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Rays Select Cooper Criswell

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The Rays have selected the contract of right-hander Cooper Criswell from Triple-A Durham, per a team announcement. In a pair of corresponding moves to accommodate his promotion, right-hander Trevor Kelley was optioned to Triple-A while righty Shawn Armstrong was moved from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. The Rays also announced that top prospect Taj Bradley is on today’s taxi squad. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that he’ll likely be added to the 26-man roster to start tomorrow’s game in Cincinnati.

Criswell, 26, made his big league debut with the Angels in 2021 but tossed just 1 1/3 innings, and he had a similarly brief run with the 2022 Rays, tossing 3 1/3 frames. He’s out to a fine start in Durham this year, with a 3.09 ERA and 10-to-1 K/BB ratio in 11 2/3 innings of work. The Rays are expected to use lefty Jalen Beeks as an opener in today’s contest, so Criswell will give Tampa Bay another fresh arm to help navigate the waters of this bullpen day. It could be a brief stay on the big league roster for Criswell, particularly if he throws multiple innings today, as the Rays will need to make another move to get Bradley on the roster for tomorrow’s contest.

Armstrong, 32, posted a 3.60 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate in 55 innings as a Ray in 2022. He’s missed the entire season so far due to a neck injury incurred in spring training. The shift to the 60-day injured list pushes his earliest possible return date back to May 29; it’s retroactive to his initial placement on the IL, not the move from the 15-day to the 60-day. Neil Solondz of Rays Radio tweets that Armstrong would’ve likely needed about that long to finish mending and build back up to game readiness anyhow, so the decision was likely a fairly straightforward one for the team.

Rays Select Braden Bristo, Option Taj Bradley

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The Rays announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Braden Bristo from Triple-A Durham and optioned top pitching prospect Taj Bradley, who made his MLB debut against the Red Sox, back to Durham in his place. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, Tampa Bay transferred righty Shane Baz from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Baz is recovering from September’s Tommy John surgery and could miss the entire season, so his move to the 60-day IL was a formality.

If the 28-year-old Bristo makes it into a game with the Rays, it’ll mark his big league debut after an eight-year minor league journey. The longtime Yankees farmhand was New York’s 23rd-round selection back in 2016, and he spent the next seven years climbing the ranks in their system. Bristo topped out at Triple-A in 2021-22 and never made it to the Majors with the Yanks, however. He elected minor league free agency at the end of the 2022 campaign.

In five innings with the Rays’ top affiliate in Durham thus far, Bristo has yielded three runs on six hits with an appealing 7-to-1 K/BB ratio. He’s had little problem missing bats in parts of three Triple-A seasons overall, fanning a strong 27.3% of his opponents. His 12.8% walk rate in Triple-A, however, is far more concerning. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen has previously noted Bristo’s high-spin curveball and a heater that can reach the mid-90s in short stints, but command has been an issue for Bristo in the upper minors — at least until this season. It’s a tiny sample, of course, but Bristo has walked just one of his 22 opponents so far.

For now, Bristo will give the Rays an extra arm in the ’pen. Tampa Bay used Jalen Beeks as an opener in a bullpen game on Monday, and their ’pen has covered a combined eight innings in the two games since.

Bradley won’t be able to return to the Majors for at least 10 days unless he’s recalled in place of someone who’s being placed on the injured list. Barring that scenario, yesterday’s MLB debut will go down as a spot start for Bradley, who ranks among the sport’s top 50 overall prospects. He tossed five innings against Boston and allowed three runs on five hits and a walk with eight strikeouts.

MLB Trade Rumors Podcast: Rays, Angels, Prospect Promotions

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The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast has relaunched!  Simon Hampton is now your host, and we’re very excited to bring the new show to you every week.

