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Brett Phillips

Angels Sign Brett Phillips To Major League Deal

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5:50pm: The Angels have now announced the move, making it official.

5:30pm: The Angels and outfielder Brett Phillips are in agreement on a one-year major league deal that will see him make $1.2MM. Phillips is a client of O’Connell Sports Management.

Phillips, 29 in May, has seen big league action in each of the past six seasons, spending time with the Brewers, Royals, Rays and Orioles. Though he’s never really been a huge threat at the plate, he’s provided value to those clubs with his defense and speed. His best season to date was 2021 with the Rays, where he hit 13 home runs and stole 14 bases. He struck out in a massive 38.7% of his plate appearances but also walked in 11.3% of them. He finished the year with a batting line of .206/.300/.427 and a wRC+ of 103, indicating he was 3% better than league average at the plate. He also got excellent grades for his glovework and was considered to be worth 2.3 wins above replacement by FanGraphs.

Unfortunately, the flaws in his game were a bit more exposed in 2022. His strikeout rate, which was already incredibly high, ticked north to 41.8% while his walk rate dipped to 7.1%. His batting line last year was .144/.217/.249, leading to an untenable wRC+ of 38. That frustrating season including getting designated for assignment by the Rays in August, which led to a trade to the Orioles. They outrighted him off the roster in August, but Phillips reached free agency at season’s end.

Phillips certainly has some drawbacks but there are plenty of admirable attributes as well. Statcast places his sprint speed in the 88th percentile, his outfield jump in the 99th and his arm strength in the 97th. That speed might be more useful this year with the new rules that are designed to encourage more base stealing. The limits on defensive shifts might also give him a boost at the plate since he was shifted on 88% of his plate appearances last year.

The Angels will likely be looking to implement Phillips in a part-time role off the bench, coming in for pinch running and defensive substitutions. The primary outfield should consist of Mike Trout in center flanked by Hunter Renfroe and Taylor Ward in the corners with Shohei Ohtani serving as the designated hitter most nights. The club also has Mickey Moniak and Jo Adell as outfield options on its 40-man roster, but both of them have struggled at the major league level thus far and each has an option year remaining, allowing them to be sent to the minors as depth if they don’t earn their way into larger roles.

Phillips is the latest in a series of moves that the Angels have made to improve the support for their star players. Despite having Trout and Ohtani and other stars over the years, the club has failed to live up to expectations due to shortcomings elsewhere on the roster, especially when injuries have tested their depth. The club has signed Tyler Anderson to helped their rotation and Carlos Estévez to bolster the bullpen. On the position player side, they traded for Renfroe and Gio Urshela while signing Brandon Drury and now Phillips.

Phillips doesn’t have any options, meaning he’ll have to stick on the roster or else be designated for assignment. However, he has just over three years of MLB service time and can be retained for future seasons via arbitration if he has a solid campaign for the Halos. This deal brings their payroll to around $206MM, per the calculations of Roster Resource, and a competitive balance tax calculation of $221MM. That payroll figure would be a franchise record, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, eclipsing the $189MM mark from last year. The CBT number puts them about $12MM shy of the lowest luxury tax threshold, which will be $233MM this year.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Phillips and the Angels were in agreement. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first added the $1.2MM salary.

Which Remaining Free Agent Hitters Were Shifted The Most In 2022?

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It was announced back in September that Major League Baseball would be implementing some new rules for the 2023 season. One such change will be the limiting of defensive shifts, with teams required to have two infielders on each side of second base and all four on the near side of the outfield grass at the time the pitch is released.

The exact ramifications of these changes will be discovered as the 2023 season progresses, but the hope is that some routine grounders turn into hits instead. Those players who have been shifted the most could stand to reap the most benefit from the new environment. The prototypical example of the hitter that is the most harmed by the shifts has been a plodding and pull-happy left-hander who can be neutralized by having an infielder in deep right field. However, each player is unique and will have been attacked in different ways, so let’s look at the data, with a minimum of 100 plate appearances required to be considered here. Which free agents were shifted the most in 2022? (Quick note that Stephen Vogt has been excluded since he previously announced 2022 would be his last season.)

