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Rays Option Chandler Simpson

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The Rays optioned top prospect Chandler Simpson to Triple-A Durham this afternoon. That opens a spot on the active roster for Jake Mangum, who was reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Mangum is back after a five-week absence due to a left groin strain.

Simpson heads back down after a six-week run on the big league roster. The Rays selected his contract in the middle of April. The lefty-hitting outfielder appeared in 35 games, hitting .285/.315/.317 through his first 133 plate appearances. There was no power production and a low walk rate, but he kept his strikeout rate below 11% to post a strong batting average.

As expected, he was a menace on the bases. Simpson stole 19 bags in 22 attempts, already launching him to third in MLB (behind Luis Robert Jr. and Bobby Witt Jr.). Those players have been in the big leagues all season, of course. No other player has stolen more than 15 bases since Simpson’s call-up on April 18.

It’s the same profile that the Georgia Tech product has shown throughout his minor league career. Simpson is an elite contact hitter and among the fastest players in the sport. He’s an otherworldly baserunner who successively swiped 94 and 104 bases during his first two full minor league seasons. His 198 combined steals led all minor league players by 68 over that stretch.

The question is how much value Simpson can wring out of that approach when he has zero power. He’s hit one professional home run, an inside-the-parker at Double-A last season. He only collected four extra-base hits in his first MLB look, all of which were doubles. He’s last among MLB hitters (minimum 100 plate appearances) in hard contact rate. A lot could come down to how well he develops defensively. Scouting reports haven’t been enamored with his reads and routes. His speed certainly gives him the potential to be a rangy defender, but he did not grade well over his first 284 MLB innings between center and left field.

Tampa Bay has used Kameron Misner in center with Simpson in left for the past two weeks. Mangum, who was hitting .338/.384/.397 in 21 games before his injury, figures to take over as the starting left fielder. Jonny DeLuca was expected to feature prominently this year as well, but he’s been out since late March with a right shoulder strain. DeLuca revealed this week that he suffered a setback as he continues to feel pain in his rotator cuff, primarily on throws (link via Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times). There’s no suggestion of surgery but he was pulled off the rehab assignment that he’d begun over the weekend.

Rays Sign Kyle Gibson To Minor League Deal

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4:25pm: The Rays announced that they have signed Gibson to a minor league contract.

3:20pm: Right-hander Kyle Gibson is signing with the Rays, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s unclear if it’s a major or minor league deal. If it’s a big league deal, the Rays have an open 40-man spot after designating catcher Ben Rortvedt for assignment earlier today, so they would only need to make a corresponding active roster move.

Gibson, 37, is a veteran with a solid track record but he is having a rough season so far. He lingered in free agency for a long time, eventually signing a one-year, $5.25MM deal with the Orioles less than a week before Opening Day. Since he missed spring training, he agreed to be optioned to the minors to get built up. He was called up at the end of April but got pounded, allowing 23 earned runs in 12 1/3 innings over four starts. The O’s then designated him for assignment and released him.

That leaves Baltimore on the hook for the remainder of that salary, meaning any club can sign Gibson and only pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the O’s pay.

It seems the Rays are willing to overlook Gibson’s 16.78 ERA in 2025 to focus more on his career track record. He has 1,878 big league innings under his belt with a 4.60 ERA on the whole. As recently as last year, he was a solid innings eater at the back-end of a rotation. He made 30 starts for the Cardinals in 2024, logging 169 2/3 frames with a 4.24 ERA, 20.9% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 44.8% ground ball rate.

The Tampa rotation has been without Shane McClanahan all year but has otherwise been remarkably healthy. Apart from one Joe Boyle spot start, every other game has been started by the quintet of Taj Bradley, Ryan Pepiot, Drew Rasmussen, Zack Littell and Shane Baz. No one in that group has an ERA higher than 4.94 this year. The Rays also have guys like Boyle, Joe Rock and Ian Seymour on the 40-man roster and pitching in Triple-A.

