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Rays Notes: Littell, Outfield, Caballero, Front Office

By Nick Deeds | December 22, 2024 at 1:08pm CDT

The Rays made a long-awaited trade from their rotation depth last week when they packaged left-hander Jeffrey Springs and reliever Jacob Lopez in a deal with the A’s that brought back right-hander Joe Boyle, two minor leaguers, and a pick in Competitive Balance Round A of the 2025 draft. Prior to that deal, Springs was viewed alongside right-hander Zack Littell as the two most likely Rays hurlers to be moved this winter. Now that Springs is off the board, however, ESPN’s Jeff Passan suggests that the Rays are “less likely” to part with Littell this winter.

That’s not exactly surprising. After all, while the Rays have a considerable rotation surplus with a number of excellent potential arms, those arms generally come with question marks. Shane McClanahan and Drew Rasmussen will both have recently returned from elbow surgery and could see their innings managed, while youngsters like Shane Baz, Ryan Pepiot, and Taj Bradley have never even thrown 150 innings in a big league season before in their careers. That leaves Littell, who threw 156 1/3 innings of work across 29 starts for the Rays last year, as potentially the club’s most durable arm headed into 2025. Given the frequency with which pitchers get hurt in the modern game, having a sixth starter locked and loaded is hardly a bad idea in case of injuries for any club, to say nothing of the value it could provide a club with a rotation that sports as many injury risks as the Rays’ does.

Of course, it’s impossible to rule out a trade completely when discussing a player with just one year remaining before free agency on the Rays. The club’s front office typically attempts to cash in their players on the trade market before they reach free agency, and even if Littell starts the season with the Rays a midseason trade can’t be ruled out. With that said, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times recently suggested that the club might be more or less done making moves after dealing Springs and adding Danny Jansen in free agency. One place Topkin suggests the club could look to make an addition is in the outfield, particularly if a lefty bat were to fall into the club’s lap in free agency or via trade. Topkin makes particular mention of Joc Pederson and Jurickson Profar as hypothetical options, though he’s quick to note that either player would surely need to see their market in free agency crater before they’d become realistic options for the Rays as things stand.

A more likely outcome in Topkin’s view seems to be going with internal options. That could include giving infielder José Caballero a serious look in the outfield. With Josh Lowe locked into one starting outfield spot and some combination of Jonny DeLuca, Christopher Morel, and Richie Palacios slated to handle the rest of the playing time on the grass as things stand, mixing Caballero in would give the club additional depth in the outfield should they fail to make an external addition. It’s easy to imagine Caballero’s strong glove at shortstop translating fairly well to the outfield grass, and getting a speedster who stole an AL-best 44 bases in just 483 plate appearances last year into the lineup more regularly could help to spark the club’s offense. With that being said, Caballero’s .227/.283/.347 (83 wRC+) slash line last year likely isn’t enough to make it as an outfield regular unless he proves to be a plus defensive option in center.

Turning to off-the-field matters, Topkin also reports that the club currently has no plans to install a GM beneath president of baseball operations Erik Neander. Current Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix served as GM of the Rays under Neander before taking his current gig with Miami last winter, but Topkin suggests that the club’s current set up of two vice presidents and four assistant GMs serving as Neander’s top lieutenants suits the Rays just fine and that Bendix’s title will remain unfilled for the foreseeable future.

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Notes Tampa Bay Rays Jose Caballero Zack Littell

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View Comments (27)
Post a Comment

27 Comments

  1. Fever Pitch Guy

    7 months ago

    Two Vice Presidents and four Assistant GM’s …. should be enough to cover changing a light bulb.

    8
    Reply
    • Tom the ray fan

      7 months ago

      4 assistants to the gm?

      3
      Reply
      • Wire to wire 2024

        7 months ago

        I was gonna say it if you didn’t

        1
        Reply
      • User 4014041831

        7 months ago

        I bet the GMs golf game is improved

        Reply
    • O'sSayCanYouSee

      7 months ago

      ….they should probably fire the light bulb Assistant’s and hire some roof building types.~

      3
      Reply
    • Rays in the Bay

      7 months ago

      Rays won’t pay players but they WILL pay GMs and assistants. I hope other fans realize how frustrating this is!

      1
      Reply
      • O'sSayCanYouSee

        7 months ago

        Rays in the Bay — I’m pretty sure the vast majority of fans understand all too well. It’s a shorter list of spenders than pinchers. There are a few mid/smaller market teams that do invest in Free Agents/big deals. Minnesota Twins seem like an exception to the usual mid/small markets teams.

