- Chris Archer has had a minor setback in his rehab from an abdominal strain, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Rays manager Kevin Cash stated Tuesday that Archer woke up feeling “not that great” and added that the team is taking a more “conservative” approach in light of the news. Archer clarified to Topkin (Twitter links) that he hasn’t had a major setback but some post-bullpen soreness that could slow him for a few days. Topkin notes that that could be enough to push Archer into a minor league rehab assignment, which would delay his return to the Tampa Bay staff. After a terrible start to the season, Archer has turned in a 2.47 ERA with a 40-to-15 K/BB ratio in 43 2/3 innings across his past seven appearances.
Rays Rumors
Rays Trade Brad Miller To Brewers For Ji-Man Choi
June 11: Tampa Bay is covering $2.209MM of the remaining $2.709MM remaining on Miller’s contract through season’s end, according to the Associated Press. Choi’s split contract calls for an $850K salary in the Majors and a $250K salary in the minors, and he’d be owed about $513K through season’s end if he were to spend the rest of the year in the Majors. That doesn’t seem likely to be the case, so the Rays will save a bit of money while paying Choi at his minor league rate of pay, though the overall cost-savings in the deal look to be more or less negligible, even for a cost-conscious club like Tampa Bay.
June 10: The Rays have dealt infielder Brad Miller to the Brewers for first baseman Ji-Man Choi, as announced by both teams on Twitter. Tampa will also send some cash to Milwaukee as part of the deal. Miller and Choi have each been optioned to Triple-A with their respective new organizations.
Miller was designated for assignment earlier this week, though he had hit respectably well (.256/.322/.429 with five homers) over 174 plate appearances for the Rays this season. Beyond those decent batting numbers, however, Miller brought little else to the table — he has continued his career-long struggles against left-handed pitching, and has posted below-average defensive numbers wherever he has played around the diamond. Miller is also coming off a rough 2017 campaign, so it could be that the Rays sought to sell as high as they could on him while he was still productive, in order to get at least some of his $2.79MM in remaining salary off the books.
[Updated Brewers and Rays depth charts at Roster Resource]
Though Miller doesn’t bring much defensive value as a shortstop or second baseman, he can at least offer the Brew Crew some extra pop at both middle infield positions. Jonathan Villar hasn’t done much against righty pitching over the last couple of years, while defensively-gifted shortstop Orlando Arcia is suffering through a dreadful year at the plate. Miller and Arcia could form a platoon, with Arcia stepping in as a late-game defensive replacement on days when Miller starts, plus the Brewers also have veteran Eric Sogard in the bench mix.
Middle infield was a weak spot for a Brewers team that is fighting for a postseason berth, and the low-cost addition of Miller could mean that the club won’t seek out more substantial second base or shortstop help at the trade deadline. Miller also adds a bit more depth to the roster at first base and in the corner outfield positions, though Milwaukee is already pretty set at those spots.
Choi signed a minor league deal with the Brewers last offseason that guaranteed him $850K if he reached the majors, so he’ll only add another $510K or so to Tampa’s payroll. The 27-year-old hit .233/.281/.500 over 32 plate appearances for the Crew, getting some time at first base with Eric Thames and Ryan Braun hit the disabled list. (Just yesterday, in fact, Choi hit a pinch-hit grand slam in Milwaukee’s 12-3 rout of the Phillies.) The 27-year-old will essentially replace Miller as a left-handed hitting option in the Rays organization, though the team is currently giving top prospect Jake Bauers (another lefty bat) a chance to stick in the big leagues as a regular first baseman.
Rays Put Robertson On DL, Recall Adames
Top prospect Willy Adames is back with the Rays, who announced today that they’ve placed Daniel Robertson on the 10-day disabled list due to a strained left hamstring and recalled the 22-year-old Adames in his place. It’ll be the second stint in the Majors this season for Adames, who is considered Tampa Bay’s best position-player prospect and is generally regarded among the game’s top 30 or so all-around farmhands. He went 2-for-12 in a brief debut stint with the Rays last month but is hitting a much more palatable .286/.356/.424 in Triple-A despite his relative youth. Adames isn’t teeming with power, but he should stick at shortstop and has the potential to be an above-average bat there. Certainly, that’s the hope for the Rays, who only control Adeiny Hechavarria through season’s end. Hechavarria recently checked in on the first edition of MLBTR’s Top 50 trade candidates, and if he’s moved, then a path to everyday at-bats would be open for Adames.
