Rays Select Oliver Dunn
The Rays announced that they have selected the contract of just-acquired infielder Oliver Dunn from Triple-A Durham. He’ll take the active roster spot of fellow infielder Ben Williamson, who’s headed to the 10-day injured list due to a lower back strain. The Rays acquired Dunn from the White Sox in exchange for lefty Joe Rock last night.
Tampa Bay also reinstated veteran left-hander Steven Matz from the 15-day injured list and optioned righty Chase Solesky to Durham in a corresponding move. Matz will start today’s game, per the team.
Dunn, 28, doesn’t have an impressive big league track record but has been on a tear with the Sox’ top affiliate in Charlotte this season. He’s a .206/.261/.290 in parts of two seasons (145 plate appearances) with the Brewers, but Dunn has raked at a .295/.393/.545 clip with the Knights this season. He’s connected on nine homers, gone 9-for-10 in stolen base attempts and walked at a stout 13.1% clip (against a 23.5% strikeout rate).
Dunn gives the Rays a left-handed bat with some versatility to step in for Williamson, who’s seen time at second base, shortstop and third base for the Rays this season while batting .268/.349/.349 (99 wRC+). Dunn hasn’t played shortstop in the majors but has 262 minor league innings there (196 across the past two seasons). He has ample experience at third base and second base in addition to more limited work in left field and at first base.
Rays, White Sox Swap Joe Rock For Oliver Dunn
The Rays and White Sox announced a one-for-one trade that sends lefty reliever Joe Rock from Tampa Bay to Chicago. Minor league infielder Oliver Dunn goes to the Rays; Dunn had not been on Chicago’s 40-man roster.
Chicago optioned Rock to Triple-A Charlotte and transferred Kyle Teel to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. That’s a procedural move, as the 60-day window backdates to Opening Day. Teel won’t be back until late June at the earliest after suffering an LCL sprain in his left knee over the weekend.
A 6’6″ southpaw, Rock was a second-round pick by Colorado in 2021. The Rays acquired him in Spring Training 2024 for former first-rounder Greg Jones. Rock spent that season working out of the Triple-A rotation, struggling to a 4.58 earned run average. He made a very brief MLB debut last summer, pitching 7 2/3 innings of two-run ball with 11 strikeouts over three appearances.
Rock otherwise spent the season in a swing role in Triple-A, posting a 5.21 ERA across 96 2/3 frames. The Rays moved him to short relief this year in the hope that his stuff would play up in 1-2 inning stints. Rock has missed more bats, striking out 27 of 78 opponents (34.6%) in the minors.
His 92.9 mph average fastball isn’t much above where it sat last year, though, and Rock has battled the worst control of his career. He has walked 17 batters and plunked four more, giving out free passes to more than a quarter of batters faced. Rock has allowed 10 runs (nine earned) through 15 Triple-A innings this year.
The lack of strikes had pushed the Ohio University product to the fringe of the roster. The Rays didn’t designate Rock for assignment but had soured enough on him that they were willing to deal him for a depth infielder on a minor league contract. Chicago will see if a change of scenery can get him on track. Rock is in his second of three option years, so there’s still some roster flexibility.
Sean Newcomb and Bryan Hudson have pitched well as Will Venable’s top two lefty relievers. The Sox brought Brandon Eisert back up from Charlotte last week as a third southpaw in the MLB bullpen. Tyler Schweitzer, Tyler Gilbert and Chris Murphy are on the 40-man roster and on optional assignment. The Sox certainly aren’t lacking left-handed bullpen arms.
Dunn is a 28-year-old utilityman who appeared at the MLB level with the Brewers from 2024-25. The lefty batter owns a .206/.261/.290 slash with one home run in 145 career plate appearances. Milwaukee sent Dunn unclaimed through waivers last September and allowed him to walk as a minor league free agent. He signed a non-roster deal with the Sox in December.
After struggling to a .208/.315/.338 line in Triple-A a year ago, Dunn has gotten out to a much better start this season. He hit .296/.397/.533 with eight homers in 40 games for Charlotte. Dunn takes a lot of pitches and had shown strong on-base numbers up through Double-A. He’s primarily a third baseman who can play the middle infield if necessary and has some left field experience in the minors.
