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Calvin Faucher

Rays Outright Dusten Knight

By Steve Adams | September 25, 2022 at 12:40pm CDT

Sep. 25: Knight has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Durham, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

Sep. 23: The Rays announced a series of roster moves Friday, with right-hander Dusten Knight being designated for assignment and lefty Ryan Yarbrough hitting the 15-day injured list due to a strained right oblique. In their place, the Rays have selected the contract of righty Cristofer Ogando from Triple-A Durham and recalled righty Calvin Faucher.

Knight, who turned 32 earlier this month, has tossed 11 innings out of the Tampa Bay bullpen in 2022, yielding seven earned runs on 11 hits and four walks with nine strikeouts. Four of those hits have left the yard, contributing to Knight’s 5.73 ERA on the season. He’s had better results in Durham where he’s notched a 3.48 ERA in 54 1/3 innings with a 27.3% strikeout rate — albeit with an unsightly 13.7% walk rate. Knight, who made his MLB debut with the 2021 Orioles, has a 3.23 ERA in parts of four Triple-A seasons.

Yarbrough’s injury will bring his regular season to an end. A fixture on the Rays’ staff from 2018-21, he’s been shuttled back and forth between the big leagues and Durham this season, tossing a total of 80 innings of 4.50 ERA ball in the Majors. Given the up-and-down nature of his 2022 season and the fact that he’ll be owed a raise on this year’s $3.85MM salary, it’s feasible that the Rays could look to either move Yarbrough in the winter or decline to tender him a contract. For now, he’ll hope to rehab and contribute to the Rays in the postseason.

Ogando, 28, made his big league debut as a replacement player with the Rays during their series in Toronto earlier this season. He was optioned to Durham following that series but stuck on the 40-man roster for a few weeks after that debut before being designated for assignment and outrighted in late July. The former Marlins and D-backs farmhand has pitched to a 4.56 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate in 54 1/3 innings with the Rays’ Durham affiliate this season.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Calvin Faucher Cristofer Ogando Dusten Knight Ryan Yarbrough

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Injury Notes: Clevinger, Kittredge, Kremer, Gregorius

By Darragh McDonald | June 5, 2022 at 12:41pm CDT

The Padres announced that right-hander Mike Clevinger has been reinstated from the injured list, with outfielder Brent Rooker being optioned in a corresponding move. After a lengthy absence from the majors while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Clevinger had to return to the IL after just three starts due to a triceps strain. Thankfully, he only required a minimum stay on the shelf and is quickly back on the roster, starting today’s game.

While many teams around the league are dealing with mounting injuries to their pitching staffs, the Padres now have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to their starting rotation. Clevinger joins Yu Darvish, Sean Manaea, Joe Musgrove, MacKenzie Gore and Blake Snell, with Nick Martinez likely getting bumped into a long-relief role. The club is off to a great start, sporting a record of 32-21, just three games back of the Dodgers in the NL West. The strength of their rotation has played a big role in that, as their collective 3.11 ERA is fourth-best in all of baseball, trailing only the Yankees, Dodgers and Astros.

Some other IL reinstatements from around the league…

  • The Rays announced that righty Andrew Kittredge has been reinstated from the injured list, with fellow righty Calvin Faucher being optioned to make room for him. Kittredge was slowed by some lower back tightness but is able to return after a minimum stay on the injured list. Last year, he threw 71 2/3 innings with a 1.88 ERA, 27.3% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate and 53.5% ground ball rate. That success earned him a key role in the bullpen, as he eventually earned eight saves and seven holds. He wasn’t able to continue that this year, possibly due to this back injury. Over 18 innings, his ERA is an even 3.00, with a 19.7% strikeout rate and 44.2% grounder rate, though he’s limited walks to just 1.5% of batters faced.
  • The Orioles reinstated righty Dean Kremer from the injured list today, with fellow righty Denyi Reyes being optioned in a corresponding move. Kremer landed on the injured list back in April due to an oblique strain. He is starting today’s ballgame for the O’s, which will be his season debut. His MLB time has been on the rough side so far, as his career ERA is currently 6.84 through 72 1/3 innings. However, while rehabbing from this injury, he’s thrown nine scoreless innings in the minors with a whopping 18 strikeouts against just two walks.
  • The Phillies announced that they have reinstated Didi Gregorius from the IL, with Nick Maton trading places with him, heading to the IL due to a right shoulder sprain. Gregorius returns after about a month on the IL due to a left knee sprain. Prior to that, he was hitting .288/.338/.356 on the season. The resulting 97 wRC+ indicates that his bat has been about 3% worse than league average, though it’s still a big improvement over last year’s wRC+ of 68. Maton was just recalled a few days ago to provide help in the middle infield when Jean Segura landed on the IL, but will now join him on the shelf after just two games. Without those two options, it’s likely that Gregorious, Bryson Stott and Johan Camargo will now share the middle infield duties.
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Baltimore Orioles Notes Philadelphia Phillies San Diego Padres Tampa Bay Rays Andrew Kittredge Brent Rooker Calvin Faucher Dean Kremer Denyi Reyes Didi Gregorius Mike Clevinger Nick Maton