1.  Rougned Odor – 93.8%
2. Kole Calhoun – 93.4%
3. Zack Collins – 88.9%
4. Brett Phillips – 88%
5. Brandon Belt – 85.2%
6. Mike Ford – 84.6%
7. Jed Lowrie (as a lefty) – 83.5%
8. Robbie Grossman (as a lefty) – 82.6%
9. Michael Perez – 81.8%
10. Mike Moustakas* – 81%
11. Tommy La Stella* – 80.5%
12. Josh VanMeter – 79.7%
13. Luke Voit – 76.9%
14. Colin Moran – 75%
15. Adam Duvall – 71.7%
16. Gary Sánchez – 70.5%
17. Dominic Smith – 70.4%
18. Jackie Bradley Jr. – 64%
19. Jurickson Profar (as a lefty) – 63.8%
20. Didi Gregorius – 60.3%

(* – Moustakas and La Stella technically aren’t free agents right now. However, they were both recently designated for assignment and are likely to be released given their onerous contracts.)

Odor has been quite awful at the plate recently, with his batting average finishing at .207 or below in each of the past four years. However, his batting average on balls in play has been at .244 or below in each of those seasons, well below his earlier career marks and the .290 league average in 2022. Perhaps the shift bans could get him closer to his earlier career number when he hit between .259 and .271.

Belt hit .285/.393/.595 over 2020 and 2021, good enough for a wRC+ of 162 which trailed only Juan Soto and Bryce Harper among all MLB hitters in that time. He was actually shifted more in those two seasons than he was in 2022. Injuries limited him to just 78 games and tepid production this year, but perhaps better health and some more open space on the field could help him return to being one of the best hitters in the league.

As for the rest, some of these guys are role players or aging veterans, but a few of them could be sneaky value pickups in the latter half of the offseason. Like Belt, many of them are coming off disappointing and/or injury-marred years and will be looking to bounce back in 2023. Grossman posted a 118 wRC+ over 2020 and 2021 but just an 82 this year. Voit had a 153 wRC+ in the shortened 2020 season but dipped to 112 and 102 in the past two campaigns. Duvall had a 108 wRC+ over 2019-2021 but an 87 here in 2022. Sánchez recorded a 143 wRC+ in his first two seasons but just a 96 in the following five years, including an 89 in the most recent campaign. Smith posted a huge 150 wRC+ over 2019 and 2020 but has slid to just 82 since. Profar is coming off a decent campaign and is arguably the best free agent still unsigned.

34 Players Become Free Agents

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The Wild Card round of the 2022 postseason begins today, but for the majority of teams and players, the offseason is now underway. With that will come plenty of roster formalities, including veteran players who’ve been outrighted off their respective teams’ rosters reaching minor league free agency. This week, there have been 34 such instances throughout the league, per the transactions log at MiLB.com.

None of these are a surprise, to be clear. Any player who is not on his team’s 40-man roster at season’s end but has three-plus years of Major League service time, multiple career outright assignments and/or seven-plus seasons in the minors has the right to elect free agency. Everyone in today’s group of players falls under that umbrella. The majority of the group will likely find minor league deals over the winter, although a few of the players in question could potentially find a big league deal as a bench piece or middle-inning reliever.

There will be several more waves of players of this ilk, and we’ll make note of them in bunches over the coming weeks as we await the launch of Major League free agency, when all unsigned players with at least six years of Major League service time will reach the open market. For now, here’s the first of what will likely be several waves of newly minted minor league free agents:

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Pitchers

Orioles Outright Brett Phillips

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9:52am: Phillips has accepted his outright assignment, MLBTR has confirmed. He’ll remain with the organization in Triple-A.

8:30am: Outfielder Brett Phillips went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk, the Orioles announced late last night. Phillips was designated for assignment last week when Baltimore called outfield prospect Kyle Stowers up to the big leagues.

Phillips has the three-plus years of service time needed to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but he does not have the five-plus years needed to reject the assignment while retaining the remainder of his salary. There’s about $346K to be paid out on this year’s $1.4MM salary; he’d earn half that much were he to reject and sign elsewhere for the prorated league minimum.

That Phillips went unclaimed is at least somewhat of a surprise, even given his struggles at the plate in 2022. He’s hitting just .144/.217/.249 in 225 plate appearances this year, but Phillips is a dynamic defender — one of the game’s best, regardless of position — and possesses plus speed and power. Major strikeout issues (career 37.8%) and dismal splits against lefties limit his overall offensive output, but Phillips is still the type of fleet-footed, lights-out defender that many clubs like to carry down the stretch — both when September rosters expand to 28 players and, in some cases, into the postseason.

