Rays Sign Luke Bard
Right-hander Luke Bard has agreed to a deal with the Rays, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). The team hasn’t announced the move, but Bard is in the clubhouse and has a locker set up. Rays broadcaster Neil Solondz adds that it’s a minor league contract for Bard, a client of ISE Baseball.
Bard, 31, is a former supplemental first-round pick (No. 42 by the Twins in 2012) who made his big league debut with the Angels back in 2018. He spent parts of the 2018-20 seasons in the Majors with the Halos, pitching to a combined 5.05 ERA with a 21.8% strikeout rate, a 6.5% walk rate and a 33.3% ground-ball rate in 46 appearances. Three of those were technically “starts,” though Bard served as an opener in each.
The younger brother of Rockies righty Daniel Bard, Luke was with the Angels again for the 2021 season but did not pitch either in the big leagues or in the minors. The younger Bard brother was slowed last spring by a hip injury that eventually required surgery and an eight-month recovery period.
Bard hasn’t had much success in the Majors, and his three Triple-A seasons have produced a 5.04 ERA that’s a near-identical match with his big league ERA. That said, he’s a fairly unsurprising Rays target all the same. Bard possesses off-the-chart spin rates on his four-seamer and, to a slightly lesser extent, on his slider. He led the Majors in four-seam spin rate during the 2019 season, but that didn’t translate to a gaudy swinging-strike rate or overall strikeout rate. The Rays surely have their own ideas on how to get the most out of Bard, who can be controlled through at least the 2025 season if he makes the roster and enjoys a late-blooming breakout.
Shane Baz Shut Down 2-3 Weeks After Undergoing Arthroscopic Elbow Surgery
The Rays announced this afternoon that top pitching prospect Shane Baz underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his pitching elbow. He’s expected to resume throwing in 2-3 weeks (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).
Baz debuted in the majors last September, making his first three starts down the stretch. He punched out 18 hitters in 13 1/3 innings during that brief look, averaging north of 97 MPH on his heater. Tampa Bay carried Baz on their postseason roster, giving him the start in Game 2 of their Division Series against the Red Sox. That outing didn’t go as hoped, but there’s little question the righty had emerged as a key piece of the Rays’ pitching plans — both in the near and long term.
This offseason, Baseball America named Baz the league’s eighth-most promising prospect. He checked in second among pitchers in that ranking, making the former first-rounder one of the top young arms in the game. It doesn’t seem there’s any reason for long-term concern about today’s procedure, although it’ll almost certainly force him to begin the season on the injured list.
Opening Day is seventeen days from now. Given the club’s announced timetable, it’s possible Baz will begin throwing before regular season action gets underway, but he’ll need some time to build strength back up. He may require some time in the minors on a rehab assignment as well.
With Baz out of the season-opening rotation mix, Tampa Bay looks likely to rely on some combination of Shane McClanahan, Corey Kluber, Luis Patiño, Ryan Yarbrough, Josh Fleming and Drew Rasmussen to start games over the first few weeks. Tampa Bay is among the league’s most flexible teams with regards to managing a pitching staff, but the loss of a high-octane arm like Baz is a disappointing development for a team competing in an AL East that again looks as if it’ll be a four-team fight.
Injury Notes: Urias, Sims, Glasnow, Dobnak
After suffering a left quad strain in yesterday’s Spring Training game, Luis Urias is facing at least a two-week layoff and is “questionable” for Opening Day, Brewers manager Craig Counsell told The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak and other reporters. Even if Urias does miss only 14 days, that won’t leave much time for Urias to ramp up to play in the Brew Crew’s first game on April 7, and even the two-week timeline is just a projection since Counsell noted that Urias will still get more tests.
While it doesn’t seem like Urias is facing too long a layoff, the Brewers will probably have to turn to their bench depth early to fill in for their starting third baseman. Milwaukee has multiple third base options but not really a true backup shortstop, as Urias was also seen as the top candidate to play short if Willy Adames needed a breather. If not Pablo Reyes (who only has a few career games as a shortstop), top prospect Brice Turang hasn’t yet made his MLB debut, and the Brewers probably don’t want to start his service clock until such limited circumstances.