Draft Signings: 6/9/18
Check out some of the latest draft signings outside of the first round…
- Fourth-rounder Mike Siani has agreed to terms with the Reds, tweets FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman. The deal will pay Siani $2MM, which comes in over slot value. Siani, notably, is giving up a scholarship offer from the famed University of Virginia to join Cincinnati’s minor league ranks. He’s an outfielder coming out of William Penn Charter High School in Pennsylvania; he’s been described by Baseball America as “a plus-plus runner with natural instincts in center field, [and] raw power and bat speed from the left side of the plate.” Indeed, the publication ranked him as the number 53 draft prospect headed in, but clearly he fell due to signability concerns. The Reds, then, will make great use of their fourth-round selection with the addition of Siani.
- The Rays have officially signed second-round pick Tyler Frank out of Florida Atlantic, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The 185-pound shortstop was generally ranked around number 70 or so in draft rankings by Fangraphs, Baseball America and MLB.com.
- Darren Wolfson of KSTP reports that the Twins have signed their second- and fourth-round picks. Catcher Ryan Jeffers, taken in round two, was ranked by Baseball America just inside the top 300 draft prospects; they described him as a below-average runner with an average arm behind the plate, though they did note his power as being impressive. Meanwhile, fourth-rounder DaShawn Kiersey Jr. is largely heralded for his contact skills. He came in 82nd in BA’s pre-draft rankings due to that skill. While some scouts worry that a gruesome hip injury suffered last year will cause him to decline faster, his “solid package of tools” give him great upside in MLB. With the above info in mind, perhaps it’s not entirely surprising that Jeffers signed for below slot value, while Kiersey Jr.’s deal exceeded his slot value (per Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press).
Kevin Kiermaier Aiming To Return Around June 20
- Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier expects to return from the disabled list around June 20, according to Bill Chastain of MLB.com. The defensive standout has been on the shelf since suffering a torn ligament in his right thumb on April 15, thus limiting him to 48 plate appearances so far. Fill-in Mallex Smith has performed respectably in the aggregate (.271/.340/.351 with 11 steals in 211 PAs), but his production has dropped off a cliff this month. The Rays, meanwhile, have lost eight in a row since May 31 to fall six games below .500.
Rays Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Matthew Liberatore
The Rays have a deal in place with first-round draft pick Matthew Liberatore, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports on Twitter. He’s slated to receive a $3.5MM bonus, per the report.
Liberatore was widely tabbed as a top-five talent, with MLB.com ranking him second on its board. But he lasted until the 16th pick on the day of the draft, leaving many to wonder just how that happened.
While the presumption seemed to be that the Rays had promised Liberatore an over-slot bonus, given that the club has a big war chest due to its compensation selections, that does not appear to have been the case. Liberatore will evidently come in right around the slot value of $3,603,500.
In any event, the Rays are surely thrilled to add a high-end southpaw prospect from their perch in the middle of the first round. Liberatore has at times shown top-shelf fastball velocity, but hasn’t maintained it. Otherwise, he’s a pitching coach’s dream, with an advanced pitch mix that he knows how to use and a big frame that could still support further development.
Rays Designate Brad Miller For Assignment
The Rays have designated infielder Brad Miller for assignment, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports on Twitter. His roster spot will go to Jake Bauers, who has been called up as expected.
Miller, 28, was a non-tender candidate and a trade/release candidate throughout the offseason after struggling through a dismal 2017 campaign, but he agreed to a $4.5MM salary to avoid arbitration and broke camp with the club at the end of Spring Training. To his credit, he’s done a nice job of rebounding from last year’s dreadful .201/.327/.337 slash. Through his first 174 plate appearances in 2018, Miller has hit .256/.322/.429 with five homers, 10 doubles and a triple.
