Giants Outright Andrew Knapp
TODAY: Knapp clears waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (X link).
AUGUST 29: The Giants announced Thursday that they’ve reinstated catcher Patrick Bailey from the 10-day injured list and designated fellow backstop Andrew Knapp for assignment to open roster space.
Knapp signed a big league deal with the Giants just last week, although it seemed clear at the time he’d only be relied upon while Bailey mended from an oblique strain that had sent him to the injured list. The 32-year-old Knapp went 1-for-6 in what was his second stint with the Giants, for whom he also played back in 2022.
With this brief Giants stint, Knapp has now played in parts of seven major league seasons, spending time with the Phillies, Mariners and Pirates in addition to his time in San Francisco. He’s a career .209/.309/.312 hitter in 879 plate appearances as a major leaguer. Knapp spent the bulk of the current season with the Rangers’ Triple-A club, hitting .294/.383/.457 in 81 games and 345 plate appearances. He’s a lifetime .259/.351/.415 hitter in parts of six Triple-A seasons.
Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Knapp will head to waivers and be made available to the other 29 clubs. He’ll likely clear, giving him the right to become a free agent, but a club in need of some catching depth down the stretch could look to bring him aboard on a minor league deal if and when that happens.
Giants Outright Thairo Estrada, Release Tyler Matzek
Thairo Estrada and Tyler Matzek both went unclaimed on waivers. The Giants announced they’ve assigned Estrada outright to Triple-A Sacramento while recalling Brett Wisely (X link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). Matzek, who’d been on the 60-day injured list, was placed on unconditional release waivers. Estrada drops off the 40-man roster, which now carries 38 players.
San Francisco reportedly placed Estrada, Matzek and lefty reliever Taylor Rogers on waivers earlier in the week. The Giants did not announce what happened with Rogers’ waiver process. It’s possible that they didn’t officially place Rogers on waivers until a day later than the Estrada and Matzek moves (and are therefore still waiting on a resolution). However, it seems likely that Rogers went unclaimed and the Giants simply elected to hold onto him.
A team is not required to send a player to the minors after he clears waivers. The Giants would have no reason to do so with Rogers. If the Giants tried to demote him, the former All-Star could elect free agency while retaining his $12MM salary for next season. That’d simply amount to cutting Rogers, a productive reliever, without any financial benefit for doing so.
Estrada does not have that luxury. The glove-first second baseman has between three and five years of service. That gives him the right to decline an outright assignment but would require him to forfeit the remainder of his salary to do so. Estrada is playing on a $4.7MM arbitration deal and isn’t likely to give up the more than $800K remaining on that contract. He’ll almost certainly report to Sacramento, while Wisely could get a look as the everyday second baseman at Oracle Park.
The 28-year-old Estrada was an average or better hitter during his first three seasons with the Giants, combining for a .266/.320/.416 slash. He topped 20 stolen bases and drilled 14 homers apiece in 2022 and ’23. He hasn’t been anywhere near that effective this season. He’s hitting .217/.247/.343 across 381 trips to the plate. Among hitters with 300+ plate appearances, only Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall have a lower on-base percentage.
San Francisco can reselect Estrada onto the 40-man roster through season’s end. He’d technically remain eligible for arbitration if they called him back up, but the waiver process makes clear that the Giants don’t plan to tender him a contract in either case. Whether he returns to the MLB club next month, he’s very likely to be on the open market (either through minor league free agency or a non-tender) during the upcoming offseason.
The Giants acquired Matzek from the Braves as a salary offset in the Jorge Soler deadline deal. He’s playing on a $1.9MM salary that no team was willing to assume. Matzek was on the injured list at the time of the trade and never threw a pitch as a Giant. He missed all of last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. Matzek returned this season before landing back on the IL in May with elbow inflammation.
The 33-year-old southpaw had a tough first month in Atlanta, giving up 11 runs over 10 frames. The Giants sent him to Triple-A on a rehab stint a couple weeks ago. He made five appearances, allowing four runs through 4 2/3 innings. Matzek could be healthy enough to sign elsewhere, though he’d need to do so within the next day to be eligible for postseason play.
