Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Rays Rumors

Pirates Claim Michael Perez Off Waivers From Rays

By | at

The Pirates have claimed catcher Michael Pérez off waivers from the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). Fellow catcher Kevan Smith and right-handers Andrew Kittredge and Chaz Roe each cleared waivers and elected free agency.

Pérez has hit .221/.286/.314 in 228 plate appearances over parts of three seasons in Tampa Bay. The 28-year-old has a pair of option seasons remaining and isn’t yet eligible for arbitration, so he’s an affordable piece to either back up Jacob Stallings or perhaps get the lion’s share of playing time behind the plate if Stallings is dealt this winter.

Between the declination of Mike Zunino’s club option and the losses of Pérez and Smith, the Rays are set to completely revamp their catching mix this offseason.

Rays To Decline Options On Charlie Morton, Mike Zunino

By | at

The Rays are not going to exercise their club options on right-hander Charlie Morton or catcher Mike Zunino, vice president of baseball operations Erik Neander told reporters (including Juan Toribio of MLB.com and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Morton’s option was valued at $15MM, while Zunino stood to make $4.5MM if his option were exercised. Neither player will receive a buyout and both are now free agents.

Tampa Bay is leaving the door open to bringing either player back, Neander adds (via Toribio). They’re particularly interested in retaining Morton, it seems, with Neander noting the parties will look for a “creative” way to keep him in the fold (Topkin link).

Both players had important roles on the Rays’ pennant-winning 2020 club, but Morton is the more notable of the two. The 36-year-old (37 next month) was a Cy Young finalist just a year ago, when he tossed 194.2 innings of 3.05 ERA ball. He took a bit of a step back over nine regular-season starts this season but he still looks like a strong mid-rotation starter at the very least. He reaffirmed that with four stellar postseason starts.

Morton immediately becomes one of the best pitchers on the free agent market, but it remains to be seen how much interest he’ll have in exploring deals with other teams. The veteran makes his home in Florida, a key point in his decision to sign with the Rays as a free agent after the 2018 season. Earlier this month, Morton said he’d seriously discuss the possibility of retirement with his family if the Rays declined his option. At the moment, though, he “is believed to want to continue his career,” hears Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).

As for Zunino, the call was probably a bit easier for the front office. The former third overall pick has started just over half the Rays’ games behind the plate the past two years but hasn’t hit much. Since Tampa Bay acquired him from the Mariners, Zunino has hit just .161/.233/.323 over 373 plate appearances. He struck out in 64 of his 140 plate appearances between the regular season and playoffs in 2020. The well-regarded defender hits the market at just 29 years of age, though.

Brett Phillips, The Rays’ Thrice-Traded Hero

By | at

Despite the new August 31 date and all the uncertainty about how player movement would be impacted by the circumstances of the pandemic-shortened season, the lead-up to the 2020 trade deadline went more or less the same as deadlines past.  Some big names switched uniforms, non-contenders looked to dump salary and add prospects, and just about as always, one unheralded trade ended up paying big dividends in October.

On August 27, the Rays made a move to shore up their bench depth by acquiring Brett Phillips from the Royals in exchange for infield prospect Lucius Fox.  It was one of several seemingly minor swaps Tampa Bay made prior to the August 31 deadline, and while the Rays were already coasting towards a postseason spot by that point, the argument could have been made that a bigger move was necessary to boost their chances at a championship.

Little did we know, the Phillips trade was that move.  Phillips’ ninth-inning RBI single last night started a wild, game-deciding sequence and an 8-7 comeback victory for Tampa in Game 4 of the World Series.  After entering the game as a pinch-runner in the previous inning, Phillips’ first plate appearance since October 7 resulted in his entry into instant legend status in Rays history.

Not bad for a player who was primarily seen as a defensive and pinch-running specialist at the time of his acquisition.  In fact, it’s not bad for a 26-year-old player playing for his fourth different organization, which is perhaps why Phillips was such an unlikely candidate to deliver the Rays’ biggest hit.

