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Rays Place Josh Lowe On 10-Day IL Due To Grade 2 Oblique Strain

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2:55PM: Lowe suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain, John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  This more severe level of strain likely means Lowe will miss at least 6-7 weeks in a best-case scenario, and multiple months on the IL is a distinct possibility.

TODAY, 11:05AM: The Rays placed Lowe on the 10-day injured list, announcing his injury as a right oblique strain.  Switch-hitting outfielder Jake Mangum has been called up to take Lowe’s spot on the active roster, and the 29-year-old Mangum will be making his Major League debut the first time he appears in a game.  Marc Topkin wrote earlier this month about Mangum’s unique career path, as his road to the majors has hit such speedbumps as the canceled 2020 minor league season and a pair of trades, including the deal that brought him from the Marlins to the Rays during the 2023-24 offseason.

MARCH 28: The Rays won their season opener over the Rockies in dramatic fashion, as Kameron Misner slugged a walk-off for his first career home run. Tampa Bay didn’t come out of the game completely unscathed, though. Josh Lowe was lifted for a pinch-runner after hitting a single in the fifth inning. The Rays announced that he experienced right oblique discomfort.

It’s likely he’ll wind up on the injured list. Manager Kevin Cash told Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times postgame that he expected Lowe “to miss some time.” The outfielder is headed for an MRI, which will reveal a more defined timeline. Even low-grade oblique strains tend to cost hitters a couple weeks. More significant strains can sideline players for multiple months.

The Rays won’t know until tomorrow how severe Lowe’s injury is. It’s the second straight year in which his right oblique has given him trouble. Lowe opened last season with a six-week IL stay after straining the oblique in the middle of March. That return was delayed somewhat by an additional bout of hamstring tightness. He was activated in the first week of May but returned to the IL with another oblique strain on May 23. That was a relatively minor problem, as he was able to make it back by June 3.

Lowe got the Opening Day nod in right field even though he’s coming off a down year. The lefty-hitting outfielder turned in a mediocre .241/.302/.391 slash with 10 homers across 387 plate appearances last season. He was far better in 2023, when he drilled 20 homers with a .292/.335/.500 line through 501 trips to the dish.

The start today came against a left-handed pitcher (Kyle Freeland). The righty-swinging José Caballero came off the bench to finish the game in right field. Misner, a lefty bat, could get the majority of the playing time if Lowe hits the IL. Caballero and Curtis Mead are right-handed hitters who could factor in off the bench. Jake Mangum, who has yet to make his MLB debut, is the only other healthy outfielder on the 40-man roster. Tampa Bay added utilityman Coco Montes to their 40-man yesterday. He played some outfield in Japan last season but has not done so in his MLB career.

East Notes: Grissom, Suarez, Volpe, Lowe, De La Cruz, Shim

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The Red Sox activated Vaughn Grissom from the 10-day injured list today and optioned the infielder to Triple-A, a move that The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey reported the team was considering last week.  Grissom hasn’t played in the majors since June 1 due to a right hamstring strain, adding to his troubled first season in Boston.  Between this injury and a left hamstring strain in Spring Training, Grissom has been limited to 23 Major League games, and a dismal .148/.207/.160 slash line in 87 plate appearances.

Some kind of decision was required since Grissom’s 20-day minor league rehab assignment was up tomorrow, but his .604 OPS in 58 Triple-A PA during that assignment didn’t exactly force Boston’s hand for a promotion.  Even as the Sox continue to look for answers at second base, Grissom will need to perform better to earn another call-up, and it remains to be seen when (or even if) he might be back in the majors before 2024 is over.