Second-Half Snell Is Doing It Again
Over the course of any given calendar year, Major League Baseball is full of oddities. The Dodgers gave the largest pitching contract ever to a starting pitcher who'd never pitched in the majors. The Marlins waved the white flag on their season after about five weeks. Rich Hill signed his eighth career free agent deal with the Red Sox. Heck, Danny Jansen played in the same game for two different teams. All that said, Blake Snell has had one of the strangest calendar years of any player in the game.
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Giants Place Thairo Estrada, Taylor Rogers On Waivers
The Giants placed second baseman Thairo Estrada and lefty relievers Taylor Rogers and Tyler Matzek on waivers, report Grant Brisbee and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. They’re the latest veteran players known to hit the waiver wire as fringe contenders attempt to offload some salary.
Estrada, Rogers and Matzek were not designated for assignment. They can continue to play for the Giants pending resolution of the waiver process. If they go unclaimed, San Francisco can (and quite likely will) simply keep them on the roster for the rest of the season. However, waivers are irrevocable. If another team places a claim on anyone, the Giants do not have the ability to rescind the placement.
Of course, the Giants wouldn’t have placed the players on waivers if they weren’t hoping another team made a claim. This is strictly a move to try to shed payroll. Estrada probably stands the best chance of the group to be claimed. He’s playing on a $4.7MM arbitration salary. There’ll be roughly $810K to be paid from tomorrow through the end of the season.
The 28-year-old Estrada is generally well regarded for his defensive acumen. Defensive Runs Saved has never been keen on his performance, but he grades very highly by Statcast’s Outs Above Average. While that hasn’t changed this year, his offense has fallen off a cliff. Estrada was an average or better hitter during his first three seasons with the Giants, combining for a .266/.320/.416 slash. He topped 20 stolen bases and drilled 14 homers apiece in 2022 and ’23.
This season, Estrada has been one of the worst hitters in the game. He sports a .216/.246/.345 line through 374 plate appearances. While that’s partially due to a career-low .245 average on balls in play, Estrada has never walked much or had particularly strong batted ball metrics. Among hitters with 300+ plate appearances, only Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall have a lower on-base percentage.
That performance makes it likely the Giants will move on from Estrada next offseason even if he sticks on the roster for the remainder of the year. He’d be due a small raise on this year’s salary, likely into the $5-6MM range. The Giants have evidently determined they were going to decline to tender him a contract, so they’ll make him available to other teams a month earlier to see if they can shed the final month of his 2024 salary.
Rogers is having a much better season than Estrada, but he’d be a far costlier pickup. The veteran southpaw is in the second season of a three-year, $33MM free agent deal. It’s a backloaded contract that pays him $12MM this year and next. He’ll be due a little more than $2MM for the final month of the season. A claiming team would also need to absorb his $12MM salary for the ’25 season. That isn’t an outlandish amount for a reliever of Rogers’ caliber but represents a hefty sum to take on via midseason waiver claim.
The 33-year-old Rogers is a former All-Star closer with the Twins. He has remained effective over his two seasons in San Francisco. After turning in a 3.83 earned run average across 51 2/3 innings a year ago, he carries a 2.45 mark in 51 1/3 frames this season. Rogers has fanned an above-average 28.2% of opponents against a solid 7.7% walk rate. He has been generally solid all year yet hasn’t pitched his way into first-year manager Bob Melvin’s circle of trust.
By measure of leverage index, Rogers has been eighth on San Francisco’s bullpen hierarchy (among relievers with at least 10 innings). That hasn’t changed throughout the season despite Rogers’ numbers. It’s understandable the Giants wouldn’t want to pay $12MM next season to a reliever whom Melvin feels is best suited in the middle innings.
Matzek is the most affordable of the trio. Acquired from the Braves as a salary offset in the Jorge Soler deadline deal, he’s playing on a $1.9MM contract. Matzek was on the injured list at the time of the trade and hasn’t thrown a pitch as a Giant. He missed all of last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. Matzek returned this season before landing back on the IL in May with elbow inflammation.
