Rays Option Brent Honeywell
11:37AM: The Rays officially announced the move, with right-hander Trevor Richards called up to take Honeywell’s roster spot.
8:08AM: Brent Honeywell Jr. checked his Major League debut off his bucket list on Sunday: two perfect innings with a pair of strikeouts against the Yankees. The Rays would ultimately lose the game, but it was a strong showing from the 26-year-old Georgian.
Regardless, the plan was never for Honeywell to claim a rotation spot at this time. In classic Rays fashion, this was a spot start for Honeywell, a strategic call-up to share the innings load and progress a young arm in baby steps. He has been optioned back the minors, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). For Honeywell in particular, there may be added benefit to the short-stint call-up in that he gets to overcome the mental and physical hurdle of making his debut after so many setbacks.
This was Honeywell’s first game action since 2017 when he tossed 123 2/3 innings with a 3.64 ERA at the Triple-A level. At that point, Honeywell appeared on the verge of stardom. Instead of making his debut in 2018, however, Honeywell was set on a Sisyphean cycle of surgery and rehab that included three surgeries.
He was added to the roster at this time because of an injury to Chris Archer. Archer suffered right lateral forearm tightness, but the Rays expect Archer to return after only a short time off. Given that Archer went on the 10-day injured list on April 11th, however, the Rays will need to bring in another arm when Archer’s rotation spot comes back around on Thursday against the Rangers.
Rays Place Chris Archer On Injured List, Call Up Brent Honeywell
The Rays placed Chris Archer on the injured list after he left today’s ballgame. Brent Honeywell will be called up, and he will make his Major League debut opening Sunday’s game, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter).
It wasn’t clear at the time of the injury what exactly happened to Archer, but the injury was apparently severe enough to act quickly in placing him on the injured list. Today was just the second outing of the year for the 32-year-old. Archer suffered right lateral forearm tightness, per ESPN’s Marly Rivera (via Twitter), who adds that the Rays hope Archer will miss just one start.
Honeywell has long been a top prospect for the Rays, but injuries have slowed his path to the Majors. Baseball America had him ranked among the Rays’ top prospects in every season since 2015. He landed in their top-100 prospects in baseball from 2016 to 2020, peaking at No. 14 overall before the 2018 season. Tomorrow will mark an incredible achievement for Honeywell, even if he is unable to become the star hurler the Rays once hoped. Still, expectations are high, and if Honeywell can stay healthy, he still is projected to become a capable piece of the rotation. That said, chances are he’s not on the roster to stay. The Rays will understandably watch his inning count closely.
Chris Archer Leaves Game Due To Forearm Tightness
3:40PM: “Fortunately, it’s nothing serious,” Archer told the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin and other reporters. Cash also sounded optimistic, saying that Archer could only have tendinitis and might miss just one start, though an injured list stint is likely.
2:11PM: Archer left the game due to right lateral forearm tightness, the team announced.
1:41PM: Chris Archer exited today’s start against the Yankees due to an apparent injury. After DJ LeMahieu‘s one-out double in the third inning, Archer was visited on the mound by Rays manager Kevin Cash and the team trainer. That ended Archer’s day after 42 pitches and 2 1/3 scoreless innings (four strikeouts, three hits, no walks).
While there hasn’t yet been any word on the nature of Archer’s injury, it doesn’t bode well that the right-hander has run into another issue in the wake of a lost 2020 season. Archer missed all of last year after undergoing thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, and was also limited to 119 2/3 innings with the Pirates in 2019 due to thumb and shoulder problems. Between Nick Anderson, Chaz Roe, and Pete Fairbanks, the Rays have already taken a lot of injury hits to their bullpen this season, and now a potential absence for Archer threatens their rotation depth.
Archer signed a one-year, $6.5MM free agent deal with the Rays in February, returning to the site of his early-career heyday. Archer was a two-time All-Star during his original stint in Tampa from 2012 until the 2018 trade deadline, when the Rays sent him to the Pirates in what is now one of the more infamous trades in Pittsburgh baseball history. Between Archer’s injuries and struggles with the Pirates, the team unsurprisingly declined their $11MM club option on his services last fall.
Rays Select Hunter Strickland, Place Pete Fairbanks On IL
10:02 am: Fairbanks expects to miss around a month, he tells reporters. Cash says the righty will be shut down from throwing for two to three weeks. (Topkin links).