While that slash line is above the league average, it’s also dependent on a .343 BABIP that is way north of Miller’s career mark of .287. That trend is all the more concerning given that Miller is putting fewer balls in play than ever before; he’s striking out at a career-worst 29.3 percent pace in 2018 and carries a fairly characteristic platoon split that has rendered him largely unplayable against left-handed pitching (.639 OPS against lefties in 35 PAs).
The hope for the Rays, clearly, is that Bauers can provide an offensive spark. He’ll give the Rays a left-handed bat to replace the lefty-swinging Miller and a considerably better glove to play at first base. He also comes to the big leagues with more outfield experience than Miller has, so he’ll give manager Kevin Cash an option in that regard as well. Bauers has crushed left-handed pitching in a small sample so far in 2018 and posted a .396 OBP against lefties last year as well, so he also represents a more well-rounded offensive player, in theory.
Tampa Bay will now have a week to either trade, outright or release Miller, who is owed about $2.79MM through season’s end. That salary makes it tough to envision a straight waiver claim taking place, but Miller has a bit of defensive versatility (even if he’s not a plus defender at any position) and has a track record of hitting right-handed pitching well. It’s possible, then, that the Rays could find a taker on the trade market if they agree to pay down a portion of that remaining sum.
Rays To Promote Jake Bauers
The Rays are set to promote top prospect Jake Bauers from Triple-A Durham, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). The first baseman/outfielder will join the team for his MLB debut on Thursday.
Bauers, 22, entered the season to quite a bit of Top 100 prospect fanfare, ranking 43rd at Fangraphs, 45th at Baseball America and 68th at MLB.com. (He’s since risen to 42 at BA and 55 at MLB.com.)
Bauers is not yet hitting for a great deal of power but is off to a fine start in Durham, slashing .279/.357/.426 with five homers, 14 doubles and 10 steals (in 16 attempts). He’s drawn a walk in 10.4 percent of his 222 trips to the dish and has whiffed at a 21.2 percent clip. Defensively, Bauers has spent the bulk of his time in the field at first base, his primary position in the minors, but has logged 47 innings in the outfield corners as well (35 in left field and a dozen in right field).
Originally a seventh-round pick of the Padres back in 2013, Bauers went from San Diego to Tampa Bay in the three-team blockbuster that saw Wil Myers land with the Padres, sent Trea Turner to the Nationals and landed the since-traded Steven Souza Jr. in a Rays uniform. While that three-team deal features plenty of name value now, the Nats look to have come out quite a bit ahead thanks to the success of Turner (and righty Joe Ross, who’s currently mending from Tommy John surgery). Bauers, though, will now look to help the Rays recoup some value in his first taste of the Major Leagues.
C.J. Cron has hit quite well as the Rays’ primary first baseman, but Tampa Bay has received modest production from its outfield. With Kevin Kiermaier on the shelf and Denard Span traded to the Mariners, the Rays have been utilizing Mallex Smith, Carlos Gomez, Johnny Field and Rob Refsnyder in the outfield of late.
It stands to reason that the left-handed hitting Bauers could join that mix. Scouting reports on him indicate that while he’s a better defensive first baseman than outfielder, he’s slimmed down in recent years and can handle the outfield grass (or turf, as it were) adequately while chipping in with an above-average hit tool and average or better power at the plate.
The timing of Bauers’ promotion is such that he won’t be eligible for free agency until at least the end of the 2024 season, though his early-June debut figures to leave him on the bubble for Super Two arbitration status down the line.
There’s no exact cutoff date for that nebulous distinction, as it’s dependent on the service time of the other players in Bauers’ service class, but it seems likely that he’ll fall just shy of qualifying. There are only 116 days remaining in the season from the point at which Bauers will be formally promoted, and the lowest that the Super Two cutoff has fallen in recent seasons has been two years, 122 days of MLB service time.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Rays Place Chris Archer On 10-Day DL, Promote Diego Castillo
The Rays announced today that they have placed top righty Chris Archer on the 10-day disabled list with what has been diagnosed as a left abdominal strain. He’ll be replaced by right-handed pitching prospect Diego Castillo.