The Rays recently lost one of their left-handed bench bats when Jake Fraley suffered a sports hernia injury that required surgery. They’re also a little shorthanded in the infield with Ben Williamson day-to-day with back tightness. Tampa Bay might add Dunn directly to the MLB bench if Williamson requires an injured list stint. They don’t have any depth infielders on optional assignment to Triple-A, and Dunn has outhit internal non-roster pieces Logan Davidson and Raynel Delgado. Tampa Bay has a pair of openings on the 40-man roster if they want to select Dunn’s contract.
Jake Fraley To Undergo Sports Hernia Procedure
Rays outfielder Jake Fraley will undergo sports hernia surgery tomorrow, reports Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. He’ll be out for six to eight weeks.
Fraley landed on the 10-day injured list on Saturday. The surgery timetable may lead to a transfer to the 60-day IL at some point. Fraley has had at least one injured list stint in every season of his MLB career. He had three absences last year between Cincinnati and Atlanta, capping him at 76 games. Between the injuries and his limited usage against left-handed pitching, Fraley has yet to reach 400 plate appearances in a season.
It has been a slow start for the 30-year-old outfielder. Fraley has hit .232/.300/.390 with two home runs in 90 trips to the dish. It’s nevertheless suboptimal for the Rays to lose him, as their bench skews very heavily to the right side. Topkin notes that the Rays’ two lefty-hitting outfielders who are on optional assignment, Jacob Melton and Victor Mesa Jr., are themselves on the minor league injured list.
Middle infielder Carson Williams came up as the corresponding move for Fraley’s IL placement. Manager Kevin Cash tells Topkin that’s driven partially by Ben Williamson, who hasn’t played since Friday while dealing with back tightness. Cash didn’t rule out an injured list stint. Teams can backdate an IL placement by up to three days, so the Rays may view Tuesday as the cutoff for deciding whether to put him on the shelf for at least another week.
Rays Place Jake Fraley On 10-Day IL, Recall Carson Williams
The Rays announced a trio of moves this morning, including the news that outfielder Jake Fraley has been placed (retroactive to May 16) on the 10-day injured list due to a hernia. Shortstop Carson Williams was called up from Triple-A Durham to take Fraley’s spot on the 26-man roster. Tampa also noted that right-hander Aaron Brooks has been outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers.
Fraley was scratched from yesterday’s lineup, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported yesterday that the outfielder was headed for an IL stint (and that Williams was the likely replacement). It isn’t known yet how long Fraley could be out of action, though Topkin floated a six-week estimate depending on the severity of the hernia.
The Rays claimed Fraley off the Braves’ waiver wire last November, then cut him loose at the non-tender deadline only to quickly re-sign the outfielder to a one-year, $3MM contract a week later. The left-handed hitting Fraley has been used almost exclusively in platoon duty in right field, though he has yet to get going at the plate, hitting .232/.300/.390 over 90 plate appearances.
Jonny DeLuca and Ryan Vilade have each been used as the right-handed hitting complement within the right field platoon. Tampa Bay could give more playing time to either outfielder while Fraley is sidelined, or stick to a platoon structure by using Richie Palacios (a lefty bat) in right field rather than his usual second base spot. Topkin believes the latter scenario is more likely, as evidenced by the call-up of Williams to add to the Rays’ infield depth.
Heralded as one of baseball’s top prospects at the time of his MLB debut last season, Williams is still a fixture on top-100 rankings except further down the lists heading into the 2026 campaign. Between 32 games in 2025 and seven games this season, Williams has hit only .164/.209/.320 over 131 PA against big league pitching. His numbers at Triple-A have also not stood out — Williams has hit .216/.318/.433 with 28 homers over 607 PA for Durham.
Williams has struck out in 203 of those 607 trips to the plate in Triple-A, while also whiffing 53 times in his 131 PA in the Show. While Williams is still over a month shy of his 23rd birthday, the alarming amount of swing-and-miss in his game may have already dropped his stock as a potential Rays building block. Defensively, Williams has primarily played shortstop but he has logged a handful of games as a second and third baseman, so he could get some action at the keystone if Palacios is indeed ticketed for more time in right field.