Regardless, there’s no real harm to adding Gibson since the O’s are responsible for most of his salary. The Rays could be adding a bit of non-roster rotation depth or perhaps they want Gibson to jump into their big league bullpen and serve as a long reliever. It’s also possible that one of their big league starters has some sort of ailment that has not yet been publicly reported. Time will tell what the Rays have in mind for Gibson’s usage but he’s a respected veteran with a solid track record and essentially no cost.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images

Rays Designate Ben Rortvedt For Assignment

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May 28: The Rays announced this morning that Rortvedt has indeed been designated for assignment. Thaiss has been added to the active roster and will presumably be with his new team for this afternoon’s series finale versus Minnesota.

May 27: The Rays intend to designate catcher Ben Rortvedt for assignment, reports Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. That will clear an active roster spot for new backup catcher Matt Thaiss, who was acquired from the White Sox this afternoon. Topkin notes that Rortvedt was bidding emotional farewells to his teammates after tonight’s loss to Minnesota.

Rortvedt is out of options. The Rays cannot send him down without putting him on waivers. They’re not going to carry three catchers or move on from starter Danny Jansen, so the Thaiss pickup made a Rortvedt DFA more or less inevitable. The lefty-hitting Rortvedt went 0-3 with a strikeout tonight and is down to an .095/.186/.111 slash line through 70 plate appearances. His strikeout and walk numbers are solid enough, but he has only managed one extra-base hit while ranking near the bottom of the league in hard contact rate.

Tampa Bay acquired Rortvedt from the Yankees in a three-team deal on the eve of Opening Day 2024. He started a little more than half the team’s games last season, batting .228/.317/.303 across a career-high 328 plate appearances. The Rays signed Jansen to an $8.5MM free agent deal to supplant Rortvedt as the primary catcher. The drop in his already poor offense has now squeezed him off the roster. While Thaiss has very little power himself, he’s at least getting on base at a huge .382 clip over 35 games this year.

A former second-pick of the Twins, Rortvedt is a capable defensive catcher. He has graded as a slightly above-average framer and blocker in his career. He has solid arm strength and has thrown out six of 27 attempted base-stealers. Once the Rays officially announce the DFA, they’ll have five days to explore trade scenarios. They’d place him on waivers if they don’t find a trade partner. An acquiring team would need to plug him directly onto the MLB roster.

Rays Acquire Matt Thaiss

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The White Sox have traded catcher Matt Thaiss to the Rays for minor league outfielder Dru Baker, according to announcements from both clubs. Since Baker wasn’t on the 40-man, the Rays transferred outfielder Jonny DeLuca to the 60-day injured list in order to open a spot for Thaiss. They will need to open an active roster spot once Thaiss reports to the club. Chicago’s 40-man count drops to 39. In terms of their active roster, catcher Korey Lee has been reinstated from the IL to take the vacated spot.

Thaiss, 30, was just acquired by the Sox in the offseason. They sent cash to the Cubs, bringing Thaiss to the South Side. He has appeared in 35 games and stepped to the plate 110 times, with some positive results. He has just one home run but has walked more than he has been struck out, drawing a free pass in 20.9% of his appearances compared to a 19.1% strikeout rate.

That’s better than his previous work on offense. With the Angels in 2023 and 2024, he made 493 trips to the plate. He had a strong 13% walk rate over those seasons but also struck out at a high clip of 28.6%. He was flipped to the Cubs and then the White Sox in offseason trades.

His work behind the plate has been more of a question mark, as he has never received excellent marks back there. Baseball Prospectus and Statcast have considered his blocking and throwing to be adequate but with subpar framing. FanGraphs agrees that Thaiss hasn’t been a great framer in his career but has him above average so far in 2025.

Though his work for the Sox has been adequate on the whole, he never seemed likely to spend a long time on the roster. Thaiss started the year sharing the catching time with Lee, but the Sox had two top prospects waiting in the wings: Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel.

Lee went to the IL fairly early in the season, landing there due to a left ankle sprain on April 10th. That got Omar Narváez to the big leagues briefly but Quero was up in the majors a week later. Now that Lee is healthy again, he and Quero will share the catching work. Teel is playing great in Triple-A and could be up in the majors soon as well. Those factors have all pushed the out-of-options Thaiss off the roster.