The 33-year-old southpaw had a tough first month in Atlanta, giving up 11 runs over 10 frames. The Giants sent him to Triple-A on a rehab stint a couple weeks ago. He has made five appearances, allowing four runs through 4 2/3 innings. Matzek should be able to return in September, though it’s not clear if a contender is willing to plug him into their bullpen after a five-month layoff.
Matzek is due around $330K for the rest of the year. His deal contains a $5.5MM team option for next season without a buyout. That’s unlikely to be exercised by the Giants or a hypothetical claiming team.
Giants Outright Jakson Reetz
The Giants announced that catcher Jakson Reetz went unclaimed on waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Sacramento. San Francisco took him off the 40-man roster last week as the corresponding move to sign Andrew Knapp. Reetz has cleared waivers a few times in his career and has the right to elect free agency. He stuck with San Francisco after being outrighted in May and could do so again.
Reetz, 28, has spent the season with the Giants, playing mostly in Triple-A. The Giants have selected his contract twice but only gotten him into six big league games. His other major league experience consisted of two contests with the Nationals three years ago. Reetz has three hits (two doubles and a home run) in 17 MLB plate appearances.
A former third-round pick by Washington, Reetz has also played in the Kansas City organization. The righty-hitting catcher owns a .241/.338/.467 line in parts of four Triple-A seasons. He has taken 235 plate appearances with Sacramento, running a .254/.368/.431 slash behind a strong 12.3% walk rate.
Giants Place Jordan Hicks On Injured List
The Giants announced that they have placed right-hander Jordan Hicks on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. Righty Austin Warren was recalled as the corresponding move. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle relayed the details prior to the official announcement (X link one and two).
Hicks was warming up during Friday’s game but didn’t eventually enter the contest. He later said he felt a “zinger” down his arm while getting ready, per Slusser, though he stayed with the club through the weekend. He appeared in Saturday’s game but with diminished velocity. His sinker usually averages between 96 and 97 miles per hour but was around 94 in his most recent outing, per Statcast. It now seems the club has decided to give him some time to rest and heal up.
It’s unclear how long Hicks will be out of action but it’s a blow to the pitching staff regardless. Hicks was in the starting rotation for much of the year but seemed to run out of steam, as his results tapered off as time went on. He had a 3.01 earned run average after his start on June 11, but then posted a 6.83 ERA from June 17 to July 28. He’s been in a bullpen role lately, with six scoreless outings to start the month of August before he allowed one earned run in his Saturday appearance.
Earlier this month, the club put Randy Rodríguez on the injured list. Today, Robbie Ray joined him and now Hicks will hit the shelf as well. The Giants are 66-66 and clinging to life in the National League Wild Card race. They are 5.5 games back of a spot but would need to leapfrog at least three teams while also holding off the clubs just behind them. Doing so will be more challenging now that some key arms have been subtracted from the staff.
Warren, 28, underwent Tommy John surgery in May of last year while with the Angels and that club designated him for assignment in February. Since injured players aren’t allowed to be placed on outright waivers, he was released and signed a major league deal with the Giants. Since he was still working his way back from surgery, the Giants moved him to the 60-day injured list in February when they signed Jorge Soler.
He was reinstated from the 60-day injured list in July, thus retaking his spot on the 40-man roster, but was optioned to the minors. He has thrown 20 Triple-A innings this year with a 4.95 ERA but better peripherals. He has struck out 26.1% of batters faced, walked 6.8% of them and gotten grounders at a 41.2% rate. A .327 batting average on balls in play, 63% strand rate and 17.6% homer to fly ball rate have helped push some extra runs across the board in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Giants Place Robbie Ray On Injured List
The Giants have placed left-hander Robbie Ray on the 15-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. Right-hander Landen Roupp has been recalled in a corresponding move. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to relay the transaction on X.
Ray, 32, was acquired in the offseason with an eye toward the former AL Cy Young winner serving as a second-half reinforcement in the rotation. He underwent Tommy John surgery early in the 2023 season and was subsequently shelved through late July.
While Ray wowed with five no-hit innings and eight punchouts against the Dodgers in his return on July 24, he’s lasted a combined 25 2/3 innings across his next six starts and posted an ERA north of 5.00 in that time. Overall, he’s sitting on a 4.70 earned run average with a hefty 33.3% strikeout rate against a problematic 11.6% walk rate in 30 2/3 frames. He’s also served up six long balls — an untenable average of 1.76 homers per nine innings.