More from both the AL and NL East…

  • Ranger Suarez has been on the Phillies’ 15-day injured list since July 24, and manager Rob Thomson told Lochlahn March of the Philadelphia Inquirer and other reporters that Suarez isn’t expected back until after the end of the Phils’ next homestand (August 13-18).  Suarez does appear to be making decent progress in his recovery from lower-back soreness, as he threw a 36-pitch bullpen session today.  Perhaps another bullpen session and at least one live batting-practice session will be in order, and Suarez’s return could be delayed a bit longer if the Phillies opt to send him on a minor league rehab assignment.  The left-hander was arguably the best pitcher in baseball over the first three months of the season before his back problems started to surface, and Suarez struggled to a 7.71 ERA in his last 21 innings prior to his IL placement.
  • Anthony Volpe fouled a ball off his left foot during a plate appearance in the second inning of tonight’s 9-4 Yankees loss to the Angels, and the shortstop was eventually forced out of the game in the eighth inning.  Manager Aaron Boone told the New York Post’s Greg Joyce and other reporters that x-rays were negative and Volpe just received a contusion, though more will be known in the coming days if Volpe will need to miss any time.  Volpe has an exactly average 100 wRC+ over 516 PA this season, with a lot of streakiness baked into a .257/.304/.410 slash line.  The second-year player has been hot at the plate recently and is still delivering standout defense at shortstop, so the Yankees can only hope the injury isn’t serious.
  • It was a similar story for Rays outfielder Josh Lowe, as x-rays were also negative on Lowe’s right knee after he fouled a ball off himself in the first inning of tonight’s game.  Lowe was in enough discomfort that he couldn’t take the field for the bottom of the first, but his injury was also deemed a contusion.  A pair of oblique strains have already sent Lowe to the IL twice this season, and he has hit .236/.296/.410 over 213 plate appearances thus far in 2024, playing almost exclusively against right-handed pitchers.
  • The Marlins made several trades during their pre-deadline selloff, and the deal that sent Bryan De La Cruz to the Pirates drew some “disagreement and discussion internally,” according to The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson and Craig Mish.  De La Cruz isn’t arbitration-eligible until this coming offseason and is now under the Pirates’ control through 2027, but the Marlins’ analytics department wasn’t impressed by his long-term potential, “and a belief that De La Cruz wasn’t going to be a starter [in Miami] when the team is ready to contend.”  The Fish also had a particular interest in prying right-hander Jun-Seok Shim away from Pittsburgh, as Shim’s spin rates and pitching arsenal impressed Miami evaluators.  A Marlins source told Jackson/Mish that the team isn’t concerned about the shoulder issue that has thus far kept Shim from pitching in 2024.

Rays Place Josh Lowe On 10-Day Injured List

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The Rays announced that outfielder Josh Lowe has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain, with a retroactive placement date of May 23.  In the corresponding move, right-hander Chris Devenski has been activated from the 15-day IL after missing almost exactly a month due to tendinitis in his right knee.

Lowe made an early exit from Wednesday’s game because of what was described at the time as a right side strain, though a follow-up MRI didn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary.  Nevertheless, it isn’t surprising that the Rays will be cautious and send Lowe to the IL given that he already missed over a month of the season with another oblique strain.  Between that first oblique strain and hip inflammation, Lowe missed most of Spring Training and didn’t make his season debut until May 6.

In between his two trips to the IL, Lowe hit .240/.296/.440 with two homers over 54 plate appearances.  This translated to a respectable 108 wRC+, though it was still well below the 131 wRC+ Lowe delivered while hitting .292/.335/.500 with 20 homers and 32 stolen bases over 501 PA in 2023.  Tampa Bay was hoping Lowe would again be a big contributor to the lineup, and his absence for much of the season has been a factor in the Rays’ overall underwhelming offensive performance.

Lowe had been receiving regular center-field duty against right-handed pitching, but the combination of Jose Siri and Jonny DeLuca (both right-handed batters) should again handle the bulk of center field work while Lowe is away.  Randy Arozarena made a few appearances in center field earlier this week and might again factor into the mix depending on how the Rays shuffle their outfield at-bats.  Harold Ramirez’s playing time diminished when Lowe and Jonathan Aranda returned from the IL, but with Lowe again sidelined, Ramirez might again get some work on the grass if Arozarena is shifted into center field on at least a part-time basis.

Devenski has allowed five homers in only 14 innings pitched this season, resulting in a 7.71 ERA for the veteran reliever.  Keeping the ball in the park has long been a challenge for Devenski throughout his career, though he showed some improvement in this regard after he first signed with the Rays last August, while posting a 2.08 ERA in nine appearances and 8 2/3 innings with the team.  This was enough for Tampa to re-sign Devenski to a one-year, $1.1MM free agent deal this past winter, but the club hasn’t yet gotten much return on even that modest contract.

