The Rays announced a major shake up of their 40-man roster today as they get started on their offseason. Right-hander Alex Faedo and outfielder Stuart Fairchild were both activated from the 60-day injured list and designated for assignment, while right-handers Cole Wilcox, Caleb Boushley, Joey Gerber, and Garrett Acton were all designated for assignment as well. Those moves make room for recently-acquired outfielder Ryan Vilade on the 40-man roster and also clear up spaces for players to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list, which goes away five days after the World Series.
Faedo, 30 later this month, missed the entire 2025 season due to shoulder inflammation. He was acquired by the Rays last offseason in a trade with the Tigers after Detroit designated him for assignment back in January. A back-end starter and swingman for parts of three seasons with the Tigers, Faedo has 175 2/3 big league innings under his belt with a 4.51 earned run average, 20.9% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate. He is out of options, which makes him hard to roster. The Tigers designated him for assignment last winter. The Rays took a shot on him but got a lost season as the result.
Fairchild, 30 in March, spent the past three seasons with the Reds and entered Spring Training with the club this year. He was squeezed off the roster and ultimately wound up traded to the Braves, for whom he appeared in 28 games as a reserve outfielder. He was traded from Atlanta to Tampa shortly before the trade deadline this year, but an oblique strain prevented him from playing for the Rays. Fairchild is a strong defender and baserunner but is a career .223/.305/.384 hitter across 229 games with five different clubs since he made his big league debut with the Diamondbacks in 2021. Like Faedo, he is out of options.
Wilcox, 26, just made his major league debut this year. He originally came to the Rays in the December 2020 trade which sent Blake Snell to San Diego. Wilcox required Tommy John surgery the following September. After returning from that procedure, his results in the minors as a starter were fairly middling. He was moved to the bullpen in 2025 with decent results. He tossed 58 1/3 innings on the farm with a 3.70 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate and 50.3% ground ball rate. The Rays added him to the 40-man in September and he tossed one big league inning, allowing three earned runs.
Boushley, 32, has been a long reliever for the Brewers, Twins and Rangers. The Rays claimed him off waivers from the Rangers in September but kept him in the minors. Boushley has 49 2/3 big league innings over 28 appearances with a 5.80 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 40.6% ground ball rate.
Gerber, 29 in May, made his debut with the 2020 Mariners. Injuries wiped out much of the next few years. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays coming into 2025. He earned a 40-man spot in the summer but was mostly kept in the minors. He only pitched 4 1/3 big league innings this year, allowing one earned run. He logged 44 1/3 innings in the minors with a 6.09 ERA, 27.9% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate.
Acton, 27, signed a two-year minor league deal with the Rays going into 2024. He had undergone Tommy John surgery prior to signing that deal and missed the entire 2024 campaign. He was added to the 40-man late in 2025 and tossed one scoreless inning in the bigs. He threw 58 2/3 innings in Triple-A with a 3.68 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate.
All six players now head into DFA limbo. The Rays will have seven days to trade them or pass them through waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade talks would have to come together in the next five days. If Fairchild clears, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has at least three years of service time. Boushley will have the right to elect free agency since he has previously been outrighted in his career. Faedo should be eligible for seven-year minor league free agency five days after the World Series but he could be held in DFA limbo longer than that.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
I tend to believe Acton in particular would be a good pickup by someone.
Will probably get some offers with ST invites.
I will never understand the Rays. But hey, it works, so who am I to question it!
In particular, Vilade is a total nothing. A classic AAAA player who has been failing at the MLB level for five years now. And some of the dudes they released can play. Never change, Rays.
It doesn’t work. That’s the problem. How many titles have they won? They need to invest a little, both on bigger name free agents, extending guys like Caminero, and making some moves to HELP the team at the trade deadline. It works if you are happy with a ‘we got in the playoffs but lost in the first round’ banner, which way too many Rays fans are happy with, but they will keep having a very tough time winning a championship until they invest and buy during the trade deadline.
To be fair, they also invested heavily in Wander Franco, but that was an unforeseeable black swan — and until that situation was cleared, the ownership wouldn’t let them use those dollars. Plus the additional spending limitations during the sale process over the last 2 years.
More importantly, can we judge an MLB organization’s success purely by WS titles.?
That standard doesn’t seem to recognize natural variation in player performance, injuries, with other teams and in the post-season.
To build a winning team through free agency the estimated payroll would be over $300M. — and even then, it’s not a guarantee (just ask the Mets).
Regularly making the playoffs ,winning 3-4 division titles and making the World Series 1-2 times in a decade is a successful organization.
Saying that you need to win a World Series to have a successful approach doesn’t seem to fit with reality.
A intelligent fan will judge the stretch as a failure. An owner will judge it as a success and paint it that way to blind fans so they spend money and increase revenue.
I would like to live long enough to see a Rays championship, and from what I’ve seen, I don’t believe ownership (old or new) will invest like Texas, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta have in recent years to give an honest shot at getting one. What did Tampa do in 2020 offseason after being 2 games short? They trade Snell for spare parts and sign Wacha to replace him. Even casual fans knew it wouldn’t do it, and they were ousted in the first round.
I’ll admit they signed Franco, but really who have they extended besides Longoria in their history as a franchise? They could sell so many jerseys if they locked up a player for long term. Crawford left. Price left. Longo got traded eventually. Upton left. Zobrist left. Arozarena left. Snell left. Glasnow left. Meadows left. Parades left. Adames left. While most got traded, they would’ve stayed had the club offered them a decent contract.
The owners don’t do anything to market players. RandyLand was started at first by die hard Arozarena fans, and they pressured the owners to have their backs, and they finally did with the shirts and free beer promotion if he hit a HR, but none of RandyLand starting out was $ternbergs idea. There is barely any Rays logos or mention of the team 100 yards away from the park, while the Bucs and Lightning are highlighted on billboards and buildings before you get in the city. The owners whine that nobody comes and spends money at the games, but if they invest in the product, sign guys like Caminero, the jerseys will sell themselves, and wild fans will flock to the stadium to support the players in fan club sections. The Bucs have them. RandyLand was a success although it was short lived. Aaron Judge still has his section in Yankee Stadium and it’s still a hot ticket. The sale process has only been going on the last year. There was no reason they couldn’t have extended Junior in 2025.
In closing, ask Braves fans how successful they were from 1996-2007. Ask Brewers fans how successful they have been in the 2020s. Ask Yankee fans how successful they have been since 2010. Most fans want the title, not 10 playoff participant flags.
The revenue they receive for selling jerseys is identical whether they sign a player or trade him. All merchandise revenue is shared equally.
I was unaware of that. I guess $ternberg must know this as well.
Judge’s Yankees are doing phenomenal with buying and investing.Yes lots of wins but no titles.
I SO WISH that the authors of the articles at MLBTRs would put either (LH), (RH), or (Switch) for position players on their batting.
Thank you.
It doesn’t appear that Vilade has been previously outrighted, so Tampa will probably try to outright him to Durham when teams have to finalize their 40-man rosters for the Rule 5 draft. Who knows what Tampa actually paid for him, it could be something trivial like $10k now and another $25k if he’s still in the organization on April 1.
With the exception of 1 decent year from Mieja, that Snell trade was a big ole whiff.