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Rays Place Shane McClanahan, Matt Wisler On 10-Day Injured List

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Tightness in Shane McClanahan’s back has forced the Rays to place the rookie southpaw on the 10-day injured list yesterday. The injury is minor, however, and the Rays plan to have McClanahan back in the rotation as of September 19, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

McClanahan has made 22 starts for the Rays, which puts him first on the team in that category, while he’s second in innings pitched with 110 1/3 frames. Those innings have largely been quality: McClanahan has posted a 3.59 ERA/3.23 FIP with a strikeout rate roughly four percent better than average and a walk rate roughly one percent better than average.

In the meantime, Louis Head was recalled from Triple-A, and Chris Archer will move back into the rotation to start today’s game against the Tigers. The 31-year-old Head is in his first season with Tampa, a year in which he’s made his Major League debut and posted a 2.93 ERA/3.52 FIP in 27 2/3 innings. Archer has yet to find his groove, though he did soak up five innings during his last start on September 4.

In less promising news, Matt Wisler could be sidelined for the rest of the season due to inflammation in his middle finger. The team is hopeful he sees some improvement after a 10-day shutdown, but the outlook doesn’t look promising. Wisler has been stellar since joining Tampa from the Giants, pitching to a 2.30 ERA/2.17 FIP over 27 1/3 innings.

If Wisler is out for the year, the Rays could replace him with a familiar face: Nick Anderson should join the active roster for the first time this season on Sunday, per Topkin. That the Rays have succeeded as they have without Anderson all year speaks to their pitching depth. Anderson was a crucial piece of their pen last season and could be again if he appears on track heading into the postseason. Anderson has been out all year with a partial ligament tear in his elbow.

Rays Prospect Cole Wilcox Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Top Rays pitching prospect Cole Wilcox underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday this week, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). That’ll quite likely wipe out his entire 2022 campaign.

Wilcox, 22, came to the Rays as one of the key young pieces in the trade that sent lefty Blake Snell to San Diego. He was a third-round pick, selected No. 80 overall, just last summer — although that draft placement is somewhat misleading. Wilcox, a draft-eligible sophomore last summer, was widely viewed as a first-round talent but slipped down the draft board due to signability concerns. The Friars gave him a $3.3MM signing bonus — a record number for a third-round selection.

The Padres added Wilcox to their 60-man player pool last year and let him work out with at their alternate site over the course of the summer, but last year’s nixed minor league season meant that the former Georgia Bulldogs righty didn’t make his professional debut until this year with the Rays’ Class-A affiliate. Wilcox looked every bit like a first-round talent when cruising through A-ball lineups. In 44 1/3 innings, he pitched to a 2.03 ERA with an impressive 29.9 percent strikeout rate and an incredibly low 2.9 percent walk rate.

Wilcox only recently turned 22, so he’ll still be just 23 years of age when he returns to the mound — presumably early in the 2023 campaign. Obviously, it’s not ideal for a promising young pitcher to effectively lose two seasons of development (2020 and 2022, in this case), but Wilcox has age on his side. Assuming he’s able to pitch a mostly full season in 2023, he’ll likely be added to Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster in the 2023-24 offseason, as he’d otherwise be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft that winter.

Even with Wilcox sidelined next season, the Rays have an impressive crop of rising young arms to tap into both in 2022 and in 2023. Luis Patino (also acquired in the Snell deal) and Shane McClanahan have already made an impact at the MLB level, and top prospect Shane Baz likely isn’t too far behind. Right-hander Seth Johnson, like Wilcox, has yet to pitch beyond Class-A, but the 2019 No. 40 overall selection has upped his prospect stock with an outstanding showing in A-ball this season.

Tampa Bay did trade away a pair of nearly MLB-ready arms — Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman — in order to acquire Nelson Cruz, but it seems we can scarcely go a year without a pop-up pitching prospect or two in the Rays’ perennially deep farm system garnering national attention. Recent trades and the loss of Wilcox notwithstanding, the Rays still boast a deep farm system that’ll continue to be ranked among the game’s best.