Rays Notes: Lowe, Walls, Ramirez

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Rays outfielder Josh Lowe has spent most of the season on the injured list after a series of injuries, including oblique, hamstring, and hip issues, prevented him from playing since Spring Training. Things began looking up for the 26-year-old when he was activated off the injured list earlier this month, but he appeared in just 14 games before being pulled from yesterday’s game against the Red Sox due to right side strain.

The strain immediately raised alarms for Lowe and the Rays given his oblique issues earlier this season, but Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported earlier this evening that while Lowe underwent an MRI exam to determine the severity of the issue, the results were ultimately inconclusive. Topkin suggests that an injured list placement for Lowe remains likely to ensure that he doesn’t aggravate the oblique issue that left him sidelined to open the season, although the club opted to wait until Friday to make a determination about a potential IL stint for the outfielder after Lowe told club officials this morning that he was feeling better today.

The club’s first-round pick in the 2016 draft, Lowe enjoyed a breakout season last year as he posted a strong .292/.335/.500 slash line in 501 plate appearances, good for a wRC+ of 131. That figure has dipped to just 108 this season, although a sample size of just 54 plate appearances is hardly meaningful enough to draw conclusions from. Whether Lowe ultimately proves to once again be the impact bat he was for the Rays in 2023 or not, another trip to the injured list would be an unfortunate turn of events for a lineup that’s already without Taylor Walls and has seen key pieces like Randy Arozarena and Yandy Diaz struggle in the early going this year. Richie Palacios was the club’s primary answer in right field while Lowe was out earlier this year and once again figures to handle the position in his absence should he require a trip to the injured list.

Speaking of Walls, Topkin reports that the infielder could be nearing a notable step forward in his rehab from offseason hip surgery as he’s “tentatively scheduled” to move from the Florida Complex League up to Triple-A Durham on May 30. That’s a fairly quick turnaround, as Walls first began his rehab assignment in Florida on Tuesday according to MLB.com’s Injury Tracker. The Rays have relied on Jose Caballero and Amed Rosario to handle shortstop in Walls’s absence but neither of them have the strong defensive reputation of Walls, whose +38 Defensive Runs Saves from 2021 to 2023 are sixth-best among all big league infielders despite Walls appearing in just 295 games during that time.

In other Rays news, Topkin also relays that club manager Kevin Cash told reporters yesterday that the club remains interested in right-hander Erasmo Ramirez even after designating the righty for assignment yesterday. Cash indicated that the club could look to pursue a reunion with Ramirez in the event that he isn’t claimed by another club while on waivers, noting that the club would “definitely” like him back in the fold.

The 34-year-old hurler first played for the Rays from 2015-2017 as a swing man before returning to the club midseason last year. Ramirez’s second stint with the Rays could’ve gone better, as he allowed a 5.84 ERA while striking out just 18.2% of batters faced in 49 1/3 innings of work across the past two seasons. Even so, he’s just a couple of years removed from a strong 2022 campaign with the Nationals where he pitched to 2.92 ERA in 86 1/3 frames across 60 appearances as a multi-inning relief arm for the club.

Rays Designate Niko Goodrum, Select Edwin Uceta

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The Rays made several roster moves today, as relayed by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times on X. They selected right-hander Edwin Uceta to the roster while optioning left-hander Jacob Lopez and designated infielder/outfielder Niko Goodrum for assignment in corresponding moves. The club also activated outfielder Josh Lowe from the injured list and optioned infielder Curtis Mead.

Goodrum, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Twins this winter but was flipped to the Rays just before Opening Day. Tampa was about to start the year with a number of position players on the injured list, including Lowe, Taylor Walls, Jonathan Aranda and Jonny DeLuca. Since the season started, Brandon Lowe also went on the IL, further thinning their position player depth.

But Goodrum wasn’t able to take advantage of the opportunity, though it was quite limited. He received 18 plate appearances over nine games at the big league level, hitting .188/.235 /.188 in those. He’s spent more time on optional assignment in Triple-A, where he has performed much better. He stepped to the plate 45 times over nine games for the Bulls and hit .316/.422/.605, but that wasn’t enough to hold onto his roster spot.

The Rays will now have a week to trade Goodrum or pass him through waivers. He was a solid regular for the Tigers back in 2018 and 2019 but his production tailed off in the following three seasons. He hit .247/.318/.427 over 2018 and 2019 with 24 steals, but he then hit .196/.271/.334 over the following three campaigns.