Prior to the 2022 campaign, Phillips carried a .203/.291/.381 slash in 675 MLB plate appearances — still well below par but far closer to passable than this year’s output, particularly when considering his 23 home runs, 29 steals (in 34 tries) and elite defensive marks. In 2136 career innings in the outfield, he has 39 Defensive Runs Saved, 31 Outs Above Average and a 25.5 Ultimate Zone Rating.

For now, assuming he accepts the outright assignment, he’ll remain with the Orioles but won’t count against their 40-man roster while playing in Norfolk. If Phillips isn’t added back to the 40-man roster before season’s end, he’ll become a free agent this offseason (as is the right of all outrighted players with at least three years of Major League service time).

Orioles Designate Brett Phillips For Assignment, Select Kyle Stowers

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The Orioles announced a series of roster moves Friday, most notably designating veteran outfielder Brett Phillips for assignment and selecting the contract of outfield prospect Kyle Stowers. Baltimore also recalled infielder Richie Martin and lefty Nick Vespi from Triple-A Norfolk, placed infielder Terrin Vavra on the paternity list and optioned right-hander Logan Gillaspie to Norfolk.

Phillips, 28, was acquired from the Rays in exchange for cash on the morning of Aug. 2, just hours before the trade deadline. He’d recently been designated for assignment by Tampa Bay, following the Rays’ acquisition of Jose Siri. Phillips received just 17 plate appearances in his nearly three weeks with Baltimore, going 2-for-17 with a pair of doubles, no walks and nine strikeouts (.118/.118/.235).

Despite the fact that Phillips carries a dismal .147/.217/.249 batting line through 225 plate appearances this season, there’s a decent chance that he’ll end up being claimed once the Orioles put him on waivers (which is the only course of action for them to take now that he’s been designated for assignment and the trade deadline has passed). Phillips is regarded as one of the game’s best gloves — a lights-out defender with plus speed who can handle any of the three outfield slots with aplomb, as evidenced by career marks of 39 Defensive Runs Saved, a 25.3 Ultimate Zone Rating and 31 Outs Above Average (in just 2136 innings of outfield play).

Phillips has never provided a ton of value with the bat, but he’s been considerably better in past seasons than his 2022 numbers would indicate. Entering the 2022 season, Phillips was a .203/.291/.381 hitter with 23 home runs and 29 steals (34 tries) through 675 plate appearances. That’s still well below the league average, of course, but paired with his elite brand of outfield defense, that blend of power and speed still made him a valuable role player.

Given the speed, defense and power, Phillips figures to hold appeal to outfield-needy teams on the waiver wire — particularly with rosters soon to expand from 26 to 28 players in September. Phillips is an ideal late-inning option to have on a postseason club, as he’s an upgrade over at least one outfielder on any team in the Majors and is a threat for a stolen base or perhaps a pinch-hit against a right-handed arm in the right scenario.

As for Stowers, 24, the outfielder was chosen with the 71st overall selection in the 2019 draft. Since then, he’s earned praise from prospect evaluators, largely because of his offensive work. Baseball America has ranked him as one of the top 30 Baltimore prospects in each of the past three years. This year, he’s played 95 games in Triple-A, hitting 19 home runs and slashing .264/.357/.527. That production amounts to a wRC+ of 131, indicating he’s been 31% better at the plate than the league average hitter. He’s also lowered his strikeout rate to 25.6% for the season, which is still higher than average but a marked improvement over last year’s 32.3% rate.

Stowers has already made his MLB debut, getting a brief two-game stint in Toronto earlier this year when a couple of his teammates couldn’t make the journey due to their unvaccinated status. Since he was designated a COVID “substitute” for that series, the O’s were able to remove him from the roster without exposing him to waivers. He has now earned a roster spot in the more traditional way and figures to get a more extended look this time around.

Stowers has played 44 games in center field this year, along with 38 in right and 13 in left. He will jump into an outfield mix that also includes Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, Anthony Santander and Ryan McKenna, though Santander has been getting a lot of time as the designated hitter since the Trey Mancini trade.

The Orioles have burst forth out of their rebuild this season and are hanging around the American League postseason picture, currently just 2 1/2 games back. Stowers will have the final six-plus weeks of the season to try to help them with that race as well as trying to earn a spot on the team’s roster going forward, for a club whose future looks increasingly bright.