Rays Promote Erik Neander To President Of Baseball Operations, Sign Him To Multi-Year Extension

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The Rays announced the signing of Erik Neander to a multi-year contract extension. Formerly the team’s senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager, Neander has been promoted to president of baseball operations. At the press conference announcing the news, Neander told reporters the club is not planning to make any additional major changes to the baseball operations structure in the wake of his promotion.

Neander, 38, has been in the Tampa Bay organization since 2007, when he came on as an intern. He worked his way to baseball operations VP in October 2014 when former GM Andrew Friedman departed to take over the Dodgers’ front office. He picked up the GM title and responsibilities two years thereafter. Both of those promotions came in junction with boosts for Chaim Bloom, with whom Neander shared high billing atop baseball ops. However, Bloom departed in October 2019 to become chief baseball officer of the Red Sox, leaving no question that Neander was the front office head in Tampa Bay over the past two seasons.

The Rays have generally been successful over the past decade-plus despite regularly featuring one of the league’s lowest player payrolls. The front office’s ability to consistently outperform expectations despite strict budgets has made Rays’ executives highly appealing to other ownership groups around the league. In addition to Friedman and Bloom, former Tampa Bay vice president James Click was hired to lead the Astros in February 2020.

Neander himself was reportedly of interest in the Angels’ GM search last offseason, but Tampa Bay ownership refused to make him available for discussions. That was ultimately a moot point, as reports at the time indicated that Neander had no interest in leaving Tampa. Today’s extension reaffirms that and will take his name off the list for potential suitors looking for a new baseball operations head this offseason.

Given Neander’s track record, it seems likely bigger-market clubs would’ve continued to gauge his availability had the Rays not inked him to a long-term deal. The Rays have posted four consecutive winning seasons, reaching the playoffs in 2019-20. They’re a near lock to win the AL East again this season, and only the Dodgers have a better record than Tampa Bay’s 128-71 mark (64.3% winning percentage) going back to the start of 2020.

The Rays’ ever-low payroll has often been a source of frustration for fans, with the Tampa Bay front office as aggressive as any around the league in trading away recognizable players to constantly replenish young talent. Neander has had an active role in deals sending notable players like Evan Longoria, Chris Archer, Blake Snell and Willy Adames elsewhere over the past few seasons.

That constant roster churn can make it difficult for the fanbase to connect to franchise players, but there’s little arguing with the front office’s ability to consistently put together a strong roster in the long run. The Archer trade — which netted the Rays Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz — turned out to be one of the more lopsided deals in recent memory. Tampa Bay acquired Mike Zunino from the Mariners for a package centering on Mallex Smith and boldly struck to acquire Randy Arozarena from the Cardinals. That deal cost them top pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore, but Arozarena has excellent in Tampa Bay and was the biggest driver of their run to an AL pennant last year.

The Rays have also been adept at acquiring and developing prospects. Wander Franco is one of the most talented young players in the game, and the Rays have a few more top prospects (Vidal Bruján, Josh Lowe and Taylor Walls among them) at or near the big league level. And while the team hasn’t generally been active in free agency, Neander’s group struck gold on their signing of Charlie Morton to a two-year, $30MM guarantee over the 2018-19 offseason.

Like any executive, Neander has a few misses on his record as well. Adames has taken his game to another level since being moved to Milwaukee in May. The December 2019 trade that sent Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth to San Diego for Hunter Renfroe and Xavier Edwards looks regrettable (although Edwards is still a well-regarded prospect). But the Rays’ front office has a very impressive body of work overall, one that has attracted the attention of plenty rivals around the league. While the Rays have lost a few key executives in recent years, they’ll keep Neander atop baseball operations for the foreseeable future.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported that Neander had agreed to a multi-year extension. Rays’ pregame and postgame host Neil Solondz reported Neander was being promoted to president of baseball operations. Image credit: USA Today Sports.