More on other injury situations from around the Show…
- Reds righty Lucas Sims won’t be on the team’s Opening Day roster since he more time to build up his arm, Sims and manager David Bell told reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon). Sims is healthy now, but is behind schedule since illness and back spasms interrupted his usual offseason work. “We can re-assess later but [first] make sure the build-up is done right and then we don’t rush into something and have a big deal,” Sims said. The absence could allow for other pitchers to step up into the closer void, as Sims has been favored as Cincinnati’s top choice for the ninth inning this season, assuming the Reds indeed have a set closer. The 27-year-old Sims moved to full-time relief work in 2019, and he has a 4.05 ERA and 35.2% strikeout rate in 115 2/3 innings over the last three seasons, though control and home runs have been issues.
- Tyler Glasnow won’t throw for 2-3 weeks after undergoing an arthroscopic ankle surgery on Friday, according to Rays broadcaster Neil Solondz (Twitter link). The procedure removed some loose bodies from Glasnow’s right ankle. While the procedure seems minor, the delay to Glasnow’s rehab from Tommy John surgery could end whatever hope the righty had of pitching in the 2022 season. Glasnow underwent his Tommy John surgery last August, thus giving him a narrow window to return this season if he hit the low end of the usual 12-15 month TJ recovery timeline.
- The Twins have shut down Randy Dobnak due to continued soreness in the right-hander’s middle finger on his throwing hand, MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park writes. It isn’t known how long Dobnak will be sidelined, though it appears as though he won’t be on the Opening Day roster. Dobnak initially sprained his finger back in late June, and then pitched in only one game the rest of the season due to a pair of 60-day IL placements. Even prior to the finger problems, Dobnak was already struggling through a rough year, and finished with a 7.64 ERA over 50 2/3 innings.
AL Notes: Correa, Tucker, Meadows, Winker, Upton
Before Carlos Correa signed with the Twins, there was some increased buzz that Correa could be staying with the Astros, as Houston was reportedly working on a new contract offer and owner Jim Crane was getting involved in talks. However, in the aftermath of Correa’s departure, The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome hears from two sources that “the Astros were not close to reuniting with their shortstop.”
In fact, the Astros didn’t even make a new offer. According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the Astros “did not budge from” the five-year, $160MM deal the club offered Correa just prior to the opening of the free agent market in November. The exact level of these latest talks between Correa and the Astros aren’t known, but Rome wonders why the team didn’t explore a contract similar to the three-year, $105.3MM pact (with two player opt-outs) that Correa landed from Minnesota, or if such a deal simply wasn’t of interest to the Astros.
More from around the American League…
- In other Astros news, Kyle Tucker told Chandler Rome (Twitter link) that the team had yet to start any talks about a contract extension. There isn’t necessarily any rush for the Astros, as Tucker is still a pre-arbitration player and isn’t eligible for free agency until the 2025-26 offseason. Still, Tucker has been excellent over his two full seasons as an everyday player, and extending him now could help Houston get some cost-certainty over what projects to be some pricey arbitration-eligible seasons for the outfielder.
- The Rays and Phillies have discussed an Austin Meadows trade, according to Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Timing may be a factor in this report, since Lauber tweeted the news just hours before the Phillies signed Nick Castellanos, and thus Meadows may no longer be on the team’s radar. Indeed, with Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber now acquired for corner outfield and DH duty, adding a player of a similar profile like Meadows wouldn’t seem all that feasible for Philadelphia, even if Meadows is a better defender (if not a standout) than either of the two free agent sluggers.
- The Guardians “were in on” trying to acquire Jesse Winker from the Reds before Cincinnati dealt the outfielder to the Mariners earlier this week, Paul Hoynes of The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Seattle’s ability to absorb Eugenio Suarez‘s contract gave the M’s the edge, as the Guards’ payroll limitations simply wouldn’t make it feasible for them to eat a big contract (plus, Cleveland already has Jose Ramirez at third base). Winker, however, would’ve been a big help for the Guardians’ needs in the outfield, and Cleveland has been rather quiet overall since the end of the lockout, whereas their AL Central rivals have all made significant moves.
