Rays To Look For Catching Help

The Rays acquired two catchers at this year’s trade deadline but are apparently not content with them. President of baseball operations Erik Neander told Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times that both backstops did good things but “we’re going to keep looking.”

The catching position in Tampa has been a revolving door for many years now. Mike Zunino got the majority of the playing time back there in the 2019 to 2022 stretch but his performance tailed off in the final year of that span. In 2023, the Rays used Francisco Mejia, Christian Bethancourt and René Pinto without any of those three taking firm hold of the job.

Last year, Ben Rortvedt got most of the playing time and had a decent year but the Rays didn’t want to rely on him, so they signed Danny Jansen to a one-year deal for 2025. Rortvedt’s results backed up and he was outrighted off the roster in May. He was later flipped to the Dodgers as part of a three-team deadline trade which brought Hunter Feduccia to the Rays. Jansen was also sent out at the deadline, going to the Brewers, as the Rays acquired Nick Fortes from the Marlins.

As of today, Fortes and Feduccia are the only two backstops on the 40-man roster. Fortes has caught 2,708 2/3 innings over five big league seasons with strong defensive numbers. However, his offense is lacking, as he has a .224/.280/.345 line and 72 wRC+ in his career. Feduccia has a much shorter track record, with just 119 plate appearances in the majors and a .170/.286/.220 line in those. Prospect Dominic Keegan could get a 40-man spot this winter since he will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft, though he’s a bat-first catcher who didn’t hit much in his first taste of Triple-A this year.

Given that those are the top in-house options, it’s understandable that they would be open to bringing in reinforcements. Both Fortes and Feduccia are still optionable, so adding another catcher from outside the organization and bumping one guy down to Triple-A as depth could be a sensible path to consider.

Looking to the free agent market, there are a few options. J.T. Realmuto is the biggest name but it would be a surprise if he didn’t return to the Phillies on a new deal. Re-signing Jansen is something the Rays could consider. Victor Caratini is coming off a respectable two-year run with the Astros. There are a few other decent veterans like Elias Díaz and Luke Maile.

The trade market could have some names of interest. The Cardinals are going into a rebuild and could perhaps consider moving Iván Herrera, though they mostly used him as a designated hitter this year. The Twins just did a big deadline sell-off and have Ryan Jeffers under control for one more season. The Rangers might be looking to make some changes and control Jonah Heim for one more year. The Pirates have four catchers on their 40-man and someone might get crowded out.

Elsewhere on the roster, Neander also provided Topkin with a number of injury updates, noting that most of the players who finished the season on the injured list are expected to be ready for spring training. That includes left-hander Shane McClanahan, though Neander also is quick to point out that there’s loads of uncertainty for the southpaw.

“This has been a tough injury. You feel the most for Shane — just about ready to take the ball opening day and then have an injury that there’s virtually no precedent for it. And then not knowing your timeline — might be a few weeks, might be a few months. High confidence it’s going to heal, but the timeline has kind of been up in the air. … ” Neander said. “He is doing everything a human being could do and more to try to be ready. This has been really difficult on him. We’re doing everything we can to support him. Our hope is that by the time we get to camp this is fully resolved, he’s on the appropriate throwing program going into camp, and we go from there.”

McClanahan hasn’t pitched in a big league game since August of 2023. He required Tommy John surgery at that time and missed the entire 2024 campaign. The Rays were hoping to have him healthy for 2025 but he suffered some triceps tightness in spring training. This was later revealed to be a nerve problem, which landed him on the injured list to start the year. He began a rehab assignment in July but that lasted only three appearances. He underwent a season-ending radial nerve decompression in August.

It puts the Rays in a tough spot. Given that the issue is apparently so unprecedented, it makes it tough to map out a plan for 2026, especially since McClanahan has now missed more than two full seasons.

“Obviously, missing (from) August 2023 through the end of ’25, that’s a lot of missed time,” Neander said. “So you get into kind of, ‘All right, what’s best for him?’ and how you build him up and how you do all that responsibly. But our expectation from a health standpoint is this at some point here will turn into a normal winter, and the normal build-up in the camp, and we can go from there.”

Neander listed two pitchers who aren’t expected to be healthy by spring training: Manuel Rodríguez and Brian Van Belle. It was reported in July that Rodríguez would require some kind of elbow surgery, though the full extent wasn’t clear at that time. Per Topkin’s piece, Rodríguez underwent flexor tendon surgery and is targeting a June return. Van Belle is more up in the air right now, as he may have an ulnar collateral ligament sprain and is going to visit Dr. Keith Meister to decide on his next steps.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images