For the Rays, they’ve been deploying a tandem of Danny Jansen and Ben Rortvedt behind the plate this year. Jansen started slow but has been heating up lately, getting his line to .200/.333/.336 for the year, which leads to a 103 wRC+. Rortvedt, on the other hand, has a dreary .100/.194/.117 line. That’s only 67 plate appearances but he now has a .187/.277/.266 line and 61 wRC+ over 572 plate appearances in his big league career.

Rortvedt is out of options, so it’s possible he’ll be designated for assignment once Thaiss is able to join the team. If the switch works, the Rays could keep Thaiss beyond 2025. He came into this year with his service clock at three years and 38 days, meaning this is his first of three arbitration seasons. With Jansen on a one-year deal, Thaiss has a chance to stick with the Rays for 2026 if he holds his spot through the end of this season.

In order to make that potential upgrade behind the plate, they are parting with Baker. Now 25 years old, he was selected by the Rays in the fourth round of the 2021 draft. He is considered a capable outfielder but his bat has stalled out at the upper minor league levels. Since getting promoted to Double-A in August of 2023, he has a .280/.345/.338 batting line and 101 wRC+. That includes a .245/.344/.302 line at the Triple-A level.

Even if he doesn’t hit much, Baker at least has wheels. He stole 49 bags in 2023 and 42 last year. For the Sox, they were probably going to cut Thaiss soon anyway, so they have traded him in for a flier on Baker. Baker could perhaps serve as a speedy bench outfielder, with any offensive developments on top of that being a bonus.

As for DeLuca, he suffered a shoulder strain in early April. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement, so he will be eligible for reinstatement on June 6th. He just started a rehab assignment on the weekend, so he could perhaps be ready to return to the big leagues once that date rolls around.

Photo courtesy of Denny Medley, Imagn Images

Five Rays Players Nearing Return From Injured List

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Ha-Seong Kim began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Durham today, marking both his first official on-field appearance with the Rays organization and the first minor league game of his four-plus years in North American baseball, as Kim never saw any time in the minors when he was a member of the Padres from 2021-24.  Kim underwent shoulder surgery last October, which chilled his free agent market and allowed Tampa to swoop in for a two-year, $29MM guarantee that allows the infielder to opt out after the 2025 campaign.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that Kim and four other injured Rays players (Jonny DeLuca, Jake Mangum, Travis Jankowski, Kevin Kelly) are all scheduled to be activated from the IL over the next few weeks, which might make for a bit of a roster crunch as the Rays figure out how to make room for everyone.  Some holes will be created when some current players are optioned to the minors, though Topkin figures the Rays will at least check out the trade market to see if any of their surplus players could potentially draw interest from other teams.

Evan Longoria To Sign One-Day Contract, Retire As Member Of Rays

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Three-time All-Star and 2008 American League Rookie of the Year Evan Longoria will sign a one-day contract to officially retire as a member of his original organization, the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’ll be honored in a ceremony before the Rays’ game on June 7.

Longoria sat out the 2024 season and said last summer that he was not pursuing a return to playing but was also not formally filing his retirement paperwork just yet. That left the door ever so slightly cracked for one final comeback bid, but Longoria will now formally call it a career after nearly 2000 big league games and more than 8200 major league plate appearances.

Longoria, 39, was the No. 3 overall pick by the Rays out of Long Beach State back in 2006. He was in the majors less than two years later, getting his first call to the majors on April 12, 2008. He signed a six-year, $17.5MM extension just six games into his major league career. At the time, bets of that magnitude on such young and unproven players were nowhere near as commonplace as they are in today’s game.

That extension, which contained a trio of club options, was the largest deal ever guaranteed to a player with such little MLB experience at the time it was signed. Longoria wasted little time in proving it money well spent. He hit .272/.343/.531 with 27 homers, 31 doubles and a pair of triples as a rookie, making the American All-Star team just a few months into his MLB career.