- Justin Upton briefly started some prep work as a first baseman last season before a lumbar strain ended his season in September, but the veteran outfielder has again donned a first baseman’s glove in Angels camp this spring, The Orange County Register’s Jeff Fletcher writes. Upton has never played at first base during his entire pro career, though the lower-impact position would theoretically help the 34-year-old to stay healthy, and his right-handed bat would provide a nice complement to left-handed hitting starting first baseman Jared Walsh. After three straight injury-plagued and subpar seasons, Upton is entering the final year of his five-year, $106MM deal with the Angels.
Rays To Sign Ryon Healy To Minors Deal
The Rays have signed Ryon Healy to a minor league contract, according to FanSided’s Robert Murray (Twitter link). Healy will be making his return to North American baseball after playing with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Hanwha Eagles in 2021.
A veteran of five MLB seasons, Healy’s last appearance in The Show came on a big stage, as he served as the Brewers’ DH and cleanup hitter in Game Two of their wild card series game with the Dodgers in 2020. Injuries had thinned Milwaukee’s roster to the point that Healy (who had played only four regular-season games with the Brew Crew) got the nod for the elimination game, as the Dodgers knocked the Brewers out of the best-of-three series.
Healy has a .261/.298/.450 slash line over 1606 career plate appearances in the majors, almost all with the A’s in 2016-17 and then the Mariners in 2018-19. A noted prospect on his way up in Oakland’s farm system, the Athletics dealt Healy to Seattle in November 2017 since Matt Olson and Matt Chapman were blocking the way at Healy’s two corner infield positions. While Healy followed up a 25-homer campaign in 2017 by hitting 24 long balls in his debut season with the M’s, his hitting numbers declined overall, and injuries limited him to 47 games in 2019.
From there, Healy bounced to the Brewers, and then to the KBO League. The Eagles released Healy in July after he hit .257/.306/.394 over 268 PA for the Daejeon-based team. Both in South Korea and in the majors, Healy has struggled to consistently get on base, and his power dropoff with the Eagles is also a bit of a step backwards for a player who at least used to fit the three-true-outcomes model.
The Rays have been known to be looking for a right-handed hitter with first base ability, and while Healy fits that description, he might be viewed as more of a backup plan than as a true answer to Tampa Bay’s needs. Still, the Rays have been known to find hidden gems in the past, and if Healy is able to get on track, he could be an interesting complement to Ji-Man Choi or Austin Meadows (both left-handed hitters) as the Rays’ top choices at first base or DH.
Rays Acquire Luke Raley From Dodgers
The Rays and Dodgers agreed to a deal this afternoon, announcing that corner outfielder Luke Raley has been traded to Tampa Bay. Los Angeles is acquiring pitching prospect Tanner Dodson in return. In order to clear space on the 40-man roster, the Rays placed Yonny Chirinos on the 60-day injured list.
Raley made his major league debut this past season. He didn’t perform well over his first 72 plate appearances, striking out 25 times while drawing just a pair of walks. The 27-year-old has a much better minor league track record, as he’s hit .289/.367/.489 in five minor league campaigns since being drafted in the seventh round in 2016. That includes a .297/.384/.553 showing over 456 plate appearances in Triple-A.
A lack of defensive value has limited Raley’s prospect appeal, but he’s ranked near the back half of the Dodgers’ top 30 farmhands for the past few seasons in the estimation of Baseball America. The outlet credits Raley with big raw power, albeit with some trepidation about an aggressive approach at the plate. Tampa Bay isn’t the only other organization who has tried (and succeeded) in prying Raley away from the Dodgers. The Twins acquired him from Los Angeles at the 2018 trade deadline in exchange for Brian Dozier. Minnesota sent him back to L.A. a year and a half later in the three-team Mookie Betts/Kenta Maeda trade.
Raley is affordable and can step right into the big league mix for Tampa Bay. He still has a minor league option year remaining, so the Rays needn’t carry him on the active roster. Yet he’ll bolster the organizational depth and could see a more immediate path to playing time if Tampa Bay pulls the trigger on an Austin Meadows trade. Recent reports have indicated the Rays are considering shipping Meadows elsewhere.