Originally a sixth-round pick for the Astros in the 2012 draft, Phillips began to turn heads after a very impressive 2014 season at the A-ball and high-A levels.  He continued to produce into 2015, and while this breakout might have made him into a building block for the rebuilding Astros if it had happened a bit earlier in Phillips’ career, by 2015 the Astros were looking to win.  As such, Houston made a major trade deadline swap with the Brewers that sent Phillips, Josh Hader, Domingo Santana, and Adrian Houser to Milwaukee in exchange for Carlos Gomez, Mike Fiers, and $287,500 in international bonus pool money.

The Astros went on to reach the postseason that year, falling to the Royals in the ALDS, yet the aftershocks of this trade continue to reverberate around baseball.  Gomez ended up being something of a disappointment for Houston that year, though Fiers went on to become a solid member of the Astros’ rotation through their 2017 World Series-winning season and then…well, you know the rest.  On Milwaukee’s end of the deal, Hader developed into one of the game’s best relief aces, Hauser has emerged as an intriguing starter, and Santana delivered some solid production over 351 games for the Brew Crew before he was traded to the Mariners in the 2018-19 offseason.

The one weak link of the Brewers’ trade return, however, was Phillips.  There was no doubt that Phillips had MLB-caliber speed and glovework, except after a promising .799 OPS over 98 plate appearances in 2017, he struggled badly the next season and found himself on the move again.

This time, Phillips was headed to Kansas City (along with right-hander Jorge Lopez) in another deadline deal, as Milwaukee picked up Mike Moustakas for the pennant race.  The Moose was a key part of a Brewers team that came within a game of the 2018 NL pennant, and the Brew Crew reached the playoffs again in 2019 thanks in large part to Moustakas’ All-Star season.  For Phillips, he found himself on another rebuilding team with another opportunity at a fresh start, yet he again couldn’t capitalize — Phillips hit .178/.256/.308 over 236 PA spanning three seasons with the Royals.

As a player who relied on doubles and triples rather than homers, Phillips wasn’t quite a “three true outcomes” player in the minors, though he used a keen batting eye to counter-act his strikeouts and generate a career .274/.362/.478 slash line over 3174 PA.  The problem is, Major League pitchers have feasted on those holes in Phillips’ swing, as he has struck out 133 times in his 383 plate appearances at the big league level.

Phillips’ trade history is indicative of his declining prospect stock, as he went from a headline piece of a blockbuster deal to last August’s swap that didn’t generate many headlines.  Not many headlines, that is, until last night.  While Phillips’ first two trades carried so much import for other teams and players involved, it wasn’t until his third time changing uniforms that Phillips himself now stands as the most important part of a trade.  Phillips is still only 26, and given the Rays’ penchant for finding hidden gems, perhaps last night’s heroics will only raise the curtain on a big second act of Phillips’ Major League career.

Quick Hits: Rockies, Pint, Mackanin, Sherriff

By | at

Some notes from around the league:

  • One key decision for the Rockies this offseason is whether to add Riley Pint to the 40-man roster, observes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Selected fourth overall in the 2016 draft out of a Kansas high school, Pint must either be added to the 40-man or exposed to the Rule 5 draft this winter. The 22-year-old (23 in November) has been undone by strike-throwing issues ever since draft day. In parts of four minor-league seasons, none above Low-A, Pint has managed only a 5.71 ERA across 156 innings thanks to an alarming 7.2 BB/9. However, Rockies assistant GM Zach Wilson points out (via Saunders) that Pint still has the high-octane stuff that made him so well-regarded as an amateur and has made strides mentally and mechanically.
  • The Phillies informed a handful of staffers their contracts weren’t being renewed in recent days, reports Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Among those let go was former Phils manager Pete Mackanin, who had been with the organization as a special assistant to general manager Matt Klentak (who himself stepped down from that position earlier this month). The 69-year-old Mackanin took over the managerial chair in Philadelphia in the middle of 2015, a title he’d hold until he was reassigned to the special assistant role after the 2017 season.
  • Rays reliever Ryan Sherriff worked his way back from a 2018 Tommy John surgery to appear on Tampa Bay’s World Series roster. This season marked his first big league action since a 2017-18 stint with the Cardinals, as Sherriff discusses with Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Released by St. Louis in August 2018, two months after undergoing surgery, Sherriff concedes he was frustrated with the way things ended. In light of his success with the Rays, Sherriff now considers his Cardinals release the “best thing that ever happened to me.” A grievance filed in 2018 against the St. Louis organization for back pay and MLB service time related to the date of Sherriff’s injury is still pending, Goold reports.