Orioles Acquire Brett Phillips

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4:40pm: The Rays announced that Phillips was traded to the Orioles in exchange for cash.

4:28pm: The Orioles are acquiring outfielder Brett Phillips from the Rays, tweets Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Tampa Bay designated Phillips for assignment yesterday after acquiring Jose Siri from the Astros. He was reported to have interest from multiple clubs earlier this morning.

Phillips, 28, is an all-world defender with prolific strikeout issues that have weighed down an otherwise enviable blend of power and speed. He’s hitting just .147/.225/.250 this season and carries a tepid career .190/.276/.350 batting line in 883 plate appearances. That said, Phillips has a more passable .212/.296/.407 slash against right-handed pitching, has swatted 28 home runs and has gone 36-for-41 in the rough equivalent of one and a third full season’s worth of plate appearances at the MLB level. He can also be controlled for another two seasons via arbitration.

It’s unlikely the O’s have an everyday role in mind for Phillips — barring a more stunning trade of an established outfielder such as Cedric Mullins or Austin Hays. But there’s good value to Phillips’ blend of speed, defense and power coming off the bench.

Rays’ Brett Phillips Drawing Interest From Multiple Clubs

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The Rays designated outfielder Brett Phillips for assignment yesterday upon acquiring outfielder Jose Siri from the Astros, and while a team normally has a week to trade a player following a DFA, that’s not the case with today’s 6pm ET deadline looming. Phillips seems likely to change hands today, as he’s already drawing interest from multiple clubs. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe tweets that the Red Sox have reached out to the Rays, while Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets that the Phillies have also shown interest as they look to add some defense in center. Brendan Kuty of NJ.com adds the Yankees as another interested club.

It’s been a dismal season at the plate for Phillips, who’s hitting just .147/.225/.250 through 208 plate appearances and has fanned at a whopping 40.9% rate. He’s never been one to provide much with the bat, but this year’s struggles still represent a pronounced departure from last year’s .206/.300/.427 output and the career .201/.291/.381 Phillips carried into the season.

For all of Phillips’ struggles with the bat, he’s long been one of the game’s premier defenders. He’s not only capable of playing all three outfield spots but is a plus defender across the board, evidenced by career marks of 38 Defensive Runs Saved, 31 Outs Above Average and a 25.3 Ultimate Zone Rating in just 2100 innings of outfield work in his career. The left-handed-hitting Phillips also has displayed plenty of pop and been an excellent base stealer prior to the season. In 675 prior plate appearances, he’d popped 23 homers and gone 29-for-34 in stolen base attempts.

Phillips is earning $1.4MM this season and is controllable for another two years via arbitration, although this year’s struggles at the plate make him an obvious non-tender candidate. Still, as a backup outfielder with power, speed and an elite glove, he could offer plenty of value to a contender off the bench in the season’s final couple months. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll need to stick on the roster of whatever club potentially acquires him.

Speculatively, there are plenty of other potential fits even beyond the three teams reported to have inquired. The Marlins and Astros are both known to be looking for potential center field upgrades, and Phillips is of course a former Astros farmhand. The Twins’ outfield is banged up beyond recognition at the moment, and Phillips would give them a low-cost stopgap with elite defense to help shore things up. The Blue Jays could see Phillips as a more appealing version of the same skill set that current fourth outfielder Bradley Zimmer offers.

Lack of offensive value notwithstanding, the defense, speed and past power production could very well land Phillips with another team at some point today.

Astros Acquire Trey Mancini In Three-Team Trade; Jose Siri Dealt From Houston To Rays

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The Astros have landed the offensive upgrade they’d been seeking, acquiring first baseman Trey Mancini from the Orioles as part of a three-team trade. Center fielder José Siri goes from Houston to Tampa Bay, while a trio of pitching prospects also find themselves on the move. The Rays send Seth Johnson to the Orioles, while they move Jayden Murray to Houston. Chayce McDermott heads from the Astros to the Orioles to complete the deal. In order to clear a spot for Siri on the 40-man roster, Tampa Bay designated outfielder Brett Phillips for assignment.

Mancini has a .268/.347/.404 line through 401 plate appearances. He’s connected on just ten home runs, a bit shy of the 21-plus homer pace he posted in every healthy season between 2017-21. Despite the decreased power production, Mancini has an above-average 10% barrel rate and 89.6 MPH average exit velocity that are each in line with his career marks. It seems Mancini’s dip in longballs is more tied to changes in the ball and the Orioles’ deepening of the left field wall than an indication his power has truly taken a step back.