When or whether Ray returns in 2024 remains to be seen, but the Giants still have him signed for another two seasons. Ray actually has the right to opt out of his contract at season’s end, but he’s guaranteed $25MM in each of the next two seasons. Given Ray’s shaky performance on the heels of Tommy John rehab, and now a hamstring injury, it seems likely he’ll forgo that right and take the remaining two-year, $50MM guarantee on his deal.
The hope, of course, will be that Ray can return to form next season — if not all the way to his 2021 Cy Young form then at least to his 2022 levels, when he pitched 189 innings of 3.71 ERA ball for the Mariners while showing an appealing K-BB profile. That’d position him to join Logan Webb, Kyle Harrison and perhaps young arms like Hayden Birdsong and Carson Whisenhunt in the San Francisco rotation.
In the short-term, the Giants will go with a rotation featuring Webb, Harrison, Birdsong and the resurgent Blake Snell. It’s not clear who’ll step into the fifth spot in Ray’s absence. Not long after the trade deadline, when discussing the decision not to move Snell, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi opined that the Giants possessed the best starting staff in the sport. Perhaps the Giants are indeed among the most talented groups, but it’s a top-heavy unit lacking depth and consistency — and Ray’s injury only underscores that.
Mason Black, Kai-Wei Teng and Trevor McDonald are all on the 40-man roster, but none has found any big league success (or even pitched especially well in Triple-A this year, for that matter). The Giants are also no stranger to patching things over with bullpen games and could go that route, particularly if Ray is only expected to require a short-term stay on the injured list.
Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery Discuss Relationship With Scott Boras
The most recent offseason was undoubtedly disappointing for the players on the whole. Many of them signed deals well south of expectations, with the most high-profile examples being the so-called “Boras Four”. Each of Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger, who are all represented by the Boras Corporation, lingered on the market deep into the offseason and ultimately signed deals below industry forecasts, though with opt-outs that will allow them to retest free agency in the future.
The two pitchers in that foursome evidently have different feelings about how this played out, based both on their actions and their words. Montgomery landed a one-year, $25MM deal with the Diamondbacks that didn’t become official until March 29. The deal also contained a $20MM vesting player option that Montgomery could unlock with at least ten starts in 2024, with his 18th and 23rd starts also adding $2.5MM to the option. On April 11, less than two weeks after that deal was signed, it was reported that Montgomery had switched his representation from Scott Boras to Joel Wolfe and Nick Chanock of Wasserman.
“I don’t know, obviously Boras kind of butchered it,” Montgomery said last week, per Mac Cerullo of the Boston Herald, “so I’m just trying to move on from the offseason and try to forget it.” Montgomery adds that, to his knowledge, he didn’t receive an offer from the Red Sox in the winter.
“Yeah, for sure. Me and my wife loved it here. She was at Beth Israel for a year, love the area, love the fans,” Montgomery said when asked whether he would have considered an offer from the Sox. “It would have been awesome if it had worked out that way, but it didn’t.”
The Herald also received a comment from Boras himself in response. “I saw what Jordan said. I know what it is to be frustrated with this game. As a former player I feel for him. But I’m also a lawyer with obligations to my clients, including former ones. So I cannot discuss what happened or the decisions Jordan made unless he gives me permission,” Boras said. “If he gives me the green light I’ll be happy to talk about it. I’ve been doing this for over 35 years. I relay all offers and relevant information to all my clients and act at their direction. They make all decisions. We wish Jordan well.”
Montgomery was frequently connected to the Red Sox both because the club was in need of starting pitching and because his wife was working in the area, as he mentioned. Most reporting throughout the offseason suggested that the two sides weren’t close to agreeing on a deal. In early March, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that the two sides were in contact but that Montgomery was looking for a seven-year deal that the Sox didn’t want to give out.
We can’t know for sure what sorts of discussions were taking place between Boras and the Red Sox, or any other teams, but Montgomery is clearly not thrilled with the way it played out. Not everyone places the blame on Boras though, as Blake Snell is still a Boras guy and defended him when asked about the Montgomery comments.
