injured list after the trade and was only able to make six appearances in the Rays’ system. But they apparently liked what they saw enough to bring him back for another look in spring training next year.
The Rays opened up their bullpen a bit last summer, sending out relievers Phil Maton, Jason Adam and Shawn Armstrong as part of their sell-off. Pete Fairbanks is a speculative trade candidate for this offseason now that his deal has just one more guaranteed year and a club option. In general, the Rays are one of the clubs most willing to rotate arms through the roster, which could give Flynn a chance to crack the big leagues.
The first free agent domino has fallen.
Knowing the Rays, Flynn probably ends up being a great bullpen arm for them next year, and on a very affordable salary.
Would have been a great buy-low pickup for my O’s as they enter their long rebuild. Oh well.
Hopefully he won’t have questionable discussions with the Yankees or Blue Jays and then lie about it before spreading conspiracy theories about who really won the World Series
The new inside man for the Rays lol
He’s giving up politics for baseball?
We can only hope.
Why is that, Ted?
@Ted,
It only took you four words to smoke out the lunatics. Nicely done!
Two more months and you’ll have to get a job, Bart. Good luck.
Thanks Yank. I always appreciate kind words and encouragement. You’re aces!
the only ones getting smoked out are the Astros who set him up.
big changes coming. stay sleep.
Oooh, spooky! I guess you’ll be handling the tribunals and camps, gokes?
All his pitches veer crazy far to the right.
Normal people see those coming right down the plate.
His nickname really should be ‘The Armed Insurrection’.
We still call them the Devil Rays and nothing is going to change that.
Poor Guy. Had a normal life until 2016, now people wonder if it’s the conspiracy crazy general. Hope he is excellent to give people more time for creative trolling.
You mean all of the conspiracy theories that have been proven true overtime?
Yeah, like, remember when JFK Jr came back to life and ran as vice president?
Maybe he could create his own line of edibles and call them “Flynn-stoned vitamins”? I’m just spitballing here
I’m a Rays fan and I don’t know how they find these average results arms, sign them, tweak a few things, they then have their best mlb year, and sell high. Seemingly every year.