The right-handed hitting Mancini also has a typically solid blend of strikeouts and walks. He’s fanning in 21.4% of his plate appearances, a bit less than league average and among the lower rates of his career. Mancini’s a well-rounded bat who’ll presumably cut into the playing time of Yuli Gurriel. The reigning AL batting champion is a longtime member of the Houston organization, but he has an underwhelming .243/.293/.392 line on the year. Houston has reportedly been on the hunt for offensive upgrades who could supplant Gurriel on the depth chart. While the club was previously tied to Josh Bell and Willson Contreras, they’ve pivoted to Mancini.

It’s another addition to a Houston club that already boasts one of the league’s top lineups. The Astros enter play Monday with a .240/.318/.425 line that translates to offense 13 percentage points better than league average, according to wRC+. Houston’s raw run-scoring total is a bit less impressive, though, as the club ranks 12th in the majors with 461 runs scored.

Mancini has a bit of experience in the corner outfield, but he’s primarily an option at first base or designated hitter. The Astros have Kyle Tucker as their primary right fielder, but left fielder Michael Brantley has been on the injured list for over a month and still has an uncertain recovery timeline. Yordan Álvarez has designated hitter accounted for, leaving first base and perhaps some occasional fill-in work in left as the clearest path to playing time.

For the past few months, Mancini has looked like one of the better bats who might be available this summer. The Orioles, though, have gone 16-7 this month to pull themselves back to .500. Baltimore is within three games of the final Wild Card spot in the American League, seemingly at least raising some questions about how motivated they’d be to deal players off the MLB roster. At least in the case of Mancini, they remain committed to their goal of bolstering the roster for 2023 and beyond, but it’s a move that’s likely to disappoint at least some segment of the clubhouse and fanbase.

Mancini had been a career-long member of the organization, one of the few productive big leaguers to remain on the MLB roster throughout the franchise’s recent rebuild. He’s long been well-regarded in the community, and that’s become particularly true in the wake of his overcoming colon cancer in 2020. He was deservedly named the AL’s Comeback Player of the Year last season.

The 30-year-old Mancini is likely to be a free agent at season’s end, making him a rental pickup for the Astros. He’s playing this year on a $7.5MM salary, around $2.72MM of which is still to be paid out. Houston will assume that tab as well as the $250K buyout on a $10MM mutual option for 2023. (Mutual options are almost never exercised by both player and team, and Mancini seems likely to forego his end in search of a multi-year pact this winter).

Despite being at least vaguely in playoff contention, the Orioles will continue to look towards the future. They’ll add a pair of young arms, neither of whom is going to impact the club in 2022. Johnson is the more well-known of the duo. The 40th overall pick in the 2019 draft, he’s a former college shortstop who has flashed impressive stuff and dominated low level hitters in his limited time on the mound. Baseball America recently ranked him as the #9 prospect in a deep Rays system, praising his mid-upper 90s fastball and a slider that sometimes earns plus-plus grades (a 70 on the 20-80 scale) from evaluators. An excellent athlete, the 23-year-old is generally regarded as a possible mid-rotation starter, although he’s yet to reach Double-A.

Johnson pitched to a 2.88 ERA in 93 2/3 innings at Low-A last season, striking out an excellent 29% of opposing hitters. He’d fanned an even better 37.3% of batters faced through his first seven starts at High-A this year, but he’s been out since May 20 with an injury that’ll reportedly require Tommy John surgery. Johnson will have to be added to the 40-man roster at the end of this season or be exposed to the Rule 5 draft. As he faces an extended injury absence and not especially close to big league readiness, devoting him an offseason 40-man spot could be easier for the O’s than it’d have been a Tampa Bay team with plenty of upper level depth.

The Rays also part ways with Murray, whom they selected in the 23rd round of the 2019 draft. A Dixie State product, the right-hander has made a brief cameo at Triple-A but spent the bulk of the season at Double-A Montgomery. He owns a 2.83 ERA over 16 appearances (15 starts), offsetting a modest 20.5% strikeout rate with a tiny 7.3% walk percentage while inducing grounders on almost half the balls in play against him. He adds a volume strike-thrower and possible back-of-the-rotation arm to the upper levels of the Houston farm system; he’ll have to be added to the 40-man roster this winter or made available in the Rule 5 draft.