Brooks was signed to a minor league contract in April, and he was selected to the Rays’ roster last weekend for what ended up being a brief tenure with the club. The righty’s one appearance resulted in an 81.00 ERA over a third of an inning of work, as Brooks allowed a walkoff grand slam to Daulton Varsho in Wednesday’s 5-3 loss to the Blue Jays.
Tampa Bay designated Brooks for assignment two days ago, and now that Brooks has cleared waivers, the ball is in his court about his future with the club. Because Brooks has been outrighted in the past, he can reject this latest outright assignment in favor of free agency.
Rays Designate Aaron Brooks For Assignment
The Rays have designated right-hander Aaron Brooks for assignment and recalled fellow righty Trevor Martin from Triple-A Durham in a corresponding move, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Their 40-man roster is now at 39 players.
Brooks, 36, signed with the Rays earlier this month after beginning the season in the Mexican League. His contract was selected to the major league roster last weekend, and he made his team debut Wednesday evening. It didn’t go well. The journeyman righty recorded only one out and was tagged for three earned runs on a pair of walks and a homer. That could end up representing the entirety of his time with the Rays; he’ll now be traded, placed on outright waivers or released within the next week. Brooks has been outrighted in the past and thus has the right to reject a minor league assignment if he passes through waivers unclaimed.
This now becomes the seventh season in which Brooks has logged at least one big league appearance. He has just under three total years of major league service time, during which he’s compiled 207 innings with a 6.48 ERA, a 15.2% strikeout rate and a 7% walk rate.
Though he hasn’t had much success in the majors, Brooks has pitched in parts of 10 Triple-A seasons and piled up more than 800 innings there. A 4.80 ERA doesn’t stand out, but he’s spent most of his Triple-A career pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and has had some successful seasons there. Brooks also spent two years pitching with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kia Tigers, for whom he logged a 2.79 ERA in 229 1/3 innings from 2020-21.
Can The Rays Keep This Up?
The regular season has crossed the 25% mark and there's an unexpected team at the top of the American League. The 28-13 Rays have the AL's best record and second-best mark in MLB behind the Braves. The Rays have a history of outperforming expectations, but some of the magic had seemed to wear off with sub-.500 finishes in each of the last two seasons.
Tampa Bay had a slightly busier free agent period than they typically do. They added Nick Martinez and Steven Matz, the latter on a two-year contract. They brought in Cedric Mullins on a reclamation deal. At the same time, they were closer to the "seller" end of their two biggest trades of the winter. They dealt Shane Baz to the Orioles for four prospects and a draft pick. They sent Brandon Lowe, Mason Montgomery and Jake Mangum to the Pirates for two more prospects. Gavin Lux was their most established trade pickup of the offseason, and he has been a complete non-factor due to various injures.
So how have the Rays gotten out to one of the best starts in franchise history? Are they resurrecting a small ball offensive approach in the modern game, and what should be the deadline focus for a team that'll enter the summer more clearly looking to add MLB talent than they have over the past couple seasons?
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Gavin Lux Pulled Off Rehab Stint With Left Shoulder Injury
The Rays are pulling Gavin Lux off his rehab assignment with a left shoulder injury, manager Kevin Cash tells Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. He’ll go for imaging later in the week, and Cash said he’ll be out of action “for the foreseeable future.”
Lux has yet to make his team debut. The Rays acquired him from the Reds over the offseason and said he’d be their primary second baseman. Lux has battled various injuries over the past couple months. He was nagged by oblique discomfort during Spring Training, then suffered a right shoulder impingement in mid-March. Lux then tweaked his left ankle in April. That halted his rehab assignment for a couple weeks.
The ankle injury meant Lux has had two rehab stints without making it back to the MLB roster. He has appeared in 21 Triple-A games overall, hitting .200 with one home run across 90 plate appearances. He has taken 20 walks while striking out 23 times.