Rays To Start Blake Snell In World Series Game 6

By | at

Last night’s back-and-forth thriller ended with an 8-7 Rays win. That knotted the World Series at two games apiece, setting the stage for a Tyler Glasnow – Clayton Kershaw showdown in tonight’s crucial Game 5.

Tampa Bay’s win also guaranteed the series will go at least six games. Unsurprisingly, Blake Snell is set to take the ball for the Rays in the sixth contest on Tuesday night (via Juan Toribio of MLB.com). That’ll give the southpaw five days rest since his most recent start in Game 2, when he tossed 4.2 innings of two-run ball, striking out nine while allowing a pair of hits and four walks.

Snell was warming in the bullpen in the late innings last night, but manager Kevin Cash decided against bringing him into the game. How the Dodgers will deploy their pitching staff in Game 6 remains to be seen, but it’s easy to envision a potential Game 7 matchup between Charlie Morton and Walker Buehler.

Quick Hits: Bauer, Angels, Hill

By | at

The Rays are changing it up tonight in an effort to even up the World Series with the Dodgers, per MLB.com’s Juan Toribio (via Twitter). Against the southpaw Julio Urías, the Rays have dropped Brandon Lowe to the 5-spot, while lefty killer Mike Brosseau gets the start at third base batting third. Hunter Renfroe gets the start in right field in place of Austin Meadows. The Rays tend to play match-ups against lefties, but don’t be surprised to see Ji-Man Choi or Meadows come in off the bench late in the game. While we wait for first pitch, let’s see what else is going on around the game…

  • Trevor Bauer had more fun playing baseball with the Reds this season than in any of his prior professional campaigns, per the Athletic’s C. Trent Rosencrans. That bodes well for a return to Cincinnati for the free agent hurler, though the financial component will still have to be figured out by new head baseball decision-maker Nick Krall. Projecting free agent contracts has never been a murkier business than this season following widespread revenue loss around baseball. Bauer figures to be a rare free agent not to have his market diminished all that much, not after a Cy Young worthy campaign.
  • The Angels will consider ex-Marlins executive Michael Hill to fill their General Manager vacancy, per MLB Network contributor Craig Mish (via Twitter). By all accounts, Hill’s departure from Miami stemmed from a salary disagreement, which would not be out of character for the cost conscious Marlins. Hill had been with the Marlins in one capacity or another since 2002. The Angels would represent a starkly different challenge for Hill, who has spent years managing slow-burn rebuilds in Miami. Whoever takes over baseball ops in Los Angeles will be pressured to get the team back to the playoffs as soon as possible, lest another year of Mike Trout’s prime pass by without postseason play.

Quick Hits: LeMahieu, Angels, Dombrowski, Pino, Crawford

By | at

Don’t count on a reunion between DJ LeMahieu and the Rockies.  Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post recently contacted “those close to LeMahieu” to gauge the chances of the free agent returning to his former team, and “was told that while [LeMahieu is] keeping his options open, he doesn’t see the Rockies as a good fit for him.”  LeMahieu spent seven seasons with the Rox from 2012-18, a stretch that saw him make three All-Star appearances, win two Gold Gloves, and capture the 2016 NL batting title.

After leaving Coors Field to sign with the Yankees in the 2018-19 offseason, however, LeMahieu hit another level, posting MVP-type numbers over his two seasons in the Bronx.  It’s certainly possible that LeMahieu simply remains in New York, though several teams are bound to inquire about his services — that is to say, teams with more available payroll and perhaps closer to immediate contention than the Rockies.