The move clears a spot on the 40-man roster for the Dodgers, who have signed each of Jimmy Nelson, Danny Duffy and Freddie Freeman in recent days. They’ve devoted just one immediate roster spot to that trio — Los Angeles purposefully waited to finalize Freeman’s deals until after signing Duffy and Nelson so they could put both pitchers on the 60-day injured list — but they’ve also agreed to terms with Tyler Anderson. They’ll need to clear another roster spot to accommodate Anderson’s arrival.
In addition, Los Angeles picks up Dodson, whom the Rays selected 71st overall in the 2018 draft. A two-way player at Cal, he continued to work in both capacities early in his professional career. Scouts have long questioned how much offensive upside he’d have due to a lack of raw power, though, and he’s worked primarily off the mound in recent years. He tallied just 30 plate appearances in High-A last season but worked 56 1/3 innings as a reliever.
Between High-A Bowling Green and Double-A Montgomery, Dodson combined for a 3.20 ERA. He struck out a solid 26.3% of opponents against a 9.5% walk rate. The Rays declined to add him to their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft (which never ended up taking place) this offseason. He didn’t appear among Baseball America’s top 30 organizational prospects this winter, but Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote in January 2021 that his low-mid 90s fastball and slider could make him a viable big league reliever.
Chirinos, meanwhile, hasn’t pitched since undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2020. The righty fractured his elbow last year, a setback that was always expected to prevent him being ready for Opening Day. Precisely when he might return isn’t clear, but he’ll miss at least the first two months of this season.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the terms of the trade.
Rays Sign Jason Adam
The Rays announced Thursday that they’ve signed right-hander Jason Adam to a one-year, Major League contract. Tyler Glasnow, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, has been placed on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Neil Solondz reports that Adam’s contract is a split Major League deal that will pay him at a $900K rate in the big leagues and a $300K rate in the minors. He can earn an additional $250K via incentives.
Adam, 30, was a quietly effective reliever with the Blue Jays and Cubs from 2019-20, pitching to a combined 3.06 ERA with a 26.2% strikeout rate and 12.1% walk rate in 35 1/3 innings between those two stops. He was particularly adept at missing bats with the Cubs in 2020, whiffing 21 of the 58 batters he faced (36.2%) while logging a sky-high 17.3% swinging-strike rate.
The 2021 season was nothing short of harrowing for Adam, however. After being optioned to Triple-A Iowa early in the season, Adam was shagging fly balls during warmups for a game when he suffered an open dislocation and fracture of his left ankle — a gruesome injury that also caused significant damage to multiple ligaments and tendons in his foot.
Adam told the Des Moines Register’s Tommy Birch last June that he had thoughts of NFL quarterback Alex Smith’s career-altering injury and the grueling sequence of surgeries and infection that followed. At one point, Adam feared he might lose his foot. He told Birch that he went into shock and that doctors had difficulty sedating him for surgery due to the excess of adrenaline his body produced in the wake of the injury. Birch’s story is well worth a full read for full context on the severity of Adam’s injury as well as quotes from Adam, teammates and coaches who were there at the time (note that there are some rather graphic details of the awful injury).
Incredibly, however, Adam not only made a full recovery but returned to the Majors with the Cubs late in the 2021 season after just a few months of rehab. Recalled to the Majors in late September, Adam made three appearances and tossed three shutout innings with six strikeouts, no walks and just one hit allowed down the stretch. His overall season ERA still checked in at 5.91 through a small sample of 10 1/3 innings, but the route he took to get there is nothing short of remarkable.
Now fully healthy, Adam will compete for a bullpen spot in the Tampa Bay bullpen alongside Andrew Kittredge, Pete Fairbanks, J.P. Feyereisen, JT Chargois, Matt Wisler and Brooks Raley, among others. Because he’s on a split contract and has a minor league option year remaining, he’s not assured that spot and could potentially be sent down to the minors. However, the Rays and other clubs that have used frequent options to maintain fresh arms in the bullpen will be a bit more limited in 2022; under the new collective bargaining agreement, an individual player can only be optioned to the minors five separate times during a given option year.