From 2008-13, Longoria was on the short list of best players in MLB. Only Miguel Cabrera, Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez generated more wins above replacement than Longoria’s 34.8 in that span, per FanGraphs. His 12th-inninng walk-off home run (video link) in the final game of the 2011 regular season wound up propelling Tampa Bay to the postseason that year, and Longoria’s celebratory trot with both arms above his head as he rounded first base is a timeless memory for Tampa Bay fans — one that the team commemorated with a statue outside of Tropicana Field.

Longoria proved such a bargain and such a critical piece to the Rays’ success that in November 2012, they extended him for a second time — this time on the first nine-figure contract in franchise history. Tampa Bay exercised all three of Longoria’s club options in one fell swoop and tacked on another six years and $100MM in new money (bringing the total guarantee to $136MM over nine seasons).

Longoria didn’t quite keep up his early career form, but in five subsequent seasons with the Rays (2013-17) after signing that second contract, he still slashed .265/.325/.457 (113 wRC+) while maintaining his brand of standout defense at the hot corner. FanGraphs (19.8 WAR) and Baseball-Reference (22 WAR) suggested he was still one of the game’s top 25 or so position players even if he wasn’t quite at the very top of the sport anymore.

With Longoria set to secure 10-and-5 rights early in the 2018 season — ten years of service, including five straight with the same team — the Rays made the decision to look for a trade in the 2017-18 offseason. Players with 10-and-5 rights gain full no-trade protection, and Longoria’s remaining five years and $81MM were more palatable to larger-market clubs than the cost-conscious Rays. In December 2017, the Rays lined up on a swap sending Longoria to San Francisco in exchange for outfielder Denard Span, infielder Christian Arroyo, lefty Matt Krook and righty Stephen Woods. At the time of the swap, Arroyo was a few years removed from being a first-round pick out of high school and was considered to be a top-100 prospect on some rankings.

Longoria’s first season as a Giant was a disappointment — the least-productive of what would end up being 16 seasons in the majors. He bounced back to league-average offense with solid defense in 2019, but at that point his days of star-level output were behind him. Longoria had a down showing in 2020 and posted big rate stats in a more limited, part-time role in 2021-22. He signed a one-year deal with the Diamondbacks in 2023 and had a nice first half of the season before fading down the stretch.

That 2023 season with Arizona, during which Longoria played in the second World Series of his career, will now officially prove to be his last. He’ll walk away from the game with a career .264/.333/.471 batting line, 342 home runs (tied with Ron Santo for 108th all-time), 431 doubles (145th all-time), 26 triples, 58 stolen bases, 1017 runs scored and 1159 runs batted in (185th all-time).

Longoria made three All-Star teams, won three Gold Gloves, won a Silver Slugger and landed MVP votes in six of his 16 MLB seasons. FanGraphs pegged him at 55.2 wins above replacement, while Baseball-Reference was even more bullish, crediting him with 58.9 (133rd all-time among position players). Between his pair of extensions and that final one-year deal with the D-backs, he earned more than $148MM in a 16-year career that will garner some legitimate consideration among the electorate when his name is on the Hall of Fame ballot five years from now.

Rays Select Connor Seabold, Transfer Ha-Seong Kim To 60-Day IL

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The Rays have selected the contract of right-hander Connor Seabold from Triple-A Durham, as first reported by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. To open roster space, the Rays optioned righty Mason Englert to Durham and transferred infielder Ha-Seong Kim to the 60-day injured list. The team has since announced the moves.

Seabold, 29, is a former top prospect in the Phillies and Red Sox organizations who’s struggled to find his footing in the majors. He’s pitched in parts of three seasons between the Red Sox and Rockies, working to a combined 8.12 ERA in 108 2/3 innings. His 16.6% strikeout rate is well below average, though the right-hander carries a sharp 7.3% walk rate. Home runs have been his downfall; he’s surrendered a whopping 25 long balls in his career (2.07 homers per nine innings pitched).

