8:20 pm: The team has officially announced the moves.
5:47 pm: The Rays are expected to designate outfielders Christopher Morel and Jake Fraley for assignment, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Topkin also reported that catcher Dominic Keegan, right-hander Alex Cook, and second baseman Jadher Areinamo are expected to be added to the 40-man roster. The trio will grab the vacated roster spots to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.
Tampa Bay acquired Morel as the headliner of the trade that sent Isaac Paredes to the Cubs ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. He was hitting .199 at the time, but had popped 18 home runs and lowered his strikeout rate to a career-best 24.5%. Morel stumbled to a 59 wRC+ to close the year with the Rays. He hit three homers and saw his strikeout rate jump back up to 29.5%.
Morel played a part-time role for Tampa Bay this past season, logging 305 plate appearances. He flashed the power/speed combo that had made him an intriguing asset, with 11 home runs and seven steals, but continued to strike out at an untenable rate. Morel whiffed a career-high 35.7% of the time in 2025. After spending time at second base, third base, and shortstop in his first three seasons, Morel played almost exclusively outfield and DH last year. He made one appearance at second base, but that was the extent of his time on the dirt.
With a pair of 20-homer seasons under his belt and a bit of defensive versatility in his game, Morel will likely get another look at the big-league level. He’s had stretches of getting the strikeouts in check, and he’s always had a solid walk rate.
Tampa Bay claimed Fraley off waivers from Atlanta in early November. The Braves had scooped him up off waivers from the Reds back in August. He appeared in nine games with the team before going down with an oblique strain that cut his season short.
Fraley debuted with the Mariners in 2019. After a few seasons in a limited role, he was shipped to Cincinnati in the Eugenio Suarez trade. Fraley slashed a solid .259/.344/.468 in his first year with the Reds, though knee issues capped his workload. Injuries would limit his playing time for the duration of his Cincinnati tenure. Wrist and toe injuries cost him time in 2023, and the knee held him back again in 2024. Prior to the season-ending oblique injury this year, Fraley had hit the IL twice with calf and shoulder issues.
Keegan was taken in the fourth round of the 2022 draft. He tore through Tampa Bay’s minor league system before hitting a bit of a roadblock at Triple-A in 2025. MLB.com ranked him 15th among the Rays’ prospects.
Cook was also drafted in 2022, with Tampa Bay landing him in the 12th round. He’s pitched almost exclusively as a reliever since joining the organization. Cook has spent most of his time in the low minors, but did get up to Double-A last year. He tossed 15 2/3 innings with a 2.30 ERA for the Montgomery Biscuits to close the season.
Areinamo came over from the Brewers in the Danny Jansen trade. Baseball America had him 10th in Milwaukee’s system midway through the season. After slashing a strong .297/.355/.463 at High-A prior to the trade, he joined the Biscuits and put up a solid 111 wRC+.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images
I wonder why. I don’t follow the Rays, so please tell me.
Out of options + haven’t been good
@Astros..The Rays don’t feel he’s useful or good enough offensively or defensively to tie up a 40 man spot.
That’s the main reason guys get cut this time of year, there’s younger, cheaper and better options available elsewhere.
Okay thanks
Wow that Morel trade worked out well for the geniuses in Tampa.
Ty Johnson is looking like a good prospect.
What exactly was the point of claiming Fraley off waivers then?
Same. Pedro Leon was designated for assigment by the Orioles
Teams are like. Let’s just get him, we might use him. 5 days later, never mind, DFA! DFA!
Good question. The Rays do this all the time. Maybe a backup plan in case they couldn’t make the move or deal they wanted to make. But judging that they had a million OFs, perhaps they were shopping one of them (Lowe/Simpson/Mangum) and couldn’t get an offer they didn’t like. This they have no need for a 5th OF.
5th OF is crazy.
Exclusive negotiating period to try to sign him for less AAV than he’d get in arbitration.
Finally Rays FO admits it was a huge mistake and just cuts ties. Morel will be lucky to get a starting gig elsewhere. Good luck to him but he was pretty awful in his Rays tenure.
“Finally”…What Finally? That seemed like a fairly quick hook on Morel, if you ask me. The Rays normally move on from their rare mistakes rather quickly(See Ha Sing Kim).
A lot of teams would’ve kept Morel on the roster 12 more months+ just to justify the thinking on the original trade.
You can rarely accuse the Rays of letting sentiment or missteps cloud their judgment on baseball moves. They’d cut their own mother, if they thought it would improve their 40-man versatility.
I don’t get why they cut Pete Fairbanks though. I know it’s to cut payroll, but can’t you trade him?
I’m sure a lot of other fans had the same confusion
Can someone please explain?