As we await tomorrow’s Game 3 of the World Series, some more from around the baseball world…

  • Multiple reports linked Dave Dombrowski was a favorite to take over the Angels’ front office, though after almost a month, there hasn’t been much new information on that front.  In fact, in an appearance on Jon Heyman’s Big Time Baseball podcast (audio link), USA Today’s Bob Nightengale believes Dombrowski will “absolutely not” end up in Anaheim.  Both Heyman and Nightengale think Dombrowski might remain in Nashville, where he is part of a group vying to bring an expansion team to the Music City, with Nightengale opining that the Phillies could also potentially be a fit for Dombrowski as a win-now team.  As for the Angels’ job, Nightengale thinks their search is “wide open“at this point.  Earlier reports have suggested that the Angels are just beginning their search, and Nightengale thinks a new front office boss might not be in place until close to Thanksgiving.
  • 16-year-old Cuban outfielder Luis Pino worked out for scouts this week in the Dominican Republic, and ESPN.com’s Enrique Rojas (Spanish language link) reports that the Athletics and Rays are the favorites to land Pino when the international signing window opens on January 15.  The Giants, Cubs, White Sox, Red Sox and Padres have also shown interest in Pino, who seems likely to command a bonus of $1MM or more.
  • Longtime Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford enjoyed one of his best seasons in 2020, rebounding from a down year both offensively and defensively in 2019.  As NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic notes, Crawford’s return to form solidified the Giants’ shortstop situation, and the team can now be more confident that Crawford can still be a productive player as he heads into his age-34 campaign.  2021 will also be the final year of Crawford’s contract with San Francisco, however, and the Giants have a star shortstop prospect in Marco Luciano coming down the pipeline.  Luciano could potentially be ready for a regular role by 2022, so it remains to be seen if Crawford will only be a bridge to Luciano or if the veteran could potentially still land another deal to stay in the orange and black.

Looking Back At The Randy Arozarena Trade

By | at

For starters, yes, it’s now officially “The Randy Arozarena Trade.”

Arozarena has been the star of the Rays’ postseason run, hitting an incredible .382/.433/.855 with seven home runs over 60 plate appearances in these playoffs.  The 25-year-old outfielder’s performance earned him ALCS MVP honors, making him the first rookie position player in baseball history to ever be named MVP of a league championship series or World Series.

It’s pretty on-brand for the Rays’ style of roster-building that their October hero is someone a lot of fans probably had never heard of as recently as September.  For a team that is rightly credited for a strong minor league system, it’s a little surprising that so few members of Tampa Bay’s World Series roster are actually homegrown players — only seven of the 28 players came up entirely through the Rays’ pipeline, with the other 21 all acquired via signings or trades.

Case in point, Arozarena.  Back in January, the Rays and Cardinals completed a multi-player deal that, at the time, was best known as “the Jose Martinez trade” or even “the Matthew Liberatore trade.”  Tampa Bay sent top pitching prospect Liberatore, catching prospect Edgardo Rodriguez, and their draft pick in Competitive Balance Round B (which ended up 63rd overall) to St. Louis in exchange for Martinez, the Cards’ pick in Competitive Balance Round A (or the 37th overall pick) and a certain future ALCS MVP.

At the time, Martinez was easily the best-known quantity, having hit .298/.363/.458 with 41 homers over 1288 PA for the Cardinals in 2016-19.  If you had predicted in January that a player from this trade would help lead the Rays to the AL pennant, the assumption would have been that Martinez continued (or improved upon) the offensive production he delivered in St. Louis.  A move to the American League was long seen as a way to possibly fully unlock his potential, as the defensively-challenged Martinez would no longer have to worry about playing the field in a league with a designated hitter position.

As it turned out, Martinez didn’t even finish the season in Tampa.  After missing much of Summer Camp due to a positive COVID-19 test, Martinez hit .239/.329/.388 over 76 PA for the Rays and was traded to the Cubs in a deadline deal for two players to be named later.  Martinez then didn’t collect a single hit over 22 PA for Chicago, and now looks like he could be a non-tender candidate this winter.