Rays Designate David Hess For Assignment

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The Rays have designated right-hander David Hess for assignment, placed outfielder Randy Arozarena on the paternity list and optioned righty Louis Head to Triple-A Durham, per a club announcement. That trio of moves clears a path for the previously reported promotion of top outfield prospect Josh Lowe and the reinstatement of first baseman Ji-Man Choi and righty Matt Wisler from the injured list.

It’s the third DFA of the season for Hess and his second with the Rays. The 28-year-old right-hander originally inked a minor league pact with Tampa Bay but was traded to the Marlins in early July and quickly immediately added to their MLB roster. The former Orioles righty had gotten out to a terrific start in Triple-A but was clobbered for seven runs in one inning at Coors Field in his second-to-last appearance with Miami, who designated him for assignment about a month after originally acquiring him.

Hess made his way back to the Rays on a new minor league deal, and he’s now been selected to the MLB roster and designated for assignment twice more. He didn’t get into a game the first time but did pitch two innings in his most recent call-up. Things didn’t go well, however, as he surrendered six runs in a pair of innings against the Red Sox. Because of the nature of that DFA carousel, Hess was pitching for just the fourth time in a span of nearly four weeks during his lone appearance in this most recent Rays stint.

On the whole, Hess has surrendered 22 runs in 20 big league innings this season. Most of the damage has come in that pair of ugly outings, but it’s still not a surprise to see a pitcher with that level of cumulative results bumped from the 40-man roster. He’ll now be placed on outright waivers or release waivers in the next couple of days. If he goes unclaimed, the Rays can assign him back to Triple-A Durham, where he’s pitched to a 3.28 ERA with a 27.2 percent strikeout rate and a 5.4 percent walk rate in 35 2/3 frames of relief work this year.

Looking to the rest of the Rays’ moves, Lowe looks to be a short-term replacement for Arozarena, who can miss up to three games. Brief or not, the promotion will give Rays fans a glimpse at the future, as Lowe is widely viewed as a long-term building block in the outfield.

Head, like Hess, has been riding the shuttle between the big leagues and Triple-A with dizzying frequency. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times observes that this marks the staggering tenth time that Head has been optioned to Triple-A this season. Despite being bandied about between Durham and St. Petersburg, he’s held his own against MLB lineups, pitching to a 2.93 ERA with a 26-to-9 K/BB ratio in 27 2/3 innings of relief. Head has similarly strong numbers in Triple-A, and while it’s surely frustrating to be unable to secure a long-term spot in the bullpen, he’s a 31-year-old who made his MLB debut this season, so even the brief and inconsistent days of Major League service time and pay are a welcome turn of events.

Choi, who’s hitting .250/.364/.435 in 236 plate appearances, missed a bit more than two weeks with a strained hamstring. He also missed time in June with a groin strain. Wisler missed a similar chunk of time with a finger injury on his pitching hand. He’s been excellent since the Rays acquired him from the Giants, pitching to a 1.98 ERA with a 32.7 percent strikeout rate and a 3.8 percent walk rate in 27 1/3 innings.

Rays To Promote Josh Lowe

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The Rays are calling up top outfield prospect Josh Lowe for his Major League debut, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter thread). Passan adds that it might not be a long-term stay for Lowe in his first big league call-up, Rays fans will apparently still get a look at yet another well-regarded farmhand late in the ’21 season. Lowe is already on the 40-man roster, so the Rays only need to make room on the active roster to accommodate him.

Josh Lowe | USA Today Sports

Lowe, 23, was the No. 13 overall pick in the 2016 draft and has ridden a breakout season in Triple-A to a widely regarded status as one of baseball’s 100 best prospects. He’s posted a .282/.369/.540 batting line (good for a 138 wRC+) while connecting on 21 home runs, 24 doubles and two triples. He’s also gone a perfect 24-for-24 in stolen-base attempts on the season. It’s been a strong follow-up to Lowe’s quality showing at the Double-A level in 2019, when he hit .252/.341/.443 (128 wRC+) in a very pitcher-friendly setting. He and his older brother, Nate, were both in the Rays’ system before the team traded the latter to the Rangers this past offseason.