9:07 am: The Rays are selecting the contract of reliever Hunter Strickland, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link) and Adam Berry of MLB.com (via Twitter). Catcher Joseph Odom has been designated for assignment to open 40-man roster space. Additionally, outfielder Brett Phillips has been activated from the injured list, while right-hander Pete Fairbanks is headed to the 10-day IL with a right rotator cuff strain.
Strickland had a productive run with the Giants from 2015-18 but has fallen on hard times over the past couple seasons. He managed just a 5.55 ERA/5.01 SIERA between the Mariners and Nationals in 2019, then tallied just 3.1 innings of four-run ball with the Mets last year before being sent to the alternate training site. The hard-throwing righty signed a minors contract with Tampa Bay in February and is now in line to make his team debut.
Fairbanks’ loss is another blow to a Rays’ bullpen already without Nick Anderson and Chaz Roe for extended periods of time. It isn’t clear how long Fairbanks will be on the shelf, but a lengthy absence would deprive Tampa Bay of one of their best relievers. The 27-year-old tossed 26.2 innings of 2.70 ERA/3.48 SIERA ball in the regular season in 2020, earning manager Kevin Cash’s trust in the late innings for the postseason.
Phillips returns after opening the year on the IL due to a hamstring strain. He could see some playing time as the fourth outfielder while Kevin Kiermaier is on the shelf with a quad strain. Odom was selected to the Rays’ roster last week and went hitless in a pair of plate appearances.
Rays Place Kevin Kiermaier On Injured List, Claim Deivy Grullon Off Waivers
3:23pm: Kiermaier expects to miss a few weeks, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets.
1:52pm: The Rays on Tuesday announced that they’ve placed center fielder Kevin Kiermaier on the 10-day injured list due to a left quadriceps strain and claimed catcher Deivy Grullon off waivers from the Reds. Infielder Kevin Padlo was recalled to take Kiermaier’s spot on the roster, while righty Chaz Roe was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Grullon. Roe is expected to miss as many as 12 weeks with a shoulder strain.
Grullon, 24, has made extremely brief appearances in the Majors with both the Phillies (2019) and Red Sox (2020) over the past two seasons. In 13 plate appearances, he’s collected two hits, including a double, with a walk and three punchouts. There’s little to glean from such a small sample, but Grullon carries a .283/.354/.496 slash in 457 Triple-A plate appearances and a .264/.302/.494 line in a similar body of work in Double-A. He also went 2-for-13 with a pair of homers and two walks during Spring Training with Cincinnati, but the Reds designated him for assignment when claiming fellow catcher Beau Taylor recently.
Kiermaier, 30, exited last night’s game with tightness in his quad, leading to today’s IL placement. It’s not yet clear how much time he’s expected to miss, though the Rays will surely provide additional updates on his expected recovery as they’re available.
This it the latest in a mounting series of injuries for Kiermaier, an ultra-talented defender with a tantalizing combination of power and speed but questionable durability. Over the past five seasons, Kiermaier has missed time with a fractured hand, a fractured hip, a ligament tear in his right thumb, a sprain in his other thumb and now this latest quadriceps issue. In all, he’s missed almost exactly one third of the Rays’ total games since Opening Day 2016.
Padlo, 24, is a right-handed-hitting corner infielder with impressive power who ranked 20th among Rays farmhands prior to the season, according to Baseball America. He slashed .265/.389/.538 in 432 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A back in 2019 and went 2-for-12 with a homer and six strikeouts this spring. BA’s scouting report pegs him as a solid defender at third but also a likely platoon bat — though the Rays have no trouble maximizing their return on such skill sets.
Chaz Roe Out 12 Weeks Due To Shoulder Injury
The Rays placed right-handed reliever Chaz Roe on the 10-day injured list with a shoulder strain on Monday, but he’ll miss a far longer stretch than that. Roe won’t throw for six weeks, making it likely he’ll sit out 12-plus weeks of game action, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. That means Roe may not return until at least sometime in July.
This is the second blow the Rays’ bullpen has absorbed in the past couple weeks, as the reigning American League champions previously lost standout Nick Anderson until July or later because of a partial tear in his right elbow. Roe hasn’t dominated to the extent that Anderson had since being acquired from Miami, but the 34-year-old has nevertheless put up solid numbers with the Rays since making his team debut in 2017.