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Rays Option Calvin Faucher To Triple-A, Recall Vidal Bruján

By James Hicks | May 10, 2022 at 3:31pm CDT

One day after calling him up, the Rays optioned right-hander Calvin Faucher to Triple-A Durham today, the team announced. Infielder/outfielder Vidal Bruján has been recalled to take his spot on the active roster and will start tonight’s game against the Angels in right field.

Faucher did pitch in his brief introduction to the bigs, covering the seventh inning of the Rays’ loss to the Angels on Monday night. His debut hardly went to plan, though, as he allowed allowed five runs — including a Shohei Ohtani grand slam — before recording an out.

Bruján, who played in ten games with the Rays last year after a July call-up and a single game earlier this season, will hope to stick in the bigs this time around after logging a .300/.400/.467 triple-slash across 70 plate appearances at Triple-A Durham. The speedy switch hitter’s versatility will likely help his case. While Wander Franco is obviously quite firmly established at shortstop, Bruján has already seen action at four positions in the majors (second base and all three outfield spots) and has played both short and third in the minors.

The Rays originally signed Bruján out of the Dominican Republic for a paltry $15K. While his speed is his carrying tool (he’s stolen 201 bases in 518 minor league games), he also possesses excellent bat-to-ball skills and solid plate discipline; his walk rate in the minors (10.7%) is only barely eclipsed by his strikeout rate (11.9%). Given manager Kevin Cash’s proven penchant for players capable of covering multiple positions, should Bruján prove himself capable of replicating those numbers in the majors, he could quickly begin challenging 2022 under-performers Taylor Walls, Brett Phillips, Brandon Lowe, and perhaps even Randy Arozarena and Kevin Kiermaier for at-bats.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Calvin Faucher Vidal Brujan

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Rays Recall Calvin Faucher, Option Ralph Garza Jr. To Triple-A

By James Hicks | May 9, 2022 at 5:28pm CDT

The Rays have recalled right-hander Calvin Faucher from Triple-A Durham, the team announced today. In a corresponding move, they optioned fellow righty Ralph Garza Jr. — who’d been recalled only two days prior — back to Durham.

It’ll be the first taste of the bigs for Faucher, whom the Rays acquired last July in the deal that also brought Nelson Cruz to Tampa. After pitching well last year in 25 innings between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham following the trade, Faucher has hardly lit Triple-A on fire this season, posting a 5.02 ERA (and 1.535 WHIP) in 14 1/3 innings. Garza, who spent time in the majors with both the Astros and the Twins in 2021, has a career 3.96 ERA in 36 1/3 big-league innings — six of them this season.

The corresponding moves likely come less as a result of either player’s performance than the need for a fresh arm. Garza had pitched in both games the Rays had played since his Saturday activation, including two innings in Saturday’s victory over the Mariners, while Faucher hasn’t pitched since Friday. The Rays three-game set against the Angels, which begins tonight, marks the end of a stretch of sixteen consecutive games without an off-day.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Calvin Faucher Ralph Garza

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Rays Select Four Players

By Sean Bavazzano and Anthony Franco | November 19, 2021 at 6:22pm CDT

The Rays announced that they’ve added four players to their 40-man roster. The players being added are infielder Jonathan Aranda, infielder/catcher Ford Proctor, and right-handed pitchers Calvin Faucher and Tommy Romero. Following some earlier trades today, the roster is now full at 40 players.

None of this group cracked the Rays’ midseason top 30 prospects at Baseball America. Tampa Bay’s farm system is one of the league’s deepest, though, and it stands to reason clubs would’ve had interest in even some of the lower-ranked names in the organization.

Proctor, 24, is a former third-round pick who has posted strong minor league numbers over his pro career. He hit .244/.381/.419 in 381 Double-A plate appearances this past season. Perhaps most interestingly, he saw significant work behind the plate in addition to his customary middle infield role. Aranda mashed at a .325/.410/.540 clip over 322 Double-A plate appearances while playing all over the infield.

Faucher and Romero have both missed plenty of bats in the high minors. The former, who works primarily as a reliever, was acquired from the Twins as part of the Nelson Cruz trade this summer. The latter came over from the Mariners in 2018 as part of the Denard Span deal.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Calvin Faucher Ford Proctor Jonathan Aranda Tommy Romero

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Rays Acquire Nelson Cruz

By Mark Polishuk | July 22, 2021 at 11:59pm CDT

With just over a week before the trade deadline, the Rays have made a big move in acquiring slugger Nelson Cruz from the Twins as part of a four-player swap.  Cruz and minor league righty Calvin Faucher will head to Tampa, while Minnesota will pick up right-handers Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman.