Episode 2 is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well; use this link to find the show on Spotify and this one for Apple.  You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Simon Hampton is joined by Steve Adams to discuss a wide range of topics around the baseball world:

  • A look at the Rays hot start to the season, and why they’re impressing (1:03)
  • As Grayson Rodriguez debuts for the Orioles, Taj Bradley is called up to the Rays, and a raft of other highly touted young players make their mark on the season, we take a look at whether the new top prospect service time rules are working (7:47)
  • The Angels have made a solid start to the season, and with a deeper lineup and a promising rotation is this finally the year they get back to the playoffs? Or will their bullpen hold them back? (13:21)

Plus, we answer your questions, including:

  • Who will be a surprise seller at the deadline, and who’s a surprise player that could be made available? (18:33)
  • Is Gary Sanchez the answer to providing a bit more thump in the Giants’ lineup? (23:08)
  • How will Francisco Alvarez do with the Mets? Will he force his way into the starting lineup on a regular basis, or will the Mets wind up sending him back to Triple-A and bringing in an external catcher? (25:55)

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Rays Promote Taj Bradley, Place Zach Eflin On IL

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The Rays have placed right-hander Zach Eflin on the 15-day injured list due to back tightness, per broadcaster Neil Solondz. Pitching prospect Taj Bradley has been recalled to take his place and will make his major league debut on Wednesday. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times previously reported that these moves were imminent. Eflin’s IL placement is backdated to April 8, per Topkin.

Bradley, 22, was selected by the club in the fifth round of the 2018 draft. Since that time, he has continued to impress on the farm, moving up the minor league ladder and prospect lists. He pitched in Rookie Ball in 2018 and 2019, but then saw the minor leagues canceled by the pandemic in 2020. He split the following season between Class-A and Class-A Advanced, throwing 103 1/3 innings with a 1.83 ERA, 31% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. Last year, he went through Double-A and Triple-A, tossing 133 1/3 frames with a 2.57 ERA, striking out 26.5% of batters faced while walking just 6.2%.

Bradley is currently considered the #42 prospect in the game by Baseball America, #18 by MLB Pipeline, #60 by ESPN, #52 by Keith Law of The Athletic and #37 by FanGraphs. He was eligible for the Rule 5 draft in December but the Rays made the easy decision to add him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from being selected. That means he already has a roster spot but he’ll be making his MLB debut tomorrow.

The Rays are off to an incredible 10-0 start here this season, with their pitching playing a large role in that. They’ve only allowed 18 runs in those 10 games, easily the fewest in baseball with the Brewers next on the list at 26. Tampa’s schedule has been on the weaker side thus far, with their first nine games coming against the Tigers, Nationals and A’s, three of the worst teams last year. Nonetheless, they’ve gotten great results from their rotation, even with Shane Baz recovering from Tommy John surgery and Tyler Glasnow on the IL with an oblique strain. Shane McClanahan, Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen and Eflin have all been great so far this season. Josh Fleming got roughed up in his first start but tossed four scoreless innings behind an opener in his second appearance.

Bradley will now check into that group for Eflin, at least for the time being. Solondz relays that manager Kevin Cash and Eflin both expect the latter to have a minimal stay on the IL, which would mean he’d only miss a couple of starts. The righty hasn’t exactly been a paragon of health in his career, as recurring knee issues have limited his workload over the years. He’s only once thrown 130 innings in a season, which was the 163 1/3 frames he tossed in 2019. He tells Topkin that he’s dealt with this back issue in the past and isn’t too concerned.

If those expectations come to pass and Eflin returns in a couple weeks, then it’s possible Bradley gets sent back down to Triple-A. That will likely depend on his performance, as well as that of Fleming and the health of the entire crew. There’s also the return of Glasnow on the horizon, which seems to potentially be slated for mid-May.

If it ends up coming to pass that Bradley sticks with the big league club for the rest of the season, he will be able to earn a full year of service time, just barely. A major league season is 187 days long but a player needs only to spend 172 of those in the majors, or on the injured list, in order to earn a full “year” of service time. Bradley has missed 12 days of the season thus far, giving him just enough time to creep over the one-year line, though getting optioned later in the year will obviously impact that trajectory.