“My experience with Scott has been great,” Snell said yesterday, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. “He told me everything that was happening, all the offers I got. So for him to just get bashed for what I believe is false, that’s not fair at all. I really strongly believe that.”
When asked about Montgomery’s tough time, Snell responded thusly: “He signed the deal that he ultimately wanted to sign,” Snell said. “He has the choice. I don’t know what other deals he was offered, but I know everything that was offered to me. It’s just sad that he thinks that way when I see Scott as a very honorable man.”
Boras has a lengthy track record of securing huge deals for his clients but it’s possible that he still could have whiffed on the recent offseason, which Snell was asked about. “Yeah, or it could just be a free agency where no one was really pushing to get anybody,” said Snell. “It sucks because that was … our year to get our deals that we worked so hard to get. But ultimately the market’s the market. You can’t control it. You can’t get upset about it the way it is. Just pitch better, find a way to do better, continue to compete. Whatever you believe you deserve, you go earn it.”
There is some logic to Snell’s framing of the winter, which was mostly defined by a lack of spending. Only four free agents got nine-figure deals in the winter, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, compared to nine in the previous offseason. Of the four from the most recent winter, three of them were fairly unique cases. One of those was the mega deal for Shohei Ohtani, who is an unprecedented talent. Two others were for 25-year-olds coming over from Asia: Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung Hoo Lee. The fourth was for Aaron Nola. The rest of the market was modest, with solid regulars like Amed Rosario, Jurickson Profar, Randal Grichuk, Michael A. Taylor and others getting $4MM or less. It would appear that Montgomery believes Boras could have handled that environment better while Snell simply views it as something that was beyond his control.
In addition to their differing opinions about the past, both players now appear to have divergent future. Montgomery has struggled badly with the Snakes this year and was recently moved to the bullpen. As of today, he has a 6.44 earned run average through 95 innings and 19 starts. Unless he turns things around dramatically in the coming weeks, it would appear his best course of action is to take his player option and hope for better results in 2025. By making at least 18 starts this year, he has unlocked that option and raised the value to $22.5MM.
Snell, on the other hand, has been on fire after a slow start. By the end of June, he had two stints on the injured list, six starts and a 9.51 ERA. But he came off the IL in early July and has posted a 1.30 ERA in his nine most recent starts, including a no-hitter against the Reds earlier in August. The lefty signed a two-year, $62MM deal with the Giants that allows him to opt-out at season’s end. He could trigger a $30MM player option for 2025 but could also walk away with $32MM banked and then take another shot at free agency.
If he keeps putting up good numbers for the next few weeks, it’s highly likely that another trip to the open market is in the cards. Speaking of the rest of the season, Snell says that “I’ll enjoy those starts and make the most of them and we’ll figure out what happens after that later,” before adding that he has high confidence in Boras to handle whatever comes next. “Of course,” Snell said. “High confidence. Really high.”
Boras tends to be a polarizing figure in baseball circles, so the struggles of the “Boras Four” led to a lot of schadenfreude and declarations that he was “washed” or over the hill. However, Boras is well set up to be a key player in free agency again this winter. Snell, Chapman and Bellinger will all have chances to return to the open market, while Boras also represents big-name players slated for free agency this winter such as Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, Yusei Kikuchi, Sean Manaea, Tyler O’Neill, J.D. Martinez and many others. What those players will be entering another frosty market or not remains to be seen.
Giants Acquire Nate Furman As PTBNL In Alex Cobb Deal
The Giants have acquired minor league infielder Nate Furman from the Guardians as the player to be named later in the trade that sent Alex Cobb from San Francisco to Cleveland, per announcements from both clubs. Cleveland also sent young lefty Jacob Bresnahan to San Francisco at the time of the swap. Robert Murray of FanSided reported Furman’s swap prior to the deal being made official.
Furman, 23, was Cleveland’s fourth-round pick back in 2022. He’s not ranked prominently among the team’s prospects but posted a big .338/.417/.500 batting line in 176 plate appearances at High-A this season before struggling in 13 games in the wake of a promotion to Double-A (.125/.300/.200 in 51 plate appearances). It’s possible that health played a role in those struggles with the Guards’ affiliate in Akron, however. Furman hit the injured list with a strain in his right shoulder late in June, was transferred to the minor league 60-day injured list in July, and has still yet to return to action.