There’s been some encouraging results in the past year-plus. He hit .280/.448/.440 for Boston’s Triple-A club last year before going to Korea, where he hit .295/.373/.387 for the KBO’s Lotte Giants. As mentioned, the results weren’t there at the big league so far this year but the Triple-A production was good. Since he still can be optioned to the minors, perhaps he will intrigue a rival club who would like to option him to the minors.

The Rays leaned heavily on their bullpen yesterday as starter Ryan Pepiot was hit by a comebacker and had to depart after just two innings. The club then used six relievers to cover eight innings, as the game eventually went 10 frames. The Rays only have two pitchers that are on the 40-man and on optional assignment rather than the injured list: Jacob Waguespack and Yoniel Curet. The latter has yet to even reach Double-A. The former tossed five innings on Thursday and may be needed to cover Pepiot’s spot in the rotation, depending on how he feels in the coming days.

All that led the club to go for a non-roster option in Uceta. He signed a minor league deal with the club back in December and has been pitching in Triple-A. He has thrown 18 innings over 10 outings with an unimpressive earned run average of 7.00, but with better peripherals. His 23.9% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate are both close to par, with a .370 batting average on balls in play and 55.6% strand rate pushing extra runs across the board.

He has 40 1/3 innings of previous major league experience with a 5.80 ERA, striking out 23.3% of opponents against an 11.9% walk rate. He is out of options and can’t be easily sent back down to the minors. But he has just over a year of service time and could be cheaply retained for future seasons if he manages to hold his roster spot through the end of the year.

The return of Lowe should also provide a boost to the club’s offense. He hit .292/.335/.500 for the club last year while also stealing 32 bases, but he suffered an oblique injury in Spring Training and started the season on the injured list. He was set to return just over a week ago before some hamstring tightness delayed him, but he will now finally make his 2024 debut.

With the various injuries in the club’s position player mix, Mead got plenty of playing time in the past few weeks but couldn’t capitalize on it. He hit .218/.269/.276 in his 94 plate appearances, only hitting one home run and only drawing walks at a 4.3% clip. He’ll now head down to the farm and try to get back on track.

Rays Notes: Lowe, Diaz, Aranda

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Rays outfielder Josh Lowe appeared to be nearing a return from the injured list after heading out for a rehab assignment earlier this month, but it appears the 26-year-old’s 2024 debut is once again on hold. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported earlier today that Lowe felt some tightness in his right hamstring and is now headed back to Tampa for an MRI, which is scheduled for Monday.

It’s another tough blow for Lowe, who impressed with a .292/.335/.500 slash line in 135 games with the Rays last season. It appeared Lowe was on track to be activated from the shelf as soon as this weekend to take over the everyday job in right field, but now those plans have been scuttled for at least a few days. Rays right fielders have hit an excellent .308/.361/.455 (145 wRC+) in Lowe’s absence, thanks primarily to surprisingly strong performances from Richie Palacios and Amed Rosario in a platoon at the position.

Even so, the return of Lowe to the club’s lineup would surely provide a boost for the Rays by allowing Rosario and Palacios to contribute elsewhere in the lineup, such as second base. The Rays have gotten minimal offensive production from the keystone this season, with their second basemen slashing a collective .227/.292/.299 (81 wRC+) so far this year while struggling youngster Curtis Mead has taken the lion’s share of starts at the position to this point.

Lowe isn’t the only big bat missing from the Rays lineup this weekend, as veteran infielder Yandy Diaz was absent from today’s lineup after being struck in the finger by a 99 mph pitch from right-hander Michael Kopech yesterday. Fortunately, Topkin reported last night that x-rays on Diaz’s hand were negative, indicating that the 32-year-old may be back in the club’s lineup in the near future. It’s been a tough start to the season for the veteran, as he’s slashed just .241/.303/.315 (87 wRC+) in his first 119 trips to the plate.

While his .278 BABIP to this point in the season is far below his career average of .323, Diaz’s 7.8% walk rate in 2024 would be a career low if maintained over the course of a full season and he’s offered little power with just five doubles and one homer to this point in the campaign. If the veteran can right the ship upon returning to the lineup and return to the form that earned him a sixth-place finish in AL MVP voting last year, it would be a huge boost for the Rays as they look to bounce back from a difficult start to the season that’s seen them go 13-14 while falling to fourth place in a crowded AL East division.