In the event he does get that full year, he will be eligible for the prospect promotion incentive. As part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement, if a player has less than 60 days of service time and is on two out of the three top 100 prospects lists from Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline then earns a full year of service as a rookie, they become PPI eligible. If they then win Rookie of the Year or finish in the top three in MVP or Cy Young voting before reaching their arbitration years, they can net their club an extra draft pick. This already happened once when Julio Rodríguez won American League Rookie of the Year last year, getting the Mariners an extra draft pick after the first round. Bradley is on all three of those prospect lists and is therefore in the mix for earning PPI eligibility this year.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays Designate Ryan Yarbrough For Assignment

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The Rays announced a number of roster moves in advance of tonight’s deadline to set the 40-man roster before the Rule 5 draft. Tampa Bay made a trio of trades and, in perhaps their most notable transaction, designated left-hander Ryan Yarbrough for assignment. The Rays also designated reliever Javy Guerra and outfielder Bligh Madris for assignment. Joining the 40-man roster are infielders Curtis Mead, Osleivis Basabe and Greg Jones and pitchers Taj Bradley and Colby White, who’d all have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft.

The move officially brings to an end Yarbrough’s four-plus year run in Tampa Bay. The southpaw debuted in 2018 and spent his first three seasons as a productive innings-eater on the staff. While he wasn’t a traditional starting pitcher, Yarbrough frequently soaked up innings as a bulk pitcher behind an opener. Through the end of the 2020 campaign, he carried a 3.94 ERA in 344 2/3 career innings.

Things have gone off the rails for Yarbrough over the past two seasons. He’s been tagged for an ERA at 4.50 or above in both years, while his average fastball speed has ticked down around 87 MPH after sitting just under 90 earlier in his career. He still throws plenty of strikes and excels at generating soft contact, but his run prevention marks have gone in the wrong direction. Going back to the start of the 2021 campaign, the Old Dominion product has a 4.90 ERA through 50 appearances and 235 frames. The 2022 campaign was particularly challenging, as he was optioned to Triple-A on a couple occasions and missed time with groin and oblique issues.

Yarbrough was in his penultimate offseason of arbitration eligibility. Projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $4.2MM salary if tendered a contract, he’s looked like a trade or non-tender candidate for the past few months. Tampa Bay reportedly shopped him at last week’s GM meetings, but they evidently didn’t find a taker. They can still look to deal him over the next few days, or he can be non-tendered and sent to free agency for the first time.

The Rays acquired Guerra from the Padres in April. He was outrighted off the roster not long after but made it back to the big league club midseason. He provided the Rays with 16 innings of 3.38 ERA ball, but he only managed a 12.9% strikeout rate while walking 11.4% of opponents. The 27-year-old former shortstop throws very hard but hasn’t found much success missing bats at the upper levels.

Madris, 26, was snagged off waivers from the Pirates in September. He didn’t suit up at the big league level in Tampa Bay. He hit .177/.244/.265 through his first 39 MLB games in Pittsburgh. Madris had a much more impressive .297/.366/.510 showing between the two teams’ Triple-A affiliates. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so he could find some interest via trade or waiver claim in the next few days.

As far as the players making it onto the Tampa Bay roster, Mead was one of the easiest calls any team in the majors had to make. A former amateur signee from Australia, the righty-hitting infielder has broken out as one of the sport’s top prospects. Mead slots in 23rd on Baseball America’s most recent top 100, the latest in a long line of excellent infield talents coming up through the system. He hit .298/.390/.532 across 311 plate appearances between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham and should factor into the MLB mix early next season.

Bradley is a top prospect in his own right, appearing 15th on BA’s list. A fifth-round selection out of a Georgia high school in 2018, he’s flown to Triple-A. The right-hander split his age-21 season between Montgomery and Durham, combining for a 2.57 ERA across 133 1/3 innings while striking out 26.5% of batters faced. He draws praise for his fastball-slider combination and should factor into the rotation mix early next season.

Basabe was originally signed by the Rangers out of Venezuela. Dealt to the Rays in the trade that landed Nate Lowe in Arlington, he’s played his way to Double-A. The 22-year-old has experience all around the infield and combined for an excellent .324/.385/.462 mark between High-A Bowling Green and Montgomery this year.