Archer’s placement is retroactive to June 3rd, so it could only be a brief stay on the DL. At this point, though, his timeline is not clear.
To this point in the season, the results have continued to lag the peripherals for Archer. He has allowed more than four earned runs per nine dating back to the start of the 2016 campaign despite fielding-independent pitching metrics that suggest much better.
Still, there’s little doubt that Archer remains a highly appealing potential trade target. He’s throwing as hard as ever and getting swings and misses. Prior to today’s news, he was on track to challenge for fourth-straight season of two hundred or more innings. And he can be controlled for three more seasons via affordable options.
It’s certainly still possible that Archer can feature as an interesting deadline asset. First, though, he’ll have to make it back and show he’s in good form. It remains to be seen, too, whether the Rays will have serious interest in striking a deal.
Castillo, 24, has been impressive thus far at Triple-A. In his 26 1/3 innings on the year, accumulated over 19 appearances, he has allowed just three earned runs on 15 hits while compiling a 32:7 K/BB ratio. He entered the season as the Rays’ 27th-best prospect, in the eyes of MLB.com. Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser tweets that Castillo’s stuff is electric, even if his command can waver at times.
Day 2 Draft Notes: Assessments, McClanahan, Rocker, Wilcox, Heimlich
Our brief preview post contains links to many of the best sources for draft information heading into the draft. We also wrote up the Tigers’ selection of Casey Mize with the first overall selection and tracked the first round, compensation, and Round A competitive balance picks (1-30; 31-43). Now, with day two of the draft underway, here are some other links and notes:
- If you want to catch up on the details of yesterday’s action, there are a variety of places worth a look. The Fangraphs team broke out the drafted players and offered capsules on each team’s early haul. ESPN.com’s Keith Law offers a look at “winners and losers” from the first day in a subscription post. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo provides a preview of today’s action. Among the coverage at Baseball America, Teddy Cahill wrote about the unfortunate timing that saw several players drafted while playing in NCAA tournament games.
- As many of those evaluations reflect, the Rays were credited by many for taking advantage of their large overall bonus pool to snag top talent despite a mid-first-round position. As one example, Tampa Bay grabbed lefty Shane McClanahan with the 31st selection. The University of South Florida junior had notified teams he wanted a $3MM bonus to sign, per Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs (via Twitter). Now, says McDaniel, McClanahan and the team will likely have to compromise a bit. His selection spot came with a $2.22MM slot allocation, but the Tampa Bay organization will also be working to sign another top talent who came off the board later than expected in first-round pick Matthew Liberatore.
- While those southpaws are expected to sign, a pair of highly regarded young righties appear to be headed to college after going undrafted to this point. Kumar Rocker strongly hinted in an Instagram post that he’ll matriculate at Vanderbilt, as Teddy Cahill of Baseball America notes on Twitter. And Cole Wilcox left no doubt in his own tweet that he’ll play for Georgia, as BA’s Chris Collazo passed along via Twitter. It seems reasonable to presume that both players simply were not presented with opportunities to earn bonuses sufficient to forego their commitments, if they were willing to do so at all. In all likelihood, those players will not end up being drafted in the first ten rounds, as failing to sign a player in those slots means sacrificing pool money, but will end up being plucked at some point in the later rounds (on the off chance that circumstances change for them and/or a drafting team).
- If there’s a player who looms large despite not yet being picked, it’s certainly Oregon State pitcher Luke Heimlich. As impressive as he has been on the field, Heimlich carries a particularly concerning past. Kurt Streeter of the New York Times was among those to take on this story recently, for those who are not familiar. Needless to say, his draft status is extremely controversial, and it was not particularly surprising to see him end up still available after day one. That probably will not last, however, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, who writes that Heimlich is likely to be chosen at some point. A “handful of teams” have not eliminated the left-hander from consideration, says Passan, who says there’s “basically zero” chance that Heimlick won’t join an affiliated organization, almost certainly via the draft. Notably, Passan also reports that the Orioles talked with Heimlich’s camp about signing him last year, when he was eligible to agree to terms after not being selected. There’s loads of interesting information and analysis in Passan’s article, which is well worth a full read.