The Rays probably spent the month after their season ended trying to line up a trade and when they found no takers they chose not to exercise his option. Reports suggesting the Rays foolishly let him walk are ignoring the fact that apparently no other team in baseball thought he was worth $11 million next year. Why is that you ask? Because he is no longer the dominant closer he once was and he has suffered several bouts of some weird condition that prevents him from pitching for a week or more because of cold weather.
Oh. Thanks for the explanation. Maybe he should sign south. Texas, both Houston and Dallas, are pretty warm and we have roof topped stadiums.
He’s had the condition flare up with the Rays, who play in a dome stadium in Florida. I don’t pretend to understand it, but apparently him just being in a city with cold weather is the cause.
-mp2891_ After TB season ended they spent that time trying to line up on a trade?
You have a franchise player they inquired about trading for in your fantasy league or on MLB The Show you play at Mummys?
Did the high level executive members of TB front office send a report from the Fantasy Baseball Trade Analyzer and Trade Calculator to justify their claims of how, when & why the trade is a sure fire bet (OH, Don’t Imply That Dummy) for both sides?
I sure hope they weren’t trying to line up a trade in that month after their season ended.
It probably just wasn’t the right timing for other MLB executives and that’s why they found no takers, so they focused their efforts on your franchise player(s) instead.
I thought the Rays just played in the open air of Steinbrenner Field?
I think I remember reading in Oct of 2024 about the Rays having to move cause of Milton. From the office of the Rays: a partial recording, an interaction between Milton (from the office of Rays) and Bill Cosgrove (future co-owner ), was retrieved from the bugged office desk of the perp “And I said, I don’t care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move …………..I’m going to quit…………. take my stapler then I’ll set the building on fire”.
Who the fack does THAT?
If you are going to quit then just quit, U dont have to steal office supplies and a stapler to boot!
Sounds like a sale of the Rays was on going before reported and future owner(s) wanted, at a minimum, an upgraded Trop before buying.
Hoping the field gets trashed with all the water from putting the fire out thus making the Trop unplayable due to wet field conditions and justifying just a little re model of the Trop.
Never though id hear about a wet field in a dome stadium cause they always roll out the infield dirt tarp at the 1st drop of water.
I hope the Yankees have an infield dirt tarp at Steinbrenner Field. Where would they move if a brother/sister of Milton from the office of the Yankees rolled into town, The Trop?
I’m sorry bwood, but I don’t understand anything from your post. Can you rephrase?
The mistakes have been a lot less rare lately. And with this they traded Isaac Paredes, Jose Caballero and Jose Siri for effectively squat.
I obviously don’t regret the Rays trading Parades.
It will be interesting to see how long the national media and casual fans need to realize the RFO has lost its way. Rays fans know all too well the Rays haven’t had a good year from the front office in several years now.
I’m not a Rays fan, but I’m trying to know MLB better this offseason. I think the Rays front office has to change to compete
Morel should have been released once the Rays couldn’t trade him at the deadline. He was awful with the Rays.
Bla. Yes he was bad
Finally as in, they never needed Morel in the first place and trading a very capable 3rd basemen with term for an unnecessary OF in hopes he breaks out with power was pretty clueless.
They should have cut him sooner, but Rays FO was really hoping he would finally produce like they thought and hoping they didn’t just give up Paredes for nothing. But he didn’t and they did. And it became more clear every game that Morel is fairly mediocre. Most teams would have realized that he’s not gonna improve. I mean, if he can’t hit homers in Steinbrenner, then he likely won’t be a big power threat wherever he plays.
They only dipped out on HSK because he would have costed a lot more money for the Rays. If Morel costed the same they would have traded or cut him much sooner. That’s just the way the Rays operate. But us fans had to watch Morel flub at the plate, flub in the OF, while also blocking some players that they should have called up sooner.
After they called up Mangum and Simpson, Morel became chopped liver. A waste of a roster spot.
Morel just screams “Pirates” to me
… or White Sox. Getz loves these guys
David Stearns will get Morel, N. Lowe and Toglia and claim that he did his best after losing out on resigning Alonso. On minor league deals it wouldn’t be bad, but have to go for our Big guys.
Yandy Diaz to the Mets is a trade too good to pass up, if the Rays make him available.
I mean, there is a limit the Mets will take. If Rays make him available, the Mets will call. But they will have limits, especially if it has multiple top 100s
My ideal trade is Yandy for Santucci and Y.Rodriguez
The Morel of the story is, the Rays sometimes make mistakes , too. But will it mushroom?
A lot of mistakes lately…
Strange trajectory for Morel and, in the end, it was on him. He was provided ample opportunity to be successful but just didn’t have the chops.