If Adam can remain healthy and solidify himself as a member of the Tampa Bay relief corps, he’ll hold plenty of value to the Rays not only in 2022 but well beyond. He currently has just a year and 129 days of Major League service time, meaning he could remain under club control all the way through the 2026 season.
Rays Have Discussed Trades Involving Austin Meadows
Even before the lockout ended, it was reported that the Rays would be open to moving Austin Meadows once transactions were allowed to resume. That’s apparently proving to be the case, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that Meadows is being “prominently” mentioned in trade discussions around the league. This morning’s four-year deal between the Phillies and Kyle Schwarber is expected to help the outfield market begin to move, Rosenthal adds.
Any team that missed out on Schwarber would figure to at least have some degree of interest in the 26-year-old Meadows, who swatted 33 home runs for Tampa Bay in 2019 and 27 long balls this past season. A poor showing in the shortened 2020 season has dragged down his overall line over that three-year term, but it still checks in at a healthy .256/.334/.493.
Meadows pounded left-handed pitching in his brilliant 2019 campaign but has looked overmatched against southpaws in each of the past two seasons. Some clubs will surely view him as more of a platoon candidate, but even if that’s the case, he’s a high-quality option. In his career against right-handed pitching, Meadows is a .271/.351/.525 hitter.
From a defensive standpoint, Meadows is best-suited for work in left field, where he has serviceable if unspectacular ratings from metrics like Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average. He’s seen limited action in center and another 600-plus innings in right field but doesn’t rate well at either position.
The Rays currently control Meadows through the 2024 season, and he’s projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $4.9MM this coming season. That’s plenty affordable for any team, even the Rays, but Tampa Bay has a deep crop of outfield talent. Randy Arozarena, Kevin Kiermaier, Manuel Margot, Josh Lowe, Brett Phillips and Vidal Brujan (a top infield prospect who’s seen some time in the outfield) give the Rays the flexibility to make a move if the return for Meadows is convincing enough. Second baseman Brandon Lowe, too, has some experience in the outfield.
More interesting is that the Rays have been somewhat surprisingly tied to more expensive targets on the market. The Rays were linked to Oakland’s Matt Chapman before he was traded to the Blue Jays and had interest in NPB star Seiya Suzuki before he agreed to terms with the Cubs. More recently, they’ve been rumored as a long-shot landing spot for star first baseman Freddie Freeman, who penned a farewell message to Braves fans today and remains unsigned.
Clearing Meadows’ projected $4.9MM salary isn’t going to seismically change the team’s payroll outlook, but for a Rays club with designs on aiming bigger than it typically might in a given offseason, moving a roughly $5MM outfielder when the team has ample depth to replace him could free up some resources to address other pursuits. Even if the Rays don’t ultimately make a big splash with whatever resources are saved in a theoretical Meadows deal, part of the reason they remain so successful on a perennial basis is their willingness to market quality regulars like this even before their salary reaches the point that it becomes a legitimate payroll encumbrance.
Latest On Freddie Freeman’s Market
It’s been apparent since the Braves acquired and extended first baseman Matt Olson that Freddie Freeman is likely headed elsewhere in free agency, but Freeman made that all but official this afternoon when he thanked Braves fans and bid them and the organization farewell on Instagram this afternoon.
“…Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” wrote Freeman. “It has been a blast to have you cheer for me and I hope I was able to bring smiles to a lot of your homes over the years. I gave everything I had day in and day out and I hope you guys saw that as well. Although our time has come to an end, I look forward to seeing and playing in front of you all again. When that time comes, I hope you remember all the wonderful memories we made together. I love you Braves Country! Champions Forever!”
It’s not clear whether Freeman’s message is a portent for an agreement with a new team or simply an acknowledgement that the first chapter of his storied career has drawn to a close. Several possible landing spots for the 2020 NL MVP have dried up in the past few days, as the Braves not only essentially replaced him with Olson, but the Yankees struck up a deal to bring Anthony Rizzo back to the Bronx.