In exchange, Tampa Bay bolsters its immediate outfield mix. Siri, 27, is a former top Reds prospect who stalled out towards the end of his time in the Cincinnati system. He’s appeared in the majors in each of the past two seasons since signing a minor league deal with Houston over the 2020-21 offseason. Siri raked in a 21-game stint late last year, but he’s struggled over a longer follow-up this season. Through 196 cumulative plate appearances, he’s hitting .210/.265/.381 with a massive 33.2% strikeout rate as a big leaguer.

At the same time, it’s easy to see why he’s of interest to a Rays team that — even after picking up David Peralta over the weekend — is fairly short-handed in the outfield after losing Manuel Margot, Kevin Kiermaier and Harold Ramírez to injury. Siri has big power and speed, and he’s obliterated Triple-A pitching over 16 games this year. He hit .318/.369/.552 through 397 plate appearances at the minors top level last year, and he can be optioned to Triple-A Durham for the remainder of this season.

That isn’t the case for Phillips, who is out of minor league options. A gifted defensive outfielder, Phillips appeared in 75 games for Tampa Bay this season across all three spots on the grass. He’s hitting just .147/.225/.250 with a strikeout rate north of 40%, though, and the struggles at the plate became too much for the Tampa Bay front office to ignore. The Rays can deal Phillips over the next day, or he’ll find himself on waivers. He’s making $1.4MM, but his power, defense and affable clubhouse presence could lead another team to take a shot on him as a depth option.

McDermott, meanwhile, is the final piece of the deal from the Orioles perspective. A fourth-round pick out of Ball State last year, the 23-year-old righty has spent the season in High-A. He has a huge 35.4% strikeout rate through 72 innings there, starting 10 of his 19 outings. That has come with an alarming 13.4% walk rate, though. Baseball America recently named him the #6 prospect in a thin Houston farm system, praising his 92-96 MPH fastball and a pair of possible above-average breaking pitches in his slider and curveball.

Dan Connolly of the Athletic first reported Mancini was being traded to Houston. Roch Kutbako of MASNsports.com reported the Orioles were receiving multiple pitching prospects. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic was first to report it was a three-team trade that would send Siri to Tampa Bay; Rosenthal was also first to report Johnson going to the Orioles. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the Rays’ designation of Phillips for assignment. Jeff Passan of ESPN was first with Baltimore’s acquisition of McDermott.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays Announce ALDS Roster

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The Rays on Thursday announced their roster for their ALDS showdown against the division-rival Red Sox. Notable omissions include outfielder and 2020 postseason hero Brett Phillips as well as left-hander Ryan Yarbrough, who led the Rays with 155 innings pitched this season (and leads the team in innings by a mile dating back to his 2018 debut).

Keeping Phillips off the roster deprives the Rays of a premium defender in the outfield and ample speed on the bases, but Phillips’ .110/.207/.164 slash against lefties could be easily exploited by a Red Sox roster that has no shortage of southpaws. Conversely, his omission allows the Rays to carry the right-handed-hitting Jordan Luplow, who has hit lefties at a .245/.360/.539 clip in his career. Luplow’s production against lefties in 2021 has dissipated, but his overall body of work against them is formidable.

As for Yarbrough, it was no doubt a difficult decision on a personal level to keep him off the roster. However, the lefty had a tumultuous season, yielding five or more earned runs in 10 of his 30 appearances (21 starts, nine appearances as a bulk reliever behind an opener). While Yarbrough had his share of excellent outings, the end-of-year results were a career-worst 5.11 ERA and a career-low 17.9 percent strikeout rate. He can still be added to the ALCS or World Series roster, should the Rays advance that far — although it should be noted with regard to a potential ALCS showing that the Astros and White Sox were two of the four best-hitting lineups against lefties in all of baseball.

Here’s how Tampa Bay’s roster breaks down…

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Designated Hitter

One year after making his Major League debut during the postseason, the 24-year-old McClanahan will now get the ball as the Game 1 starter for the Rays. The former first-rounder and top prospect enjoyed a very strong rookie campaign, working to a 3.43 ERA with 27.3 percent strikeout rate and 7.2 percent walk rate in 123 1/3 innings (25 starts). The Rays were cautious with McClanahan’s workload early in the season (hence the rather brief average start length), regularly capping him at four or five frames. They generally kept him on a short leash throughout the year to keep his innings down after scarcely pitching in 2020 (when there was no minor league season), but McClanahan tossed six-plus innings in six of his final 16 starts.