        My Orioles have all the payroll room for any top free agent or 3. I know the pain.

        2
        Reply
  2. fljay73

    7 months ago

    4 Ast GMs can cover North, South, East & West. With the 2 VPs to answer the phone & emails first.

    3
    Reply
  3. tom brunanskys black sock

    7 months ago

    Esteban Yan likes this.

    1
    Reply
  4. EndorsedByFredMcGriff

    7 months ago

    I’d really love to see Mangum get a shot at regular OF time, but the Rays love their multi-position guys (Caballero, Palacios, Morel) and he’ll likely be stuck in Durham again.

    4
    Reply
    • Boston’s Alignment

      7 months ago

      Jake Mangum fan club starts here.

      4
      Reply
      • Acoss1331

        7 months ago

        That last name alone is worth having on the roster. The merchandise would sell itself.

        2
        Reply
      • Rays in the Bay

        7 months ago

        Been a huge fan for a few years! Watching how awful the offense has been the last 3 years I’ve been hoping to see Mangum come up. He finally gets a chance to push this Rays offense

        Reply
    • Rays in the Bay

      7 months ago

      Mangum is probably their best offensive player now. If he continues raking he will be valuable. But Rays stashed him in the minors until Rule V because of his ‘defense’. They should kick Morel to the minors or Caballero. Neither deserve to be on an MLB roster (same with Walls, but Walls has some blackmail or something idk)

      Reply
  5. geno711

    7 months ago

    That’s got to be the worst group of starting outfielders in the league.

    4
    Reply
    • Rays in the Bay

      7 months ago

      It is. Outside of Lowe they are all career . 225 or lower hitters. Infield isn’t much better. But this is due to corruption and hoarding by Rays management. They have better prospects but only care about service time and defense. Service time manipulation and all that nonsense.

      1
      Reply
    • CleaverGreene

      7 months ago

      Offensively, yes.

      Reply
  6. Reynaldo's

    7 months ago

    Caballero’s best contribution is his glove at SS because his bat can barely cut it at the position; why would you decrease his value even more by putting him in the OF? What a silly suggestion by Marc Topkin.

    2
    Reply
  7. Motor City Beach Bum

    7 months ago

    Dear Tampa

    Please trade Yandy Diaz to Detroit.

    Signed Tiny Tim

    ***Even Scrooge said yes to Tiny Tim***

    3
    Reply
    • Acoss1331

      7 months ago

      Alex Bregman has entered the chat!

      1
      Reply
  8. Rsox

    7 months ago

    It’s actually not unreasonable to think that Joc could fall into the Rays lap as he is likely to take a one year deal. Joey Gallo is another lefty bat that should be able to be had for peanuts and might have a semi-decent year combining Tampa’s coaching staff with playing their whole season at the Yankees spring training facility

    Reply
    • ccahoe02

      7 months ago

      Gall0? I can’t imagine Rays are pursuing another sub .200 hitter

      Reply
  9. bwmiller79

    7 months ago

    The Rays are really counting on their young prospects to put them into contention. Carson Williams, Xavier Isaacs and Chandler Simpson all look like they are a year out. All three could be up by the end of the season.

    Caballero should be the starter at SS until Williams is ready. But should they choose to keep Caballero around instead of DeLuca or Christopher Morel, the ability to play LF helps, so why not give him a run out there.

    4
    Reply
    • Rays in the Bay

      7 months ago

      One thing I know about the Rays is that when prospects are ready, the Rays will pick up cheap worse vets on 1 year deals to block their path and have them waste years in the minors for ‘seasoning’. Rays management doesn’t do what’s best for the team more often than not (surprisingly to other fans). They hoard defensive specialists that they don’t care about offense. They ruin offensive guys trying to teach them to play defense.

      Reply
  10. pjmcnu

    7 months ago

    God, the Rays might be truly tragic this year. Playing in the right ballpark for their personnel, just like West Sacramento.

    1
    Reply
    • Sarge-21

      7 months ago

      Maybe Tampa should move to Austin, TX…?

      Reply
  11. This one belongs to the Reds

    7 months ago

    I call them the “Sittin’ on the dock of the bay” Rays right now.

    Not a good look for MLB but face it, they don’t have a good look period, which is why the average age of the baseball fan is over 50 now.

    Reply

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