With the Guards, Furman played primarily second base and third base. He played both middle infield slots in college at the University of North Carolina. Scouting reports tout him as a plus runner who’ll likely settle in at second base. While Furman didn’t show much power in college (three career homers) and didn’t hit a home run in 2023, he popped seven long balls in High-A this season. He’s also 47-for-54 in stolen bases during his young professional career, and he’s shown a plus approach at the plate, with a 13.6% walk rate against a 13.9% strikeout rate. Furman has high-end speed and bat-to-ball skills, but he’ll need to continue to add power and/or break out as a high-level defender at second base in order to profile as a regular.
The trade of Furman finalizes the return for the veteran Cobb, whom Cleveland has thus far only been able to utilize for two starts. The veteran righty pitched 10 1/3 innings and allowed five runs during that pair of outings and has since been placed back on the 15-day injured list due to a finger injury. Those are the first two starts Cobb has made this season. He opened the year on the injured list while rehabbing from offseason hip surgery and dealt with shoulder and blister issues that delayed his return to the big leagues.
Robbie Ray Exits With Left Hamstring Tightness
Giants left-hander Robbie Ray exited his start today in the fourth inning with left hamstring tightness. He was facing his former team, the Mariners, and pitching in Seattle for the first time since he suffered a season-ending injury during his debut start of the 2023 campaign. This time, the 2021 AL Cy Young winner is hoping the injury will not mark the end of his season.
The 32-year-old will go for an MRI tomorrow, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Having never dealt with hamstring injuries in the past, he was unable to offer much insight into his timeline. Still, he expressed optimism that he wouldn’t be out for too long. According to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, Ray described the injury as “minor” and suggested he left the game before it became “anything significant.” The southpaw has tried to “push through injuries in the past” and did not want to make the same mistake this time around.
While Ray himself said it’s too early to know if he’ll require a trip to the injured list (per Maria Guardado of MLB.com), manager Bob Melvin implied that Ray could miss time even if the issue turns out to be mild. “Those things don’t typically take a couple of days [to heal],” the skipper explained.
Ray has made seven starts for the Giants this year since coming off the injured list at the end of July. Including his outing this afternoon, he has pitched 30 2/3 innings with a 4.70 ERA and 3.52 SIERA. San Francisco is 4-3 in his starts. While he hasn’t always looked his best, he will nonetheless be difficult for the Giants to replace.
If Ray only needs to miss a single start, Melvin could get by relying on bulk relievers like Sean Hjelle and Spencer Bivens to cover. Hjelle took over for Ray this afternoon and tossed 2 2/3 innings. He has thrown at least two frames in 16 of his 45 appearances this year; his longest outing was 3 1/3 against the Braves earlier this month. Bivens made one start earlier this year, and he has gone at least two innings in six of his 15 relief appearances.
Meanwhile, if Ray winds up on the IL, the Giants could recall rookie right-hander Mason Black, who made four appearances (three starts) for the big league club back in May. Unfortunately for Black, his first few MLB starts didn’t exactly go according to plan; the 24-year-old gave up 14 runs in 14 1/3 innings during that brief cup of coffee. He also has a 4.59 ERA and 5.21 FIP in 20 starts this year at Triple-A. Nonetheless, Black is a live arm on the 40-man roster with experience starting in the majors.
Right-hander Tristan Beck is another option to fill in for Ray, but it’s unclear how many more rehab outings he needs before he’s ready to return to the Giants; the 28-year-old has been on the 60-day IL all season after undergoing surgery to remove an aneurysm from his arm. What’s more, Beck has limited experience starting at the MLB level, and he has given up 13 runs (11 earned) over 10 2/3 rehab innings at Triple-A. All this to say, it’s critical for the Giants that Ray gets back on the mound as quickly as possible. Sitting five games back in the NL Wild Card race, their postseason hopes are already dwindling. Losing Ray for a prolonged period could be the final nail in their proverbial coffin.