Also making his way toward a return to the big league lineup is infielder Jonathan Aranda, who’s been out for a little over a month after undergoing surgery to repair a broken finger back in March. As noted by MLB.com’s Injury Tracker, Aranda began a rehab assignment at the Triple-A level yesterday. It’s less than two weeks after Aranda had the pins removed from his finger thanks to the fact that Aranda was able to stay active throughout his rehab process.

If Aranda is nearing a return to action, it would give the Rays another left-handed option to complement the likes of Mead and Harold Ramirez both around the infield and at DH. Aranda hit a roughly league average .230/.340/.368 in 103 trips to the plate in the majors last year but impressed this spring with an excellent .371/.421/.571 line in 13 games prior to his injury.

Injury Notes: Garrett, Davis, Lowe, Verlander

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The Marlins have been without left-hander Braxton Garrett all season. A shoulder impingement sent the 26-year-old to the injured list to begin the year. Garrett seemed to be nearing a return to the majors after throwing six innings in a rehab start for Triple-A Jacksonville last week, but he has run into a bit of a setback. Manager Skip Schumaker told reporters that Garrett felt a “dead arm” when throwing a bullpen session today (link via Christina De Nicola of MLB.com).

That isn’t believed to be related to the shoulder injury, yet it could push back his return all the same. Schumaker said Garrett will go for further testing. Getting the former #7 overall pick back in fairly short order would be a needed boost for a club that is off to the worst start in franchise history (3-14). Garrett was a key piece of the rotation a year ago, working 159 2/3 innings with a 3.66 ERA.

A few other injury notes:

  • The A’s placed J.D. Davis on the 10-day injured list shortly before tonight’s game against the Cardinals. The third baseman has a right adductor strain. Speedy outfielder Esteury Ruiz was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas in his place. Davis has gotten the nod at the hot corner for 14 of Oakland’s first 16 contests. He’s off to a slow start, hitting .196/.255/.373 with a lofty 29.1% strikeout rate. Manager Mark Kotsay turned to Abraham Toro at third base tonight.
  • Rays outfielder Josh Lowe could be nearing his season debut. Skipper Kevin Cash said that Lowe will head out on a rehab stint with Triple-A Durham on Thursday (link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Lowe was delayed early in camp by inflammation in his left hip. As he worked back from that issue, he strained his right oblique. That knocked him out of game action for a month. Lowe is coming off a breakout season, having hit .292/.335/.500 with 20 homers and 32 steals in 501 plate appearances. The Rays have used Richie Palacios and Amed Rosario in a right field platoon with Lowe on the shelf. They’ve each hit well in the early going, but they’re both capable of bouncing around the diamond once Lowe is ready to return to the lineup.
  • Justin Verlander has one final hurdle to clear before he’ll make his season debut. Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters that the three-time Cy Young winner will throw a bullpen session tomorrow (X link via Chandler Rome of the Athletic). If that goes according to plan, Verlander will be reinstated from the 15-day injured list for this weekend’s series in Washington. The 41-year-old is coming off a four-inning rehab stint with Double-A Corpus Christi, in which he threw 78 pitches.

Josh Lowe To Open Season On IL With Oblique Injury

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Rays outfielder Josh Lowe will open the season on the injured list, reports Kristie Ackert of the Tampa Bay Times. He is nursing an oblique injury. The 26-year-old was already in the process of recovering from left hip inflammation which had sidelined him for most of the spring.

After a disappointing rookie season in 2022, Lowe broke out in his sophomore campaign. In 135 games, hit hit .292/.335/.500 with 20 home runs and 32 stolen bases. He finished one plate appearance shy of the threshold for qualification, but had he qualified, he would have ranked fifth in the AL in batting average, eighth in slugging percentage, and seventh with a 131 wRC+. The Rays often shielded him from same-handed pitching, but the lefty-batting Lowe held his own with a .712 OPS and 97 wRC+ against southpaws. On the other side of the ball, he made just two errors all season, racking up 6 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) in right field.