With the Twins in the midst of a nightmare season, Cruz became a natural trade chip, as the 41-year-old slugger can be a free agent this winter.  Cruz re-signed with Minnesota last offseason on a one-year, $13MM contract, and Cruz has roughly $4.87MM remaining in owed salary.

Nelson Cruz | Tim Heitman-USA TODAY SportsThere was no announcement made of cash considerations being involved, so it appears as though the Rays will be taking on all of Cruz’s remaining salary.  This is no small matter for a Rays team that always has an eye on the budget, and even with Cruz now in the fold, the club’s payroll is still under the $67MM threshold.  Tampa Bay can (and likely will) make other moves before the July 30 deadline that could move some other dollars off the books, but as it stands, the Cruz deal is a sign that Rays ownership is willing to stretch a bit financially to bolster a team that looks like a contender to return to the World Series.

Despite Cruz’s age and seeming lack of defensive value, his bat has remained so dangerous that even some National League teams were reportedly including him in trade considerations, with an eye towards deploying Cruz in the outfield for the first time since 2018.  While the Rays’ penchant for roster maximization could lead to Cruz getting at least a bit of time in the outfield, it’s a very safe bet that he’ll slot in as Tampa’s new everyday DH, bringing some big-time pop to a lineup that is solid overall but middle-of-the-pack in terms of power.

Austin Meadows had received the bulk of Tampa’s DH at-bats, though Meadows now looks to move into the outfield mix with Randy Arozarena, Kevin Kiermaier, Brandon Lowe, and (when he returns from the IL) Manuel Margot.  Lowe can also be utilized at second base, and between any other injuries or even trades that might emerge, the Rays shouldn’t have much issue in finding enough playing time to keep everyone fresh and ready for another postseason push.

Cruz will suit up for the sixth different team over what has been a very impressive 17-year career.  Named to his seventh All-Star team just this season, Cruz is showing no signs of slowing down, hitting .294/.370/.537 with 19 homers over 346 plate appearances in 2021.  This production is actually a dropoff from the .308/.394/.626 slash line he posted over 735 PA for Minnesota in 2019-20, but “decline phase” doesn’t really seem like an applicable description.

Neither Ryan and Strotman are in the upper crust of Tampa prospects, though MLB Pipeline did have them solidly ranked (Ryan 10th, Strotman 17th) on their list of the Rays’ best minor league talents.  Both are starting pitchers with solid performances at Triple-A this season, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see their make their Major League debuts before 2021 is finished.  Since the Twins are looking to return to contention next year, landing two big league-ready arms will help their rotation depth, considering Michael Pineda and J.A. Happ are both free agents this winter (and either could be moved before July 30.

Ryan is 25 years old and was a seventh-round pick for the Rays in the 2018 draft.  He cracked Baseball America’s top 100 list (at 98th) prior to the 2020 season, and Ryan has continued his rise up the ladder by posting a 3.63 ERA over 57 innings at Triple-A Durham this year.  At all levels, Ryan has been great at missing bats (36.65% strikeout rate over 217 minor league IP) and avoiding walks (6.05% walk rate), thanks in large part to an excellent four-seamer.  MLB Pipeline’s scouting report isn’t as enamored with his other pitches, but Ryan’s slider did merit a 55 grade on their 20-80 scouting scale.

The 24-year-old Strotman was a fourth-rounder in the 2017 draft, though his pro career has been limited to 179 innings thanks to the canceled 2020 minor league season and a Tommy John surgery that kept him out of action for big chunks of the 2018 and 2019 campaigns.  The Rays saw enough from Strotman that they added him to their 40-man roster last winter to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, and Strotman has looked solid in posting a 3.39 ERA over 58 1/3 Triple-A innings this year.  His walks have increased as he has moved up the minor league ladder, topping out at an unimpressive 13.15% walk rate at Triple-A this year.  Pipeline notes that command has been a strength for Strotman in the past, however, and the right-hander’s fastball, cutter, and slider are all ranked as above-average to plus pitches.

Faucher is the other name in the deal, a 25-year-old righty who has struggled in his first taste of Double-A baseball, posting a 7.04 ERA with six homers and 24 walks in 30 2/3 innings this season.  After consistently posting big strikeout numbers earlier in his minor league career and in college (at UC Irvine), the hard-throwing Faucher has continued that trend with a 27.63% strikeout rate amidst his difficulties this season.

ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link) was the first to report that the Rays were acquiring Cruz, while Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links) was the first to report that it was a four-player deal also involving Strotman.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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Minnesota Twins Newsstand Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Calvin Faucher Drew Strotman Joe Ryan Nelson Cruz

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