Baz, just 22, will be making only his fourth big league start when he takes the mound in Game 2. The big stage didn’t seem to impact him at all upon making his debut in September, as he pitched to a 2.03 ERA with an 18-to-3 K/BB ratio in 13 1/3 innings over three starts to begin his MLB career. Acquired alongside Meadows and Tyler Glasnow in the lopsided deal that sent Chris Archer to the Pirates, Baz is widely regarded as one of the game’s top overall pitching prospects. He demonstrated precisely why that’s the case with a dominant minor league season, working to a combined 2.06 ERA with a 37.9 percent strikeout rate and a 4.4 percent walk rate in 78 2/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A. While neither Shane is necessarily a household name right now, that could change quickly depending on how the postseason plays out — and both are vital long-term pieces for the Rays.

Rays Place Chris Archer On Injured List, Designate Shawn Armstrong, Activate Nick Anderson And Brett Phillips

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The Rays have made a flurry of roster moves, as first reported by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links).  Right-hander Chris Archer has been placed on the 10-day injured list with discomfort in his left hip, while fellow right Shawn Armstrong has been designated for assignment.  To fill the two open roster spots, Tampa Bay has activated right-hander Nick Anderson from the 60-day injured list and outfielder Brett Phillips from the 10-day IL.

Archer was solid over four innings in yesterday’s 7-2 victory over the Tigers, allowing one run on a walk and two hits during his brief start.  However, Archer’s hip issue forced him out of the game early, marking the second time in less than a month that the injury led to an early exit from a start.

Injures have been a constant for Archer in recent years, and yesterday’s start was only Archer’s sixth game of the season.  After missing all of 2020 recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, he spent over four months of the 2021 campaign on the IL due to forearm tightness.

While this latest trip to the IL might be just be a way to rest Archer and allow him to fully get over a nagging injury, it also has to call into question Archer’s availability for Tampa Bay’s playoff roster.  Over the small sample size of 19 1/3 innings, Archer has a 4.66 ERA, 25.9% strikeout rate, and 9.6% walk rate — not eye-popping numbers by any means, though perhaps productive enough for a Rays team that seems poised to use a bullpen-heavy approach with their postseason pitching staff.  Tampa will need as many quality arms as possible to keep everyone fresh for what the club hopes will be a more successful trip to the World Series.

That same logic applies to Anderson, who is finally set to make his 2021 debut after suffering a partial tear of his right elbow ligament near the end of Spring Training.  It is a testament to the Rays’ incredible bullpen depth that their relief corps has remained among the game’s best even despite the absence of arguably their best reliever from 2019-20.  A trade deadline pickup from the Marlins in July 2019, Anderson has been all but untouchable over 37 2/3 regular-season innings with Tampa, as he has posted a 1.43 ERA, a tiny 3.68% walk rate, and an absurd 49.26% strikeout rate.

The Rays leaned hard on Anderson during their postseason run last October, and it seems the increased usage took its toll on the right-hander.  Anderson pitched in 10 of Tampa Bay’s 20 playoff games, and allowed runs in eight of his appearances.  Most infamously, Anderson was the pitcher called in to replace a seemingly-cruising Blake Snell in Game 6 of last year’s World Series — Anderson immediately surrendered the Rays’ lead within two batters, putting the Dodgers ahead for good in the Series-clinching game.

Armstrong was a trade deadline pickup from the Orioles, and the veteran righty posted a 4.50 ERA over his 16 innings in a Rays uniform.  Despite some solid peripheral numbers, Armstrong was again hurt by the home run ball, as he has already allowed five homers in his brief time with Tampa Bay.  Armstrong has surrendered 10 homers in his 36 combined innings with Baltimore and Tampa this season, a jarring spike for a pitcher who gave up just 17 home runs over his 131 previous career frames as a big league pitcher.

Since Armstrong is out of minor league options, the Rays had to put him through DFA waivers in order to remove him from their roster.  Armstrong has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, since he was already outrighted off the Orioles’ roster earlier this week.  It is also possible another team simply claims Armstrong off waivers, in order to add another relief arm down the stretch.

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