That said, Seabold pitched well for the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization last year and has had decent start in Durham. He piled up 160 innings in the KBO last season and notched a 3.43 earned run average. Seabold punched out 23.8% of his opponents with the Lions and limited walks at a strong 6% clip. He’s pitched 27 2/3 innings with the Bulls this season (five starts, one relief appearance) and logged a 4.55 ERA, 22.4% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate. Seabold is sitting just 90.9 mph with his four-seamer — down from the 92.5 mph he averaged in his most recent MLB work — but is relying on the pitch less. He’s throwing more changeups and sliders than in the past and has notched an impressive 13.5% swinging-strike rate.

Kim’s move to the 60-day injured list comes as little surprise. There’d been some thought that in a best-case scenario, he could be recovered from last October’s shoulder surgery by mid-May. Late last month, the Rays suggested it’d be closer to mid-June or perhaps even July before Kim was ready. The 29-year-old hasn’t had a setback, but the Rays are taking his progression slowly and cautiously.

Kim signed with the Rays on a two-year, $29MM deal over the winter. That contract affords him the opportunity to opt out at season’s end. It’s impossible to tell which way he’ll go with regard to that decision until he gets back to the field and we see how he performs in the wake of a major shoulder procedure. Kim hit .250/.336/.385 with plus defense at three infield spots and plus baserunning across the past three years in San Diego. Once he’s healthy, he’s expected to slot in as the Rays’ primary shortstop, though his versatility opens up several paths to get him into the lineup, depending on the health and performance of the rest of Tampa Bay’s infield mix in the weeks ahead.

The move from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL is largely procedural. It does not reset the clock, so to speak, on Kim’s IL stint. He’s required to be on the injured list for 60 days dating back to his original placement on the 10-day IL. He’s already logged 47 days of IL time and wasn’t going to be ready for activation within the next 13 anyhow, so today’s shift doesn’t impact his expected return in any meaningful capacity.

Looking Ahead To Club Options: AL East

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MLBTR wraps our division by division look at next year’s team/mutual option class with the AL East. Virtually all of the mutual options will be bought out by one side. Generally, if the team is willing to retain the player at the option price, the player will decline his end in search of a better free agent deal.

Previous installments: player options/opt-outs, NL West, AL West, NL Central, AL Central, NL East

Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore signed Kittredge to a one-year, $10MM free agent deal over the winter. He’s making $9MM this season and has a matching club option or a $1MM buyout for 2026. Kittredge was supposed to be a key setup man in front of Félix Bautista, but he suffered a left knee injury early in camp and required a debridement surgery. He began a rehab stint at High-A Aberdeen on Sunday. While there’s plenty of time for Kittredge to turn things around, it hasn’t been the start to his O’s tenure that he envisioned.

Laureano, who was non-tendered by the Braves, signed a $4MM contract with Baltimore in February. That came with a $6.5MM team option without a buyout, giving the Orioles an extra season of club control. Injuries to Tyler O’Neill and Colton Cowser have pressed him into everyday work, mostly in left field. He hasn’t provided much through his first 24 games. Laureano is hitting .185 with a .237 on-base percentage through 59 plate appearances. He has hit a trio of home runs but struck out 18 times while drawing only four walks. Laureano has generally been a below-average hitter since being suspended following a positive PED test in 2021. He’ll need much better production over the next few months for the Orioles to exercise the option.

Boston Red Sox

Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05MM free agent deal to match the price of the qualifying offer — which the Dodgers had declined to issue when he hit the market. It’s a relatively expensive pillow contract. Buehler was coming off a dismal regular season, in which he’d posted a 5.38 ERA with a career-worst 18.6% strikeout rate over 16 starts. He finished his Dodger tenure on a high note, though, closing out the World Series while pitching to a 3.60 earned run average in 15 playoff innings.

An ace-caliber pitcher early in his career, Buehler hasn’t looked the same since undergoing the second Tommy John surgery of his career in August 2022. His stint in Boston has gotten out to a shaky start. While his 4.28 ERA through 33 2/3 innings is serviceable, he’s striking out just 20.7% of opponents while averaging a personal-low 93.5 MPH on his fastball. Shoulder inflammation sent him to the injured list last week. The mutual option was always an accounting measure designed to push the $3MM buyout to the end of the year rather than disbursing it throughout the season as salary. The team seems likelier to decline its end than the pitcher does.

Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5MM deal during the 2023-24 offseason. He negotiated an opt-out clause after the first season and hoped to retest the market after one strong year. Instead, Giolito’s elbow gave out during Spring Training and he required UCL surgery that cost him the entire season. The veteran righty made the easy decision to stick around for year two.

By exercising his player option, Giolito unlocked a 2026 option for the team. It’s valued at $14MM and comes with a $1.5MM buyout. If Giolito pitches 140 innings this year, it’d convert to a $19MM mutual option (still with the $1.5MM buyout). That’d give him a chance to test free agency if he wants. Giolito has an uphill battle to 140 frames. A hamstring strain cost him the first month of the season. He finally made his team debut last week, working six innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts in a no-decision against Toronto. The Rangers tagged him for six runs on 10 hits in just 3 2/3 frames tonight.

The Red Sox added Hendriks on a two-year, $10MM deal over the 2023-24 offseason. They knew they wouldn’t get much in year one, as Hendriks had undergone Tommy John surgery the prior August. He attempted to make a late-season return last year but was shut down after a minor flare-up of elbow discomfort. Elbow inflammation shelved him for a couple weeks to begin this season, though he made his team debut in mid-April.

Hendriks allowed two runs on three hits in one inning during his first appearance. He has rattled off five straight scoreless outings since then, albeit with four walks in five frames. His 95 MPH average fastball is solid but below the 97-98 range at which he sat during his elite seasons with the White Sox.

Note: Jarren Duran’s arbitration deal contains a ’26 club option with an $8MM base salary. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the Sox decline the option.

New York Yankees

  • Tim Hill, LHP ($3MM club option, $350K buyout)

Hill finished last season with the Yankees after being released by the White Sox in June. He’d allowed nearly six earned runs per nine with Chicago but managed a tidy 2.05 ERA over 44 frames for New York. He’s out to a similarly productive start to the ’25 season. Hill has surrendered five runs through 17 1/3 innings (2.60 ERA).

While the soft-tossing lefty has managed just 11 strikeouts, his game has always been built around ground-balls. He’s getting grounders at a massive 81.6% clip thus far. Only nine of the 40 batted balls he’s allowed have been hit into the air. It’s easily the highest grounder rate in the majors. The Yankees value this skillset as much as any team, and the $2.65MM option decision is a drop in the bucket for them.

Loáisiga is still working back from last April’s elbow surgery. The righty has generally been a productive reliever when healthy, but he’s only once managed even 50 MLB innings in a season. He’s on a rehab stint with Low-A Tampa and will need another few weeks before he’s built into MLB game shape. Loáisiga is making $5MM this season. The option has a matching base value and could climb by another $500K if the Yankees exercise it. He’d earn $100K each at reaching 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70 innings in 2026.

Tampa Bay Rays

Fairbanks is in the final guaranteed season of the three-year, $12MM extension that he signed before the 2023 campaign. That includes a $1MM buyout on a club option that comes with a $7MM base value. That’s a bargain for a quality high-leverage reliever, but the deal includes various escalators that could push the option price above $12MM.

The option value would climb by $500K if he gets to 125 combined appearances between 2023-25 and another $1MM apiece at 135, 150 and 165 combined outings. Fairbanks made it into 95 games over the first two seasons. He’d trigger the first $500K escalator at just 30 appearances this year and would max it out if he makes it into 70 games. He can boost the option price by another $2MM based on this year’s games finished total: $500K apiece at 25, 30, 35 and 40.

Fairbanks has never reached 50 appearances in a season because of various injuries, but he’s already at 14 games through this season’s first six weeks. Fairbanks has finished 11 of those contests while working as Kevin Cash’s primary closer. He has recorded 13 strikeouts against six walks while allowing three runs over 13 1/3 innings. The option price should remain solid value, though the escalators might eventually push it to an area where Tampa Bay would rather explore deadline or offseason trades rather than having a reliever projecting as one of the highest-paid players on the roster.