It’s worth noting that Martinez didn’t hit as well in 2019 as he did in 2017-18, leading some Tampa fans to wonder why a 31-year-old DH type was the apparent headliner of a trade package for one of the Rays’ (and baseball’s) top prospects.  Liberatore was the 16th overall pick of the 2018 draft and a consensus top-65 prospect, and even accounting for the lost 2020 minor league season, there’s no reason to believe Liberatore couldn’t still become a quality MLB starter.  Liberatore could even factor into the Cardinals’ pitching plans for 2021, as president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said Liberatore impressed the team while working out at the alternate training site this summer.

Arozarena was a well-regarded prospect in his own right, but hardly a top-100 type or even one of the top-tier names in the Cardinals’ system alone; MLB Pipeline ranked Arozarena as the tenth-best St. Louis minor leaguer at the time of the trade.  Since the Cards were already overloaded with outfield candidates, it was more than understandable that Mozeliak and company jumped to unload some of that surplus while bringing back a promising minor league arm.  Granted, St. Louis fans might not agree with this logic based on immediate returns, as several Cards outfielders (such as Tyler O’Neill, Lane Thomas, and even top prospect Dylan Carlson) badly struggled at the plate in 2020 while Arozarena thrived in Tampa Bay.

As valuable of an asset as Liberatore was and still is, however, the Rays felt okay with moving a piece of their future for the win-now addition of some outfield bats.  This is where the Rays’ outstanding player development system really comes into play — Tampa Bay is comfortable in taking the risk in trading such prospects because the front office has confidence they can always draft, acquire, and develop more good players to fill that void.

In a baseball world that holds top-100 prospects in higher regard than ever before, the Rays have dealt three such players (Liberatore, Jesus Sanchez, and Nick Solak) since July 2019, bringing back the likes of Arozarena, Nick Anderson, Peter Fairbanks, and Trevor Richards in return.  All are controllable young players in their own right, and all have been able to contribute at the big league level more immediately, with Arozarena, Anderson, and Fairbanks in particular all being major components of Tampa’s push to the World Series.

The Rays/Cardinals trade is also perhaps instructional in considering just how much teams value draft position.  The concept of trading draft picks is still unusual in baseball terms (the Competitive Balance Round selections are the only picks that can be traded), though fans of the NFL, NBA, or NHL are very familiar with how much teams in those sports often have to surrender in order to trade up in those respective drafts.  A 26-spot jump in the draft was a big leap upwards for the Rays, who used that 37th overall pick on Arizona State shortstop Alika Williams.  St. Louis, meanwhile, took Arkansas high school pitcher Tink Hence with the 63rd overall pick.

Perhaps in a decade’s time, we’ll look back on this deal as “The Alika Williams Trade” or “The Tink Hence Trade,” or even “The Edgardo Rodriguez Trade.”  Since the swap has already led to at least an AL pennant, the Rays likely won’t be too upset if Hence, Rodriguez, or Liberatore end up being staples of the Cardinals’ roster.  While fans take stock of which teams “win” or “lose” trades, most front offices hope all their deals are win-win moves — it won’t help future trade negotiations, naturally, if other teams are too wary of a club who only trades away future underachievers.

The Rays do tend to come out on the better end of trades more often than not, however, which is why the low-payroll franchise is currently playing for a World Series title.  Every playoff champion seems to have at least one unheralded acquisition leading the way, and while Arozarena is but one of several such players on Tampa Bay’s roster, his immediate impact and long-term potential make him a particular success story for the Rays’ front office.

Rays Add Brett Phillips, Ryan Sherriff To World Series Roster

By | at

The Rays have set their roster for their upcoming World Series showdown with the National League Champion Dodgers. They’ll carry mostly the same group of players that toppled the Astros in a riveting seven-game American League Championship Series, with a few notable changes. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that outfielder Brett Phillips and left-handed reliever Ryan Sherriff have both been added to the roster, taking the spots of right-hander Aaron Slegers and lefty Jose Alvarado.