Keith Law of The Athletic ranked the younger Lowe as baseball’s No. 31 overall prospect on his July 22nd list, calling him a “plus center fielder with patience and power.” Lowe lands No. 40 overall on Eric Longenhagen’s current rankings at FanGraphs, and he was named the No. 76 and No. 89 prospect in baseball on the respective midseason rankings at MLB.com and Baseball America. There are concerns about Lowe’s strikeout tendencies — he’s fanned at a 26.6 percent clip in his minor league career and has matched that level at Triple-A in 2021 — but he also draws walks at a strong clip (12.4 percent this year).

Tampa Bay’s outfield is largely set at the moment with Austin Meadows, Kevin Kiermaier and Randy Arozarena as the go-to options and both Manuel Margot and Jordan Luplow as right-handed options off the bench. Lowe would bring another left-handed-hitting option to the mix, joining Meadows and Kiermaier — the former coming off his worst month of the season at the plate and the latter coming off his best. Lowe seems likely to be just one of a couple moves, as the Rays could also use some additional infield depth on the bench at the moment.

There may not be a long-term opportunity for Lowe in the outfield at the moment, but it seems likely that he’ll have such an opportunity before too long. How they’ll go about facilitating that remains to be seen, but Kiermaier’s name has come up in trade rumblings for years. The 2022 season will be the final guaranteed season of his six-year, $53.5MM contract in Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, both Margot and Meadows will be up for arbitration raises this offseason. Meadows will enter his first of three arb seasons in 2022, while Margot will be owed a final raise on his current $3.4MM salary before reaching free agency in the 2022-23 offseason. A trade isn’t a foregone conclusion, of course. Designated hitter Nelson Cruz is a free agent at season’s end, and his departure could open the door for Meadows to slide back into a primary designated hitter role, further opening some outfield reps for Lowe (and others).

However it shakes out, the Rays are again on the cusp of bringing yet another high-end talent to the big leagues — one who’ll potentially give the team another cost-effective player to build around as some of the current mainstays on the roster inch closer to free agency or arbitration salaries that ownership deems untenable. There’s always some degree of year-to-year churn on the Rays’ roster, but the consistent development of quality young talent like Lowe has made it sustainable for years now.

From a service-time standpoint, Lowe is already controllable through at least the 2027 season. Depending on how much time he spends in the Majors this year and how the team handles him early in the 2022 season, that could be pushed back to 2028. Under the current system, Lowe would’ve needed to spend 15 days in the minors next year to push that free-agent trajectory back to 2028. That number would grow by one for every day Lowe spends on the MLB roster between now and season’s end. Of course, we don’t know for certain what the arbitration system and service will look like moving forward. Both are hot-button issues in ongoing collective bargaining talks between Major League Baseball and the Players Association, and it’d come as little surprise to see some notable overhaul the current service-time/arbitration structure.

Rays Select David Hess

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The Rays have selected the contract of right-hander David Hess, per a team announcement. Left-hander Dietrich Enns was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move. Hess is joining the Rays’ big league roster for the second time this season. Tampa Bay doesn’t need to make a corresponding roster move due to the fact that righty Chris Mazza is on the Covid-19-related injured list in Triple-A, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times points out (Twitter link).

Hess, 28, has bounced back and forth between the two Florida clubs so far in 2021. He inked a minor league pact with the Rays in the offseason and, after a very strong start to the year in Triple-A, was traded to the Marlins and plugged into their big league bullpen. Miami cut him loose a few weeks later, and he quickly returned to the Rays on another minor league deal. He’s since been selected back to the MLB roster, designated for assignment and outrighted before now being selected back to the Majors.

