- The Rays selected right-hander Chaz Roe’s contract from the minors in advance of tonight’s game. Tampa Bay picked up Roe in a minor trade with the Braves earlier this year. The 30-year-old pitched 21 innings with Tampa’s Triple-A affiliate in Durham and worked to an even 3.00 ERA with a ridiculous 35-to-5 K/BB ratio. In parts of five big league seasons, Roe has a 4.16 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 4.5 BB/9 and a 54.4 percent ground-ball rate.
Rays Rumors
Rays To Select Contract Of Trevor Plouffe
Shortly after being designated for assignment and outrighted off the 40-man roster, Trevor Plouffe is set to rejoin the Rays, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Tampa Bay will bring the veteran back to the Majors as a depth option with expanded September rosters now in place. Tampa Bay has an open 40-man spot, so a corresponding move isn’t needed.
Regular playing time won’t be there for Plouffe, barring injuries elsewhere on the roster, but he’ll get another chance to finish the year on a good note after struggling for much of the 2017 campaign. The former Twins third baseman signed a one-year, $5MM deal with the A’s last winter after being non-tendered and found himself traded to Tampa Bay after being designated in Oakland.
Plouffe has appeared in 89 games this season (281 plate appearances) and has posted a .204/.274/.325 slash that represents a considerable departure from the generally useful offensive output he tallied from 2012-16 in Minnesota. Plouffe’s strikeout rate has soared to 29.5 percent this season after checking in under 20 percent from 2014-16. His hard-hit rate, line-drive rate and homer-to-flyball ratio are all in line with the levels he posted in his final few years in Minneapolis, but he’s also hitting the ball on ground more than ever (49.7 percent) and lifting fly-balls at a career-low pace (30.1 percent).
Plouffe has batted .276 with a .344 OBP against left-handed pitching this year, but the power he typically has in platoon situations has evaporated (.333 slugging, .057 ISO). He’ll be a free agent once again at season’s end.
Chris Archer Suffers Forearm Tightness, To Be Examined Monday
Chris Archer was removed from his start on Saturday after just eight pitches due to forearm tightness, though the Rays ace told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that he feels better today, despite some lingering tightness on the outside of his right forearm. While Archer doesn’t feel the injury is particularly serious and he hopes to make his next start, more will be known on Monday when he is examined by the Rays’ team doctor. Losing Archer for any stretch of time would be a big blow to Tampa Bay club that is trying to stay in the wild card race, though obviously Archer’s overall health is of larger concern to the team, given the ominous nature of forearm injuries. Here’s more from around baseball…
Rays Designate Adam Kolarek
The Rays have designated left-hander Adam Kolarek for assignment, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (on Twitter). Topkin suggests that Kolarek’s vacated 40-man spot will go to infielder Trevor Plouffe, whom the Rays designated Aug. 22 and then outrighted to Triple-A Durham on Aug. 26.
The 28-year-old Kolarek, an 11th-round pick of the Mets in 2010, joined the Rays organization prior to the 2016 campaign and made his major league debut this season. Kolarek struggled over 8 1/3 innings before his designation, giving up six earned runs on nine hits and four walks, with four strikeouts. He made his 12th appearance with Tampa Bay on Sunday and surrendered an earned run on two hits and a walk over two-thirds of an inning. That was enough for the Rays to remove him from their 40-man roster.
While Kolarek’s time in the majors has been a struggle thus far, he has turned in excellent work in the minors. Kolarek has posted a 2.73 ERA and logged 9.4 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 in 89 Triple-A innings. Across 43 2/3 frames with Durham this year, he has ridden an incredible 72.6 percent groundball rate and 9.4 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 to a microscopic 1.65 ERA.
Rays Recently Scouted Shohei Otani
- The Rays sent representatives to Japan to watch Nippon Ham Fighters ace Shohei Otani’s start last week, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Along with the Rays and the Yankees, there were around a dozen other teams in attendance to watch Otani, whose fastball hit 100 mph, Buster Olney of ESPN reports. The changes in the collective bargaining agreement could theoretically give low-payroll teams like Tampa Bay a better chance to land the two-way phenom, though the Rays already spent $3.825MM of their available international money ($5.25MM) on Dominican shortstop Wander Franco on July 2.
Rays Notes: Possibility Of August Sell-Off, Cash Status
As Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times wrote yesterday, the Rays could potentially decide to pivot to selling some short-term assets if the team does not perform in the final few days of August. The Rays ended up losing yesterday, leaving them three-and-a-half games out of the final Wild Card spot. We explored recently what kinds of deals the club might contemplate if it decided to shed some veterans at the last minute.
