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Rene Pinto

Injured List Returns: Pressly, Mejia

By Mark Polishuk | May 5, 2022 at 5:05pm CDT

Catching up on some players returning to their teams’ active roster…

  • The Astros reinstated Ryan Pressly from the 10-day injured list, and left-hander Parker Mushinski has been optioned to Triple-A to create roster space.  Pressly hasn’t pitched since April 13 due to right knee inflammation, but he’ll now return to his usual role as Houston’s closer, though Rafael Montero did well in handling the ninth inning in Pressly’s absence.  Before hitting the IL, Pressly recorded three saves in his first four appearances, posting a 2.70 ERA over 3 1/3 innings.
  • Catcher Francisco Mejia was reinstated from the Rays’ COVID-related injured list.  Rene Pinto was optioned to Triple-A after yesterday’s game, so an open roster spot awaits Mejia’s return.  Mejia missed just under two weeks recovering from a positive COVID-19 test, which interrupted a blisteringly hot start (.986 OPS) in his first 24 plate appearances of the 2022 campaign.  Given how Mike Zunino has struggled, Mejia might earn a larger piece of the Rays’ catching timeshare if he continues to hit at anything close to that level.
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Houston Astros Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Francisco Mejia Parker Mushinski Rene Pinto Ryan Pressly

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Francisco Mejia Tests Positive For Covid-19

By Darragh McDonald | April 22, 2022 at 6:00pm CDT

The Rays announced that catcher Francisco Mejia has been placed on the Covid-related injured list after a positive test. Fellow catcher Rene Pinto was recalled to take his place on the roster.

Under the league’s 2022 health-and-safety protocols, players who test positive are subject to a 10-day absence from the club, though it’s possible to be reinstated in less time if the player has gone 24 or more hours without a fever, received a pair of negative PCR tests, and been given approval from a team physician and the MLB/MLBPA joint committee (a panel of one league-appointed and one union-appointed physician).

Acquired by the Rays as part of the deal that sent Blake Snell to the Padres, Mejia has been excellent in his time in Florida. Although he was considered one of the best prospects in baseball while in the minors, he struggled in his first tastes of the big leagues with the Indians and Padres. As a member of the Rays last year, however, he hit .260/.322/.416 for a wRC+ of 108 and 1.4 wins above replacement, in the estimation of FanGraphs. This year, he was off to a blistering start, hitting a pair of home runs in seven games and slashing .348/.333/.652, 193 wRC+.

Although that type of production would be impossible to sustain over a larger sample, it’s still a blow for the Rays to lose a hot bat. Mike Zunino will likely get the bulk of the playing time behind the dish in Mejia’s absence, though he’s started 2022 with a line of .040/.074/.080. That’s a tiny sample of eight games, however, and Zunino’s line from last year was a healthy .216/.301/.559.

Pinto, 25, was just added to the club’s 40-man roster in November and will make his MLB debut as soon as he gets into a game. In 12 Triple-A games so far this year, he’s hitting .268/.388/.341, with an excellent 16.3% walk rate in that small sample.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Francisco Mejia Rene Pinto

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Rays Pick Up Option On Mike Zunino

By Darragh McDonald | November 7, 2021 at 12:57pm CDT

The Rays have exercised their $7MM club option to keep Mike Zunino in the fold for 2022, as reported by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Also, Topkin reports that the club has selected catcher Rene Pinto to the 40-man roster and designated left-handed pitcher Adam Conley for assignment.

After a mediocre showing in 2020, the Rays declined a $4.5MM club option on Zunino for 2021, but then re-signed him to a new deal. It paid him $2MM for the year, as well as a $1MM buyout on a club option for 2022, which had a base value of $4MM but could increase as high as $7MM if Zunino played 100 games on the campaign. In the end, he got into 109 games and thus increased the option to its maximum value of $7MM.

Along the way, he had arguably his best season, hitting 33 home runs and slashing .216/.301/.559. Combining that offensive production with his strong defensive numbers, he was worth 4.5 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, just shy of his personal best of 4.6 from 2017. That level of production made it a no-brainer for the Rays to pick up the option and keep him around.

However, with the perpetually-frugal Rays, you can never discount a player being sent packing via trade, no matter how good they’ve been. They’ve never had an opening day payroll higher than $77MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. In the estimation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource, their 2022 payroll is already hovering in that range. That might mean this offseason sees the Rays engage in more of their usual creative maneuverings to keep the team competitive under their self-imposed limits.

This year’s crop of free agent catchers is quite weak, meaning Zunino would be of great interest to other clubs if the Rays were to shop him around. But then again, that would leave the club with a big hole behind the plate, as Francisco Mejia would be the only catcher on the 40-man roster with big league experience.

The 25-year-old Pinto was added to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency in a few hours. He split this season almost evenly between Double-A and Triple-A. Overall, he played 93 games, slashing .274/.325/.500, good enough for a wRC+ of 121.

As for Conley, the 31-year-old logged 19 2/3 innings for the Rays this year, with an ERA of 2.29. He was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $900K through arbitration, but the club will instead subtract him from the roster. Teams will now have seven days to claim Conley or work out a trade with the Rays. If he clears waivers, he can elect free agency as a player with more than three years’ service time.

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Newsstand Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Adam Conley Mike Zunino Rene Pinto

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