Jansen seemed to be pulling away from the rest of a weak free agent catching class early last season. His production tanked from June onwards, leaving him to sign an $8.5MM pillow contract with Tampa Bay. He’s making an $8MM salary and will collect a $500K buyout on a $12MM mutual option at year’s end. Last summer’s offensive drought has carried into 2025. Jansen has only one home run with a .147/.301/.221 batting line through 83 plate appearances. He remains a very patient hitter, but the Rays would have an easy decision to decline their end of the option if he doesn’t find the double-digit home run power he showed during his best seasons in Toronto.

Lowe has had a rare extended run with a Tampa Bay team that is almost always willing to trade any player. He’s in his eighth big league season and in year seven of the extension he signed in Spring Training 2019. Lowe collected $24MM for what would have been his standard six seasons of team control. The Rays exercised a $10.5MM option for this year and can retain him once more at an $11.5MM price. It’s an $11MM decision after accounting for the $500K buyout.

While injuries have been a recurring issue, Lowe has been one of the better offensive middle infielders in the sport when healthy. His 39-homer season in 2021 is an outlier, but he has tallied 21 longballs in each of the past two seasons. He’s out to a much slower start this year, batting .203/.258/.305 with four homers across 128 plate appearances. The batted ball metrics are still solid, but his career-worst 20.1% swinging strike rate is the fifth-highest among hitters with at least 50 PAs.

This one can still go a few different ways. If Lowe hits like this all season, he’d be bought out. If he finds something like his 2023-24 form (.238/.319/.458), then $11MM is reasonable. It’d keep him as one of Tampa Bay’s highest-paid players, though, so there’s a decent chance he’ll be traded at some point this year. The 16-18 Rays look like fringe Wild Card contenders for a second consecutive year. They could again try to walk the line between buying and selling come deadline season.

The Rays signed Waguespack to a restructured deal early last offseason. He’s making $1.3MM this season and has a $1.5MM club option for next year. That’d escalate to $2MM if he reaches 20 “points” this season. Waguespack would receive one point for each MLB relief appearance and two points per big league start. He has spent the ’25 season to date on optional assignment to Triple-A Durham.

Working as a pure reliever for the Bulls, Waguespack has reeled off 14 innings of two-run ball. He has fanned 15 hitters against three walks while getting ground-balls at a lofty 60% clip. It hasn’t earned him a major league call yet, but he should be up before too much longer if he keeps performing at that level. Waguespack spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan. He made four MLB appearances with Tampa Bay last year but lost a good portion of the season to a rotator cuff injury.

Note: Taylor Walls’ arbitration deal contains a ’26 club option with a $2.45MM base salary. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the Rays decline the option.

Toronto Blue Jays

  • None

Rays Sign Andrew Stevenson To Minor League Contract

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Outfielder Andrew Stevenson has signed a minor league contract with the Rays, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. This marks his return to affiliated ball after spending time in both NPB and the Mexican League.

Stevenson, 31 in June, made his MLB debut with the Nationals in 2017. He played in 248 regular season games with the club from 2017-21, though his most notable Nationals moment was perhaps his lone playoff appearance. He scored the tying run in the bottom of the eighth inning of the 2019 Wild Card Game against the Brewers, helping the Nationals to their eventual World Series title. Despite playing for Washington in each season from 2017-21, Stevenson spent the entire 2022 season at Triple-A and elected free agency at the end of the year. He signed a minor league deal with the Twins that offseason, and while he spent most of 2023 at Triple-A St. Paul, he also appeared in 25 games for the MLB club. All told, Stevenson hit .243 with a .668 OPS, an 80 wRC+, and 0.5 FanGraphs WAR in his MLB tenure from 2017-23. He offered much of his value on the bases and with his glove; he split his time between all three outfield positions.

Stevenson played the 2024 season with the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan, though he spent the majority of his time with their minor league team in the Japan Eastern League. He produced impressive offense numbers in the JPEL (.327 batting average, .850 OPS), but his NPB numbers were poor (.161 batting average, .368 OPS). His contract with the Fighters included a club option for 2025, but he was released before the end of the 2024 campaign. He then began the 2025 season with the Piratas de Campeche of the Mexican League but was released on Friday, presumably to allow him to sign with Tampa Bay.