It’s been a rather tumultuous year, transactions-wise, for the former Orioles right-hander. In terms of performance, Hess has pitched quite well in Triple-A, where he carries a 3.28 ERA with very strong strikeout and walk percentages (27.2 and 5.4, respectively) in 35 2/3 frames. He’s been tagged for 16 runs in 18 MLB frames this year, although seven of those came in one brutal inning for the Marlins at Coors Field. Despite signing a pair of minor league deals with Tampa Bay and already being selected to the MLB roster once this year, Hess still hasn’t thrown a pitch in the Majors as a member of the Rays, so he’ll be making his team debut if he gets into a game this time around.

Rays To Recall David Robertson

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The Rays are planning to recall veteran reliever David Robertson to the big league roster before tomorrow evening’s game against the Red Sox, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 players tomorrow, so no corresponding move is necessary.

It’ll be Robertson’s first big league action since April 2019. The veteran righty suffered a UCL tear that spring, eventually requiring a Tommy John surgery that wiped out both the rest of that season and his entire 2020 campaign. Robertson tossed a couple showcases over the offseason but ultimately didn’t sign over the winter.

Instead, Robertson was among the handful of longtime big leaguers to join the U.S. National team for this year’s Summer Olympics. He showed well enough there to land a major league contract with Tampa Bay, although he agreed to a temporary assignment to Triple-A Durham to build up arm strength. Robertson has been stellar with the Bulls, tossing six scoreless innings with twelve strikeouts and a lone walk issued.

While it has been almost three years since Robertson was healthy, he was one of the league’s most durable and productive relievers for much of his tenures with the Yankees and White Sox. The 36-year-old owns a 2.90 ERA over 663 2/3 big league innings, and he tossed 60+ innings with a sub-4.00 ERA in every season from 2010-18.

Anything resembling that level of production would be key for a Rays’ bullpen that has dealt with myriad health issues this season.  While Robertson will step in as an option for manager Kevin Cash, it seems Tampa Bay can’t count on immediate contributions from either Ryan Thompson or Oliver Drake.

Thompson, who has been out since June 30 with shoulder inflammation, continues to feel soreness and isn’t expected to begin throwing any time soon, manager Kevin Cash told Topkin. Drake, meanwhile, isn’t expected to pitch this season, according to Cash. Drake has been plagued by a flexor strain since last October; he was expected to begin a rehab assignment in July but apparently suffered some form of setback. Both players are already on the 60-day injured list.

Rays Sign Aaron Slegers To Two-Year Minor League Deal

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The Rays have signed right-hander Aaron Slegers to a minor league contract that runs through the 2022 season.  The deal contains an invitation for Slegers to attend the team’s big league Spring Training camp.

The signing reunites Slegers and the Rays after the righty pitched for Tampa Bay during the 2019-20 seasons.  The Rays dealt Slegers to the Angels last February, and he struggled to a 6.97 ERA over 31 innings out of the Los Angeles bullpen.  The Halos outrighted Slegers off their 40-man roster earlier this week but he elected to become a free agent rather than remain in the Angels organization.

Slegers has a 5.46 ERA over 89 career MLB innings with the Twins, Rays, and Angels, but he achieved success over his two years in Tampa, with a 3.41 ERA over 29 frames (26 of those coming during the 2020 season).  Slegers’ resume includes one start and one appearance as a bulk pitcher, though he mostly worked as a multi-inning reliever over his previous stint with the Rays.

For his career, Slegers has only a 15.3% strikeout rate, as he has relied on a 51% grounder rate to deliver outs.  Home runs have been a consistent problem for Slegers apart from his 2020 season — he only allowed one homer in 26 innings last year, and 13 homers in the other 63 frames of his big league career.  The long ball was a particular issue for Slegers with the Angels, with six homers allowed in his 31 innings in an Anaheim uniform.

The two-year contract indicates that the Rays see enough in Slegers to give him a bit of added security heading into the offseason, not that there is exactly much time remaining in the 2021 campaign.  While Slegers hasn’t pitched well this year, he can’t be ruled out as a candidate for any sort of usage for the rest of this year or even into the postseason, given how flexible the Rays are with their arms.  Slegers saw action in three of Tampa Bay’s playoff games last October, with a 1.80 ERA over five total innings in the ALDS and ALCS.