It remains unclear how much time Lowe will spend on the IL. Oblique strains can vary widely in severity. Juan Soto suffered a mild oblique strain around this time last year and ended up playing all 162 games of the season. At the same time, it’s not uncommon for a player to miss a couple of months with such an injury. Presumably, the Rays will offer an update on Lowe’s timeline in the coming days.

Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, the news of Lowe’s injury comes just days after outfielder Jonny DeLuca fractured his right hand. The righty-batting DeLuca seemed like a good candidate to win a bench job and occasionally platoon with Lowe. With those two out of commission, the Rays will likely turn to some combination of Richie Palacios, Amed Rosario, and Harold Ramírez in right field. Neither Palacios nor Ramírez is a strong outfield defender, and Rosario has limited experience outside of the infield. Offensively, however, Rosario and Ramírez give manager Kevin Cash a couple of good options against left-handed pitching. Meanwhile, Palacios is a good bet to get most of the reps against right-handers. The Rays will hope he can improve upon his career .635 OPS (199 PA) against righties in a larger sample size.

Jake Mangum, acquired this winter in the trade that sent Vidal Bruján and Calvin Faucher to the Marlins, is lighting up camp as a non-roster invitee. The switch-hitting outfielder is a dark horse candidate for a spot on Tampa Bay’s bench. This recent spate of injuries could also clear up a path to more playing time for Curtis Mead, albeit indirectly. The young third baseman won’t play the outfield, but he could get more opportunities in the infield with Rosario covering in right. In addition, Mead would give Cash another right-handed bat on the bench for days when Rosario and Ramírez are in the starting lineup.

Rays Notes: Lowe, Chang, Littell

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The Rays are shutting down outfielder Josh Lowe from all baseball activity for the next six days due to inflammation in his left hip, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Lowe could be out of games for up to 15 days while he lets the issue calm down, but manager Kevin Cash tells Topkin that the team is “not overly concerned” and doesn’t think Lowe is in jeopardy of missing Opening Day.

The 26-year-old Lowe had a breakout 2023 season, slashing .292/.335/.500 with 20 homers, 32 stolen bases and quality defense across all three outfield spots (primarily right field). The majority of his playing time came against right-handed pitching, though Lowe wasn’t completely overmatched even in 67 left-on-left matchups (.238/.284/.429). He’s expected to be in the lineup on a near-everyday basis in 2024, so while the team and player are both projecting confidence he’ll be ready for the start of the season, his progression from the current hip issue is worth watching with a careful eye. If Lowe were to wind up missing time, Jonny DeLuca and Richie Palacios would be among the options to step up.

Also ailing is non-roster invitee Yu Chang, who’ll be down at least two weeks with an oblique injury, per the Times’ Kristie Ackert (X link). If testing reveals a strain of any note, there’s a chance Chang could miss the remainder of camp, as even Grade 1 oblique strains regularly shelve players for a month or more. Cash seems to be anticipating an absence of some note, calling the injury “unfortunate” and noting that Chang will likely “miss some time” (via Topkin’s column).

The slick-fielding Chang went 1-for-3 with a homer to begin his spring tenure with the Rays as he competes for what would be his second MLB stint with the team. As a career .204/.269/.359 hitter in 650 big league plate appearances, Chang would seem unlikely to provide the Rays with much at the plate — should be make the team. However, he’s a strong and versatile defender, with at least 300 innings and quality defensive ratings at all four infield spots.

Like Chang, right-hander Zack Littell is no stranger to coming to big league camp and fighting for a job. This spring is different for the 28-year-old, however, as he’s locked into a rotation spot for the first time in his career. He spoke with MLB.com’s Adam Berry about the freedom that gives him to experiment with tweaks to his pitches, mechanics, etc. without fearing poor results will cost him a job.

“It’s nice to have a true six weeks where … you can go out there and you can really play with this stuff and find what works, and either run with it or say, ’Hey, we’re going the wrong direction,'” Littell said.

Though he was a starter in the upper minors and a well-regarded prospect with the Mariners, Yankees and Twins, Littell quickly settled into a relief role in the majors and has since begun to bounce around the league via a series of DFAs and waiver claims. The Rays claimed him from the Red Sox last May, initially deploying him in his familiar bullpen role, but stretched Littell back out closer to the trade deadline as injuries on the pitching staff mounted.