Through 119 1/3 frames from 2017-20, Roe notched a 3.54 ERA and logged an above-average 27.7 percent strikeout rate, although he totaled just 9 1/3 innings last season due to an elbow issue. The Rays outrighted Roe at season’s end but ultimately brought him back on a one-year, $1.5MM deal. This past Friday, Roe’s lone appearance so far this year, he surrendered two earned runs on one hit and two walks with a pair of strikeouts in two-thirds of an inning in a win over the Marlins.
To replace Roe, the Rays recalled righty Chris Mazza from their taxi squad. Mazza, whom the Rays acquired from the division-rival Red Sox in February, threw 30 innings of 4.80 ERA/4.97 SIERA ball with subpar strikeout (21.3), walk (11.0) and groundball (33.3) percentages last season. He made his Rays debut against his former team Monday and gave up two earned runs in as many innings.
Between Diego Castillo and Pete Fairbanks, the Rays still have a pair of potentially dominant late-inning righties at their disposal. Still, the early injuries to Anderson and Roe put pressure on the remainder of a relief corps that has some promise but little in the way of certainty. Veteran Collin McHugh has certainly been a quality reliever in the past, but injuries have hampered him in recent years. Ryan Thompson was solid for the Rays in 2020 and posted a huge 59 percent ground-ball rate in 26 innings, but that represents the entirety of the 28-year-old’s MLB experience. Andrew Kittredge had a promising 2019 season before injuries slowed him in 2020. The Rays, of course, have also proven adept at unearthing hidden gems, so it’s quite possible they tap into their farm and find yet another unexpected breakout performer to help shoulder the load.
Quick Hits: Franchise Values, Rays, Cardinals
Major League Baseball teams are up in value by 3 percent from 2020, per the annual report from Forbes’ Mike Ozanian. Baseball’s 30 clubs are now being valued at an all-time high of $1.9 billion. The Yankees saw a 5 percent bump to $5.25 billion at the top of the list. They are not only the most valuable franchise in baseball, but one of the top three most valuable franchises in North America, along with the Cowboys and Knicks. Despite the operating losses many franchises suffered because of the pandemic, the long-term values were buoyed by the sale of the Mets and the valuation of the Boston Red Sox with their pending private equity deal. Ozanian reports that revenue was down 65 percent in 2020 as teams lost $1.8 billion after raking in a $1.5 billion profit the year prior. Check out the full article for the list and methodology. More from around the game…
- “Complex information and simple messages,” that’s the key to the Rays’ run prevention plan, per MLB.com’s Adam Berry. The Rays believe in their ability to develop arms and find value where other teams have missed it. The Rays are famous for their analytical approach, but it might be their ability to effectively communicate their findings to the players on the field that truly makes them stand out as a development center. Throwing strikes and simplifying the approach is a big part of that, but so is giving confidence to guys who have struggled with other organizations. This year, the Rays’ approach will truly be put to the test as they attempt to replace nominal stars like Blake Snell and Charlie Morton with veterans like Chris Archer, Michael Wacha, and Rich Hill.
- After the bullpen logged more innings than starters in their opening series against the Reds, the Cardinals may soon have to consider adding a ninth reliever to the roster, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Jake Woodford made the opening day roster exactly for this possibility, and he soaked up 2 1/3 innings on Saturday afternoon. Seth Elledge and Kodi Whitley are two bullpen arms on the taxi squad that could be added to the roster if the Cardinals decide they need another arm for their series against the Marlins.
Rays Place Ryan Sherriff On Restricted List, Select Joseph Odom
The Rays have placed lefty Ryan Sherriff on the restricted list. The club says that he is “going to take some time away from the game.” To respect his privacy, they will withhold anything more specific for now. Catcher Joseph Odom has been selected to take his place on the roster, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links).
The 30-year-old Sherriff was one of three southpaws in the Rays’ bullpen. Cody Reed and Jeffrey Springs remain. Big picture, Shane McClanahan and Josh Fleming are two more southpaws who will figure into the Rays’ pitching mix at some point this season. Brendan McKay could also make an impact when he returns from the injured list.
As for Sherriff, he was brilliant for the Rays in his 10 appearances last season. He did not allow a run over 9 2/3 innings while coaxing a 56.7 percent groundball rate. He was a late addition to the playoff festivities, joining the active roster for the World Series and tossing two more scoreless frames.