Jones was a first-round pick in 2019 out of UNC-Wilmington. A switch-hitting shortstop/center fielder with blazing speed, he had a rough year in Montgomery. Jones hit .238/.318/.392 with eight homers and a huge 35.8% strikeout percentage in Double-A. He stole 37 bases, though, and the Rays didn’t want to chance losing his defense and athleticism.

White was a sixth-round selection from Mississippi State in that same draft. The 24-year-old is a pure reliever but has an excellent fastball and could factor into the big league bullpen next year. He spent all of this past season on the injured list.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported Yarbrough had been DFA.

Quick Hits: MLBPA Facility, Bradley, Rays, Kloffenstein, Jays

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With MLBPA members currently locked out of Spring Training and team facilities, the union has set up a facility in Arizona so that players can attempt to replicate a normal spring training experience. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle takes a look at the situation, which includes some surreal details, such as softball, pickleball players and children also making use of the equipment near the MLB players. “The Players Association has done an incredible job setting this up,” Nico Hoerner says about the setup. “Hopefully, more players start showing up, because it’s about as nice a place as I’ve ever worked out.” As noted by Slusser, Kyle Hendricks, Shane Bieber and Mark Melancon are just some of the other big leaguers present there.

Elsewhere, Alex Wood is working out in Georgia with his fellow Giant and battery mate Joey Bart. With no firm timeline on when Spring Training or the regular season will get started, it makes it difficult for players to decide how to prepare. “I’m slowly ramping up,” Wood said. “I’m going to continue to build volume in hopes that in the next two weeks or so we hopefully get a deal. Once we head to camp, I should be ready to get in games pretty quickly.” Hoerner similarly feels he won’t be far from readiness once the lockout is over. “Give me my 30 at-bats and I’ll be ready to go,” he said.

Elsewhere around the league…

  • Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times takes a look at the trajectory of right-handed pitching prospect Taj Bradley, who was selected by the Rays in the 5th round of the 2018 draft, when he was still a teenager. “I remember when Taj Bradley showed up on campus when he was 17 years old, and I think he was throwing 86, 87, 88 (mph),” minor-league field coordinator Michael Johns said. “We’re all kind of scratching our heads like, ‘Ooookaaaay.'” But Bradley took a huge step forward in 2021, logging 103 1/3 innings between A-ball and High-A, with an ERA of just 1.83, along with an excellent 31% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. Based on that performance, he’s now considered the #58 prospect in the game by Baseball America. Bradley tells Topkin about the steps he’s taken to get where he is today, which includes keeping a journal of his progress. “I just start off with a quick, like, ‘You had a great game. You had a good outing. This is what you did well. You’ve been working on this. You did it. You succeeded,'” Bradley says. “And maybe with, like 0-2 pitches or put-away pitches or my cutter, just the development of it — not a con so much as improvements need to be made.” Bradley is not yet on the Rays’ 40-man roster, meaning he will be able to continue his development in game settings when the minor leagues begin in April, even if the lockout were to linger beyond that time.
  • Like Bradley, Adam Kloffenstein was also selected by an AL East team in the 2018 draft, when the Blue Jays drafted him in the third round. But unlike Bradley, Kloffenstein had a miserable season in 2021, putting up an ERA of 6.22 in 101 1/3 innings at High-A. Keegan Matheson of MLB.com spoke to Kloffenstein about getting over the disappointing results of last year and moving into the future. “I was young when I was drafted. I’ve always been blessed, always been successful in this game — which has made it a lot of fun,” Kloffenstein said. “Last year, I didn’t have as much fun… Obviously, I’m bummed out about the season. I’m 20, 21 years old, and we’re going to look back on this in a couple years and it’s going to be the most important season I ever had.” Prospect evaluators have pointed out that the Blue Jays’ system is lacking in upper level pitching prospects, now that Alek Manoah has graduated to the big league team. If Kloffenstein can right the ship in 2022, he could potentially fill that hole for the organization. Having not yet landed a roster spot, Kloffenstein will be unaffected by the lockout, with Matheson noting that he could start the season in the rotation of the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

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