Few could’ve predicted just how well what looked like a desperation move wound up panning out. Over a span of 11 starts, Littell posted a 3.38 ERA in 65 innings of work. That mark was propped up by a .262 average on balls in play and 77% strand rate; paired with a sub-par strikeout rate, it led metrics like FIP (4.04) and SIERA (4.26) to take a bit more of a bearish outlook on Littell’s contributions. It’s also worth wondering whether he can sustain the sensational 1.9% walk rate — more than six percentage points south of his career mark — he turned in during that time.

Regardless, Littell pitched his way into an opportunity to show he can sustain success out of a big league rotation. Cash made perfectly clear that he’ll be given every chance to do so, telling Berry that Littell is currently in line to start the team’s second or third game of the season.

If the Rays have pulled yet another rabbit out of their hat on the starting pitching front and can successfully keep Littell productive in his new role, it’ll prove to be an affordable, multi-year solution. As a player with 4.043 years of MLB service, Littell is under club control through 2025. And with his limited big league track record to date, this year’s arbitration salary clocked in at a modest $1.85MM. If he can indeed sustain some of last year’s rotation success, he could hold a spot in the rotation into next season, when he’d likely still cost the club under $5MM.

Rays Make Four Roster Moves

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The Rays announced four roster moves, including the selection of Javy Guerra’s contract and the call-up of infielder/outfielder Jonathan Aranda from Triple-A Durham.  Outfielder Josh Lowe has been placed on the family medical emergency list and right-hander Elvin Rodriguez has been designated for assignment.

Aranda will get his first MLB opportunity of the season, and a chance to follow up on his 32 games played in his 2022 rookie season.  The 25-year-old hit .192/.276/.321 over 87 plate appearances last year, and it becoming clear that Aranda has nothing left to prove at the Triple-A level.  Over 784 PA in Durham over the last two seasons, Aranda has crushed the ball to the tune of a .327/.418/.548 slash line with 34 home runs.

Beginning his career as a second baseman, Aranda has followed the path of many Rays prospects and become a multi-positional threat, getting a lot of playing time at third base, first base, left field, and a bit of shortstop time.  This gives manager Kevin Cash some flexibility in trying to figure out where to slot Aranda around the diamond, though it remains to be seen how long he’ll remain in the majors — hopefully Lowe returns quickly from his family situation, and Aranda could again be the odd man out.

Due to the Rays’ position-player depth at both the MLB and minor league levels, Aranda has been mentioned as a possible trade candidate if there’s no regular spot for him on Tampa’s roster.  Depending on how long he remains in the majors, this stint could serve as something of an audition for rival scouts in advance of the trade deadline, though it’s safe to assume that other teams have had eyes on Aranda in Durham for quite some time.

Not to be confused with 11-year MLB veteran reliever Javy Guerra, the Rays’ Guerra is the 27-year-old who converted to pitching after being a top-100 shortstop prospect during his time in the Padres’ farm system.  The Rays acquired Guerra from the Brewers in late April and he has a 3.60 ERA over five innings with Tampa Bay this season, though he was outrighted off the 40-man roster in May.

Guerra chose to accept the outright assignment to Triple-A rather than test free agency, and his 5.94 ERA over 16 2/3 innings in Durham isn’t quite reflective of his performance, given his secondary metrics.  His 23% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate aren’t spectacular, though his 58.3% grounder rate has been hurt by some unfortunate batted-ball luck, as Guerra has a .340 BABIP.

Bullpen churn is a staple of Tampa Bay’s pitching strategies, and Rodriguez hits the DFA wire just a day after being selected to the 26-man roster.  He looked very sharp in throwing 3 1/3 perfect innings in the Rays’ 2-1 loss to the Braves, but Rodriguez is now on his way out of the organization altogether, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Rodriguez will be released so he can sign with a team in Japan.  Somewhat curiously, this plan was in place before Rodriguez had his contract selected yesterday, but fortunately it looks like Rodriguez avoided any injury and got to bank a big league appearance before heading to Nippon Professional Baseball.

Rodriguez’s first seven MLB games came with the Tigers in 2022, when he posted a 10.62 ERA over 29 2/3 innings.  The Rays signed him to a minors deal in the offseason, but without a long-term spot available in Tampa Bay, the 25-year-old Rodriguez chose to take what Topkin calls “a lucrative offer” from an NPB club.

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