Rays’ Brendan McKay Likely To Miss Rest Of The Season With Flexor Strain

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6:51 pm: McKay has a flexor strain in his forearm, Topkin reports.

4:44 pm: Rays’ two-way player Brendan McKay recently suffered an elbow injury, manager Kevin Cash tells reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). He has received a platelet-rich plasma injection and will be shut down from throwing for two to three weeks. With only a little more than five weeks remaining in the regular season, it doesn’t seem McKay will have time to ramp back up and contribute during the stretch run.

This will be the second straight lost campaign for McKay, who last pitched in a big league game on September 29, 2019. He missed all of last season with a shoulder issue that eventually required surgery. McKay has spent the bulk of this season on the minor league injured list recovering from that procedure. The southpaw made one appearance in rookie ball in late June but was then shut down for another month before getting back on the mound. He made it back to Double-A Montgomery on August 6 and appeared in three games before incurring his current injury.

It’s particularly alarming that McKay is dealing with another arm problem, although the elbow injury would seem to be distinct from his prior shoulder issue. The PRP treatment and accompanying 2-3 week shutdown suggest there’s hope he’ll be back to health well before the start of Spring Training in 2022. It seems any chance of McKay contributing to the Rays’ playoff push at the end of this season, though, is now gone.

McKay was one of the sport’s premier prospects a few seasons ago. A two-way star at Louisville, he was drafted and has continued to develop as a two-way player. While he’s proven a solid minor league hitter, his numbers on the mound over his first couple pro seasons were downright exceptional. General consensus has been that his future is brighter as a left-handed pitcher, but McKay did continue to log reps on both sides of the ball in his playing time at Double-A this season. He reached the big leagues in 2019, pitching to a 5.14 ERA across his first 49 innings and logging eleven plate appearances. That run prevention isn’t especially impressive, but McKay posted better than average strikeout and walk rates (25.9% and 7.4%, respectively) as a 23-year-old. Because of the subsequent injuries, that remains his only big league experience to date.

The Rays have kept McKay in the minor leagues all season. He hasn’t accrued big league service time in either of the past two years, pushing back his projected path to free agency to the 2027-28 offseason. Placement on the minor league IL doesn’t remove players from the 40-man roster, so McKay continues to occupy a 40-man spot on an always-tight Tampa Bay club.

The Rays could place McKay on the major league 60-day injured list to clear a roster spot, although doing so would require paying him a major league salary and accruing MLB service time. McKay wouldn’t be in position to reach a full year of service in 2021 even if he were added to the MLB IL at this point, so it’s possible the Rays decide to so when the need for a 40-man roster spot next emerges.

Because Tampa Bay has sent McKay to the minors rather than placing him on the MLB injured list in each of the past two seasons, he’s in his third minor league option year. The majority of players cannot be optioned in more than three seasons in their career. Teams are sometimes granted a fourth option year for players who miss extended time due to injury, and it’s possible McKay could qualify for that exception. That won’t be known until next spring. If the Rays aren’t granted a fourth option on McKay, they’d have to carry him on the big league roster (or injured list) beginning in 2022 or risk losing him to another club.

Outrighted: Dugger, Hess

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A pair of players were passed through outright waivers today:

  • The Mariners announced that right-hander Robert Dugger cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma after being designated for assignment over the weekend. Dugger has the right to reject the assignment as a player who has previously been outrighted in his career. However, he’s listed on the Rainiers’ active roster, suggesting he’s elected to accept the assignment. Dugger has a 7.39 ERA in parts of three big league seasons with the Marlins and Mariners.
  • The Rays announced that righty David Hess was passed through outright waivers. Hess has also previously been outrighted, giving him the ability to elect free agency if he’d like. Hess just signed a minor league deal with Tampa Bay last week, though. He was selected to the big league roster without making an appearance with Triple-A Durham and was designated for assignment the following day after not having pitched for the big league club. Hess owns a 6.05 ERA over four big league seasons with the Orioles and Marlins.
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