While Stevenson is no doubt facing an uphill climb back to the major leagues, it’s not hard to see why the Rays were seeking outfield depth. Josh Lowe, Jonny DeLuca, Richie Palacios, and Jake Mangum are all on the IL. The only healthy outfielders on Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster are Christopher Morel, Chandler Simpson, Kameron Misner, the recently acquired Travis Jankowski, and Coco Montes, who has limited professional experience in the outfield. If Stevenson plays well at Triple-A Durham and depth continues to be a problem for the MLB club, perhaps he could make his way back to the majors after a year away.

Latest On Ha-Seong Kim’s Recovery From Shoulder Surgery

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When the Rays signed Ha-Seong Kim to a two-year, $29MM contract in February, they knew he wouldn’t be ready to play by Opening Day. The question was how much time he would miss. Kim underwent shoulder surgery in October. At the time, the infielder suggested he could potentially return to the field by mid-to-late April or early May. His agent, Scott Boras, made similar comments. On the other end of the spectrum, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller told reporters that Kim’s return could fall anywhere between May and July. It now seems as if the POBO from Kim’s former team was correct to be less optimistic. According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, the timeline for Kim’s return to full-time shortstop duties has been “pushed back” to the “mid-June/mid-July range.”

This isn’t necessarily a sign that Kim has suffered a setback. On the contrary, Topkin reports that Kim is doing quite well in his recovery; in some ways, he is apparently “ahead of schedule.” Yet, the Rays are exercising the utmost caution after what manager Kevin Cash described as a “major surgery.” Both Cash and POBO Erik Neander brought up the rigors of playing shortstop as a reason not to rush Kim’s rehab. Notably, Neander did not seem particularly open, at least not yet, to the possibility of Kim returning sooner to play a less physically demanding position. Kim has played 127 games at second base in his MLB career, including 106 appearances at the keystone in 2023, the year he won his Gold Glove. However, Neander told Topkin that the team is not ready to consider Kim playing any position other than shortstop – although he didn’t shut down the idea entirely. Perhaps playing second would indeed help Kim get back on the field, but Neander’s position isn’t unreasonable. Kim’s strong defense at a premium position (i.e. shortstop) was surely something that drew the Rays to him in the first place. What’s more, Tampa Bay already has Brandon Lowe to play second base. As things stand, the only clear opening for Kim on this team is at shortstop.

Kim’s player option for 2026 could be another factor influencing the team’s decision to play it safe with his recovery. His $16MM option would represent a $3MM raise from his current $13MM salary. It would also be the highest single-season base salary the Rays have ever paid a player. It might sound cynical, but one has to wonder if the close-fisted Rays were counting on Kim opting out of his contract after year one. As the name suggests, player options are always player-friendly, which means, in theory, that teams never hope a player will exercise his player option when they include one in a contract. In this case, however, Neander might feel a particular pressure to ensure that Kim plays well enough in 2025 that he doesn’t opt in to what would be a record salary. If Kim returns too quickly and struggles to perform (or suffers another injury), the chances of him exercising his player option would grow. Conversely, if he comes back at full strength and thrives in the second half, that might encourage him to give free agency another go.

In Kim’s absence, Taylor Walls was Tampa Bay’s primary shortstop to start the season. However, Walls has struggled even more than usual at the plate (.415 OPS, 31 wRC+), leading to the red-hot José Caballero seeing more time at shortstop in recent days. There is little doubt the Rays would be better off with Kim in the starting lineup – Caballero’s hot hitting isn’t sustainable, and he’s better suited for a part-time, utility role – but Caballero and Walls give the Rays options while Kim is out. Carson Williams, the consensus top prospect in the organization, is another shortstop to keep in mind. That said, he’s not yet 22, and he’s currently struggling offensively at Triple-A. While he could debut later this year, no call-up is imminent. For now, expect the Rays to stick with Caballero and Walls unless Williams forces the issue.

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