Tampa Bay will now await the imaging from what is evidently a new injury. It seems inevitable he’ll be moved to the 60-day injured list once the Rays need a roster spot. That’d backdate to Opening Day, meaning he’d be eligible to return in less than two weeks. Given Cash’s comments, he’s almost certainly not going to be ready by then.
It’s particularly ill timing for Lux, who’ll be a first-time free agent next winter. He has been a league average hitter for the last two seasons, so he was already something of a reclamation pickup for Tampa Bay. The Reds played him more at designated hitter or in left field than at second base a year ago. Tampa Bay had intended to give him another opportunity in the middle infield.
The Rays have used a Richie Palacios/Ben Williamson platoon at second base. They’ve each been league average offensive players. Palacios and Williamson have combined for one home run but have a strong .354 on-base percentage in a total of 190 plate appearances. That’s similar to what the Rays hoped to get out of Lux and emblematic of their offensive approach as a team. Tampa Bay is 25th in home runs and 22nd in slugging but has the eighth-best OBP in the league. They’ve been a league average offense overall, ranking 14th in scoring.
Despite the middling lineup, the Rays have raced to a 28-13 start to jump to the top of the American League. Only the Braves have a better record in MLB. Tampa Bay has pitched well and been one of the more productive offenses with runners in scoring position. Even if they’re not going to continue playing at a 111-win pace, they’ve positioned themselves very well in an otherwise weak AL.
They’re two games up on the Yankees in the division and 8.5 clear of the top team not in playoff position. It sets them up to approach deadline season as buyers, with center field and the middle infield spots the clearest places they can look to add. Luis Arraez seems likely to be the top rental second baseman available. CJ Abrams would be the top middle infield target for most clubs if the Nationals dangle him with two and a half seasons of remaining arbitration control.
Rays Outright Justyn-Henry Malloy
The Rays announced Monday that outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Durham. Tampa Bay designated him for assignment over the weekend. Malloy doesn’t have a prior outright or three years of major league service, so he doesn’t have the choice to reject the assignment and opt for free agency. He’ll remain in the organization as non-roster depth.
Malloy came to the Rays in a cash swap with the Tigers back in January. Detroit had previously designated him for assignment. The 26-year-old was a sixth-round pick by Atlanta back in 2019 and went to Detroit as the headline piece in 2022’s Joe Jimenez swap. At the time, Malloy wasn’t a nationally ranked prospect but was a clear arrow-up commodity, having slashed .289/.408/.454 between Double-A (54 games) and Triple-A (eight games) during his age-22 season. He continued to post terrific Triple-A numbers in parts of three seasons with the Tigers’ Toledo affiliate, but Malloy still hasn’t hit in the majors.
Granted, the Tigers never gave Malloy a full season of big league at-bats to figure things out, but that’s a tough order for a win-now club with a young player who’s struggling at the plate. For all his minor league success, Malloy flailed away with a .203/.291/.366 line through 71 games as a rookie in 2024. He struck out in a whopping 37% of his 230 plate appearances. Things were better in a smaller sample last year, when Malloy batted .221/.346/.308 in 127 turns at the plate and scaled his strikeout rate back to 25.2%.
That’s still below-average production, however, and any hope for a rebound following a change of scenery has been dashed with a catastrophically poor performance in Durham thus far. Malloy has stepped into the batter’s box 132 times over the course of 34 games and recorded an anemic .128/.273/.266 batting line. By measure of wRC+, that’s 55% worse than average in the Triple-A International League. Malloy has walked at a stout 15.2% clip but also gone down on strikes in 31.1% of his plate appearances. He’s not impacting the ball when he does make contact, either; his 30.4% hard-hit rate is the lowest of his career in any Triple-A or MLB season.
Given the big league struggles and Malloy’s calamitous start to the season, it’s not particularly surprising that he passed through waivers. He’ll try to get back on track and force his way up for a major league look with Tampa Bay, but he has a long road ahead of him if he’s to play himself back into big league consideration.
Rays Select Aaron Brooks, Designate Justyn-Henry Malloy
The Rays announced that they have selected Aaron Brooks‘ contract from Triple-A Durham. Outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy was designated for assignment to open up a 40-man roster spot for Brooks, and right-hander Mason Englert was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding 26-man roster move.