- Regardless of how things turn out this year, the Rays intend to bring back skipper Kevin Cash, according to Topkin. GM Erik Neander credits Cash for ensuring that the club has “showed up every day well-prepared to compete and to make the most of their abilities.” Cash is under contract through 2019, and Topkin notes that the team also has two additional option years. He has guided the Rays to a 214-244 record since the start of 2015.
Rays Designate Taylor Featherston
The Rays have designated infielder Taylor Featherston for assignment, optioned righty Chih-Wei Hu to Triple-A and activated right-hander Matt Andriese from the disabled list, tweets Bill Chastain of MLB.com.
Featherston, 27, was acquired in the middle of the year from the Phillies. He has seen limited time this year at the major league level, batting .179/.277/.359 in his 47 trips to the plate. He has continued to struggle at the plate in the upper minors, too, posting a cumulative .248/.329/.386 slash in his 280 plate appearances at Triple-A between the two organizations.
Though Andriese functioned as a starter earlier in the year, he’ll work from the pen at least initially, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Andriese, who turns 28 today, turned in a dozen quality outings (3.54 ERA, 8.1 K/9, 3.1 BB/9) earlier this season and ought to represent a notable addition to the staff down the stretch.
Danny Espinosa Signing Could Affect Daniel Robertson's Service Time
- Signing infielder Danny Espinosa and optioning Daniel Robertson to the minors is the latest example of the Rays balancing the present and the future, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times observes. While Espinosa struggled mightily this season in stints with the Angels and Mariners, both of whom released him, the 23-year-old Robertson wasn’t exactly indispensable to the Rays’ lineup during his first 223 major league plate appearances (.211/.302/.340). But if the former top 100 prospect does develop into a quality big leaguer, Tampa Bay could end up controlling him for another year thanks in part to the Espinosa signing, Topkin points out. If Robertson stays in the minors for at least 20 days, he won’t accrue a year of service time this season, putting him on pace to become a free agent entering 2024 instead of 2023.
Rays Outright Trevor Plouffe To Triple-A
- The Rays outrighted Trevor Plouffe to Triple-A after the third baseman cleared waivers, the team announced. Plouffe was designated for assignment earlier this week. Acquired by the Rays from the Athletics in June, Plouffe hasn’t produced much in either uniform in 2017, hitting a combined .204/.274/.325 over 281 PA. One would think Plouffe will be a candidate to rejoin the Rays when rosters expand in September, though a new space will have to be found on their 40-man roster.
Rays Sign Danny Espinosa To Major League Deal
12:34pm: The Rays have now announced the signing. Fellow infielder Daniel Robertson was optioned to Durham to clear a roster spot.
12:30pm: It’s a Major League deal for Espinosa with the Rays. (SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo first tweeted as much.)
12:16pm: The Rays are adding veteran infielder Danny Espinosa, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (on Twitter). Espinosa began the year with the Angels but was cut loose and latched on with the Mariners before being released there as well. Topkin doesn’t specify the type of transaction, though presumably it’s a minor league deal. Espinosa was placed on release waivers five days ago, so he’d already have cleared at this point. Espinosa is represented by MVP Sports.
It’s been a brutal year at the plate for Espinosa, 30, as he’s struggled to a career-worst .164/.237/.279 slash line through 271 plate appearances in the American League West. In his first taste of American League play, the longtime Nationals infielder saw his strikeout rate soar to 36.2 percent as his line-drive rate plummeted to a career-worst 12.9 percent. Espinosa’s hard-hit rate (32.2 percent) is still a bit higher than his career mark (31.1 percent), but the majority of those balls in play have apparently been of the fly-ball or ground-ball variety, as Espinosa checks in north of 41 percent in each regard (41.8% grounders, 45.7 percent flies).
For all of his warts at the plate in recent years, though, Espinosa has terrific career marks in both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating as a second baseman and as a shortstop. Neither DRS nor UZR was especially bullish on his work in 2017, grading him as a roughly average glove at second base, but the track record (and the bit of experience he has at the hot corner as well) likely appealed to a Rays club that traditionally places a high value on defensive prowess and versatility.
Whether Espinosa immediately joins the big league club remains to be seen. We’re just a week away from the point at which rosters can expand, so Tampa Bay could conceivably stash him at Triple-A Durham for the next seven days and then bring him aboard to add some bench depth and versatility for the final month of the year.