Reports recently have suggested that Freeman remains of interest to the Dodgers, Red Sox, Rays and Padres, although each destination comes with its own reasons for some degree of skepticism. Freeman has reportedly sought a six-year deal that would carry him through his age-37 season, and the Dodgers tend to prefer higher annual salaries and shorter terms than that six-year target. To that end, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote this week that L.A. is “believed” to have offered a four-year deal to Freeman that includes a sizable annual value.
Looking to Freeman’s other reported suitors, the Padres have spent more than a year trying to move Eric Hosmer, who still has four years and $59MM remaining on his contract. As explored more in depth here at MLBTR yesterday, it’s difficult to see that deal coming together without several other pieces falling into place first.
The Red Sox have been comfortable exceeding the luxury tax in the past, but they opted not to do so and have at pair of interesting young first base/designated hitter types already in Bobby Dalbec and prospect Tristan Casas. It’s doubtful that either would stand in the way of Boston signing a player of Freeman’s caliber, but the luxury tax concerns present a more feasible roadblock. Still, SNY’s Andy Martino tweeted this morning that the Yankees believe their archrivals’ interest in Freeman is sincere.
As for the Rays, their interest is said to be real but also comes with the most obvious hurdles of the bunch. Tampa Bay’s payroll is perennially among the lowest in the sport, and while the long-term books are exceptionally clean (as noted when first examining their reported offer), a free agent of Freeman’s caliber heading to Tampa is entirely without precedent. It was a surprise several years ago to see the Rays reel in Charlie Morton on a $30MM guarantee that spanned two seasons; Freeman could command an annual salary in that range over a longer term. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweeted this morning that Tampa Bay has remained “aggressive” in its surprising pursuit of Freeman, but an actual deal between the two parties would still register as one of the largest free-agent surprises ever.
The lack of obvious suitors for a massive five- or six-year commitment and the recent decisions by the Braves and Yankees to move on has created a sense among some executives in the game that Freeman’s camp overplayed its hand, Jim Bowden of The Athletic tweets. That’ll be determined by Freeman’s ultimate contract, of course, but his path to the massive contract that once appeared to be a given looks a bit less clear now than it did when the Yankees and Braves were still in the market for his services.
Rays Re-Sign Cody Reed To Minor League Deal
The Rays announced this evening they’ve re-signed reliever Cody Reed to a minor league contract with an invitation to MLB Spring Training. Tampa Bay had outrighted him off their 40-man roster in November, at which point he elected free agency.
Reed has to pitch his way back onto the Rays’ big league club, but he’s appeared in the majors in each of the past six seasons. Originally a Royals draftee, Reed was traded to the Reds as part of the 2015 Johnny Cueto deal. He blossomed into one of the game’s top pitching prospects during his days with Cincinnati, but he never found consistent success in their rotation.
The left-hander debuted with ten starts for the Reds in 2016, but he was hit hard to the tune of a 7.36 ERA. He bounced on and off the roster over the next couple seasons, generally performing alright with Triple-A Louisville but never carrying that over into MLB success. The Reds moved him to the bullpen full-time in 2019, but he couldn’t carve out a permanent big league role there either. Cincinnati designated him for assignment in 2020, and Tampa Bay acquired him for pitching prospect Riley O’Brien.
Reed made 12 appearances with the Rays last season, allowing five runs in 9 2/3 innings. He struck out seven batters against six walks while dealing with a velocity drop, as his average fastball fell from the 94-95 MPH range to just north of 92 MPH. That may have been attributable to poor health, as Reed was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome and underwent surgery in early June. That ended his season, but it was reported at the time of his surgery that he should be a full-go for Spring Training.
All told, Reed owns a 5.22 ERA in 136 1/3 career innings at the big league level. That’s inflated by his rough numbers as a starter, as he has a 2.77 mark in 47 relief appearances. Even when isolating to his performance out of the bullpen, Reed’s strikeout and walk numbers (21.5% and 13.7%, respectively) aren’t good. Yet he’s induced ground-balls at a huge 54.7% clip and held left-handed hitters to a .237/.329/.321 line as a reliever. He could again emerge as a situational option for skipper Kevin Cash if he’s now recovered from the thoracic outlet procedure.