Brooks had been playing with Caliente de Durango of the Mexican League until the Rays signed him to a minors contract a couple of weeks ago. After two appearances (and an 8.31 ERA over 8 2/3 innings) in Durham, Brooks now finds himself back in the majors, and looking for his first MLB action since he tossed 26 2/3 innings over five appearances for the Athletics in 2024.
The 36-year-old Brooks made his big league debut back in 2014, and he has since appeared in parts of six big league seasons with the Royals, A’s, Cardinals, and Orioles, posting a 6.36 ERA over 206 2/3 career innings. Brooks also spent two seasons with the Kia Tigers of the KBO League, in addition to his stint in Mexico and in the farm systems of several other MLB teams. In 2025, Brooks also started the season pitching with Durango before inking a minor league deal with the Athletics that didn’t result in any calls to the majors.
Englert tossed 46 pitches over 3 1/3 innings of relief in the Rays’ 2-0 loss to the Red Sox yesterday, so he’ll head to Triple-A to rest while Brooks brings a fresher arm to the Tampa bullpen. Brooks has mostly worked as a starter and is therefore capable of pitching multiple innings. It’s probably likely that this selection is just a cup of coffee for Brooks, and he’ll find himself in DFA limbo (Brooks is out of minor league options) before too long when the Rays need or want to make another roster move.
Malloy has now been designated twice in his career, and the first DFA back in December saw the Rays acquire the slugger in a trade after the Tigers removed him from their roster. Over 132 plate appearances in Durham, Malloy has hit only .128/.273/.266 with four home runs, in a stark dropoff from the very strong numbers Malloy posted with Detroit’s Triple-A affiliate. Even with his 2026 numbers factored in, Malloy has a career .270/.409/.456 slash line and 44 homers over 1341 PA against Triple-A pitching.
These numbers made Malloy an interesting prospect to watch in the Tigers’ system, but he hit a modest .209/.311/.346 over 357 PA in the majors during the 2024-25 seasons. Used as a corner outfielder and first baseman throughout his career, Malloy isn’t much of a defender and his best lineup fit might be as a DH, thus making him a tricky roster fit. Another team might be interested enough in Malloy’s Triple-A track record to take a flier on a waiver claim, but if not, Malloy will have to accept an outright assignment.
Twins To Acquire Yoendrys Gómez
The Twins are going to acquire right-hander Yoendrys Gómez from the Rays, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. It’s unclear what Tampa, who designated Gómez for assignment a few days ago, will receive in return. The Twins have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to make this official. He will also need an active roster spot whenever he reports to the team.
Gómez, 26, wa once a notable prospect with the Yankees but he hasn’t been able to click in the majors yet. He exhausted his final option season in 2024, which has pushed him into fringe roster territory. He pitched for the Yankees, Dodgers and White Sox last year. He was traded to the Rays in November and began this season with them.
On the whole, Gómez has thrown 93 1/3 big league innings spread over the past four seasons. He has has allowed 5.11 earned runs per nine. His 20.2% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate and 32.7% ground ball rate are all subpar. There’s more potential to be seen in his minor league numbers. In 130 Triple-A innings, he has a 3.12 ERA and 28.9% strikeout rate. His 11% walk rate is still too high but the punchouts are enticing.
He has mostly worked as a starter in the minors but has largely been kept in a long relief role in the majors. The Twins will probably put him in that role as well. Simeon Woods Richardson is scheduled to start Thursday’s game. He has a 6.49 ERA on the year and has only gone longer than five innings in one of his seven starts. Connor Prielipp is scheduled to make just his fourth career big league start on Friday. On Saturday, Joe Ryan is scheduled to pitch despite departing his last start due to elbow soreness after just two batters.
There’s a decent chance of needing a long man at some point in that stretch, which is perhaps part of the appeal in adding Gómez. Due to his out-of-options status, he’ll need to be removed from the 40-man if the Twins want to bump him off the active roster at any point in the future.
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images