Here’s how the roster breaks down:

Right-Handed Pitchers

Left-Handed Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Unlike the Division Series and League Championship Series, the World Series has a pair of off-days built into the schedule, which likely contributed heavily to Tampa Bay’s decision to carry an extra position player in the final round of play. In Phillips, they’ll add a rocket-armed and fleet-footed reserve outfielder who can provide some speed off the bench and a defensive upgrade late in games. Phillips tallied just 59 plate appearances in 2020 between the Royals and Rays, hitting .196/.305/.392. He was six-for-seven in stolen bases, however, and has developed a penchant for making highlight-reel throws from the outfield with an arm that regularly drew 70 grades and even a few 80 grades on scouting reports.

The 30-year-old Sherriff returned from a lengthy absence due to Tommy John surgery to give the Rays 9 2/3 shutout frames during the regular season. He has a limited Major League track record, having pitched a bit for the Cardinals previously. Sherriff only struck out two hitters in those 9 2/3 innings, but he also recorded a hefty 56.7 percent ground-ball rate. In all, he has a 2.73 ERA with a 20-to-8 K/BB ratio and a 60.4 percent grounder rate in 29 2/3 Major League innings.

Alvarado was added to the ALCS roster after sitting out the Wild Card and ALDS rounds. He’d been sidelined by a shoulder issue since mid-August prior to that point, and he’ll now be swapped out for Sherriff, it seems. Alvarado tossed 1 2/3 scoreless frames against the Astros but did walk three of the five batters he faced in his second appearance. Slegers has allowed just one run in five innings to this point in the postseason after giving the Rays 26 frames of 3.46 ERA/3.04 FIP ball during the regular season.

AL Notes: Astros, Kiermaier, Orioles, Bannon, Rangers

By | at

Some notes from the American League:

  • George Springer and Michael Brantley will be two of the top free agents on the market this offseason. Astros general manager James Click confirmed the organization will look into bringing both players back, but he also cautioned that the club has to “balance the present and the future” (via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle). Click pointed to the broad financial uncertainty throughout the sport thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, while expressing a more general desire to avoid “a series of short-sighted moves that (would) put us in a bad position for the long term.” If Springer and/or Brantley were to depart, the outfield would have to be addressed in some way, with Kyle Tucker the only in-house replacement locked into an everyday role. Houston will certainly make a qualifying offer to Springer, at least guaranteeing themselves draft compensation if the sides don’t agree on a deal. The QO decision on Brantley will be a tougher call.
  • There’s more certainty on the Astros’ coaching staff than there is in the outfield. Manager Dusty Baker confirmed to reporters (including Jake Kaplan of the Athletic) the entire staff is invited back for 2021. Baker himself is under contract next season by virtue of Houston’s exercising his club option in July. Bench coach Joe Espada, hitting coaches Álex Cintrón and Troy Snitker, and pitching coach Brent Strom headline Baker’s assistant group.
  • Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier suffered a wrist injury when he was hit by a pitch in Game 3 of the ALCS. He’ll be a full-go for the World Series, he told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). That’s not particularly surprising, since the 30-year-old returned to Tampa Bay’s starting lineup for Game 7 against Houston. The three-time Gold Glove winner has been an integral part of the Rays’ superlative team defense this postseason.
  • The Orioles will have to decide whether to add infielder Rylan Bannon to their 40-man roster in advance of this winter’s Rule 5 draft. In an effort to improve his chances of cracking the roster, Bannon is expanding his defensive repertoire, as Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball details. “I’m (at instructional league) to work on second base stuff, and kind of surprising, (Friday) was my second day of working on a little bit of catching stuff,” Bannon said. The 24-year-old started 37 minor-league games at the keystone in 2019, compared with 84 starts at third. He has never lined up behind the plate. Part of the five-player return from the Dodgers in the Manny Machado trade, Bannon combined for a .266/.345/.421 line between Double-A and Triple-A last season.
  • The Rangers hope to fill their pitching coach vacancy by the conclusion of the World Series, reports T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. That individual is expected to come from within the organization, Sullivan adds. Texas parted ways with former pitching coach Julio Rangel earlier this month.
Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top