Odom, 29, is new to the Rays’ organization this season. He signed as a free agent this winter after making his Major League debut with the Mariners in 2020. He slashed .129/.209/.128 across 44 plate appearances. For as long as he’s on the roster, Odom will be a third catching option behind Mike Zunino and Francisco Mejia, which may allow manager Kevin Cash to give Mejia an opportunity to DH. Odom was a member of Tampa’s taxi squad.
Rays Have Had Extension Talks With Randy Arozarena
The Rays have had “recent discussions” about a contract extension with outfielder Randy Arozarena, FanSided’s Robert Murray tweets. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times adds that Arozarena is one of several players with whom the Rays have inquired regarding a potential long-term deal, but nothing is close on any front. Still, it’s of at least some note that the team is getting a sense of what it’d take to get last year’s breakout star signed to a long-term pact.
Arozarena, 26, was acquired from the Cardinals in the trade that sent top pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore to St. Louis. He didn’t end up being promoted to the big leagues until late August, but his impact was nearly immediate. Arozarena homered in his fourth game with the Rays and proceeded to go on an otherworldly tear that catapulted him into the national spotlight during postseason play.
From his Aug. 30 debut through the end of the regular season, Arozarena posted a huge .281/.382/.641 slash with seven home runs through 76 plate appearances. That was impressive enough on its own, but he somehow managed to not only improve upon those numbers in the playoffs — but to do so in dramatic fashion. Through an even larger sample of 91 postseason plate appearances, Arozarena erupted with a Herculean .358/.429/.790 batting line. He launched 10 long balls during that historic stretch and took home ALCS MVP honors in the process.
Between the regular season and the playoffs, Arozarena gave the Rays 167 plate appearances of .324/.409/.724 production with a ridiculous 17 home runs in that time. Obviously, that level of output isn’t sustainable, but producing at that rate — often against high-caliber, high-leverage pitchers in the postseason — speaks to the upside Arozarena possesses.
Of course, there are other elements to consider. That’s an exceptionally small sample, impressive as it may be, and Arozarena has never been nearly that productive in the minor leagues. He’s struggled through a dismal Spring Training, slashing just .237/.256/.289 with a 28 percent strikeout rate that is roughly in line with last year’s strikeout tendencies. He was also briefly detained in Mexico over the winter after allegedly getting into a physical altercation with the father of his former girlfriend during an apparent custody dispute regarding Arozarena’s daughter. Arozarena and his former partner reached an agreement to settle the matter without further legal action being taken, however.
The Rays currently control Arozarena all the way through the 2026 season, and he won’t even be eligible for arbitration until the 2022-23 offseason, depending on whether he secures Super Two status. He’s currently on pace to enter that offseason with two years, 129 days of big league service, which would indeed lead to Super Two eligibility based on recent history.
Currently, Ronald Acuna Jr.‘s $100MM contract with the Braves is currently the largest ever guaranteed to a player with under one year of Major League service time, though that contract came after Acuna had racked up 487 big league plate appearances and been named National League Rookie of the Year. More plausible points of comparison, speculatively speaking, could be the White Sox’ contract extensions with Eloy Jimenez (six years, $43MM) and Luis Robert (six years, $50MM). Both of those deals, however, came before either player had taken a single big league plate appearance.
Ji-Man Choi To Undergo Arthroscopic Knee Surgery
Rays first baseman Ji-Man Choi will be sidelined for three to five weeks after undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his right knee, manager Kevin Cash announced this morning (Twitter link via Rays broadcaster Neil Solondz). Because the surgery has yet to be performed, a concrete timeline is not yet known, but he’ll likely be out into May. Choi’s surgery is set for tomorrow morning.
Choi has been hobbled by discomfort in his knee this spring and hasn’t suited up for a game since mid-March. He appeared in just five official Grapefruit League games before being shut down, and it now looks as though his absence will ultimately span a couple of months in total. Yoshi Tsutsugo has been logging some time at first base and could see extra at-bats in Choi’s absence, and the Rays also have Yandy Diaz and Mike Brosseau as options there. Second baseman Brandon Lowe played a handful of games at first base in 2019 as well.
The 29-year-old Choi has spent the past two and a half seasons with the Rays, turning in a strong .257/.359/.461 batting line with 30 homers, 45 doubles and three triples through 821 trips to the plate. Based on the strength of that showing, he and the Rays agreed to a one-year, $2.45MM contract over the winter during his first trip through the arbitration process.