Rays Rumors

Rays, Charlie Culberson Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | February 9, 2023 at 1:42pm CDT

The Rays and veteran utilityman Charlie Culberson have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). He’ll be in big league camp this spring and compete for a bench job.

Culberson, 33, brings a veteran right-handed bat and a versatile glove that can be deployed at just about any position to the Rays’ spring training roster. He spent the 2022 season with the Rangers, batting .252/.283/.357 with a pair of homers and six doubles in 124 trips to the plate. Those are roughly in line with Culberson’s career numbers in parts of 10 big league seasons (1311 career plate appearances), though the former No. 51 overall draft pick has been far better against lefties in his career. Through 582 plate appearances versus southpaws, Culberson is a .285/.313/.431 hitter with 11 homers, 37 doubles and five triples.

The only positions that Culberson hasn’t played at the MLB level are center field and catcher. He’s appeared at all four infield spots, played both outfield corners and even logged 7 1/3 innings of mop-up duty on the mound — incredibly allowing just one run on seven hits and three walks (with one strikeout) in that time. The bulk of his work has come at third base (1033 innings), but Culberson has at least 425 career innings at shortstop, second base and in left field as well.

The Rays already have a heavily right-handed big league roster and, as usual, are brimming with multi-position players who could fill a utility role. That makes the right-handed-hitting Culberson something of an odd fit, although there’s certainly no harm in bringing a seasoned veteran in on a no-risk deal — particularly one whose personality and clubhouse presence is so well regarded. Still, with the out-of-options Vidal Brujan all but a lock to make the roster and myriad other infield/outfield options on the 40-man (e.g. Isaac Paredes, Jonathan Aranda, Taylor Walls, and top prospects Curtis Mead and Greg Jones), Culberson could have a tough time cracking the Opening Day roster.

Players That Could Move To The 60-Day IL Once Spring Training Begins

By Darragh McDonald | February 7, 2023 at 9:40pm CDT

Just about every baseball team has a full 40-man roster now, with the Astros the only team with an open spot at the moment. That means that just about every transaction, be it a free agent signing or a waiver claim, requires a corresponding move.

However, that could soon change as the injured list is coming back soon. There’s no IL from the end of a season until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training for the next campaign, which they will do next week. That means some clubs could potentially gain a bit of extra roster flexibility at that time, since players on the 60-day IL don’t count against a team’s roster total. However, it’s worth pointing out that the “60 days” don’t start until Opening Day, which is March 30 this year. That means, though a team can transfer a player to the 60-day IL next week, they will likely only do so if they aren’t expecting the player back until end of May or later.

With some notable free agents still unsigned like Jurickson Profar, Andrew Chafin, Michael Wacha, Elvis Andrus and many others, it’s possible that teams interested in their services might try to hold off on getting a deal done until next week. Or perhaps clubs that have players they would like to sneak through waivers will try to do so now, before rival clubs gain that extra roster flexibility with the IL opening up. Then again, some clubs will need to keep in mind non-roster players they are planning to promote by Opening Day and might hold off on making a move until that time.

Here are some players who are expected to miss some significant time and could find themselves transferred soon, sorted by division.

AL East

Hyun Jin Ryu/Chad Green

The Blue Jays have a pair of pitchers on their 40-man roster who are returning from Tommy John surgery. They should be on a similar timeline, as they each underwent the procedure in June of last year, though Green will most likely return first since relievers generally require less time to build up arm strength compared to starters. Regardless, the recovery time period for TJS is about 12-18 months, meaning neither pitcher is likely to return until midseason at the earliest. Ryu recently said he was targeting a July return.

Trevor Story

The Red Sox shortstop recently underwent an internal brace procedure on his throwing elbow, a similar operation to Tommy John. Though he’s confident he’ll return at some point, he’s slated to miss most of the upcoming season and is certainly headed for the injured list.

John Means

The Orioles lefty underwent Tommy John surgery in late of April of 2022. With the 12-18 month recovery window for TJS, he could theoretically return in the first couple of months of the season, so the O’s may not want to transfer him to the injured list until they have some clarity about his timeline.

Scott Effross/Luis Gil/Frankie Montas

Effross is a lock for the Yankees’ injured list as he underwent Tommy John in October and will likely miss the entire 2023 campaign. Gil had the same surgery but in May, which means he’ll likely be out until midseason. The situation with Montas is a bit less clear, as he’s dealing with shoulder inflammation that is expected to keep him out for the first month of the season. Unless he suffers some sort of setback, he probably won’t be placed on the 60-day IL right away.

Shane Baz/Andrew Kittredge

The Rays have a couple of hurlers bound for the IL as Baz underwent Tommy John in September while Kittredge had the same surgery in June. They’re both going to miss the first half of the year, with Baz potentially missing the entire season.

AL Central

Casey Mize/Tarik Skubal

Mize underwent Tommy John surgery in June and should be placed on the Tigers’ IL at some point. Skubal’s case is a bit less certain after he underwent flexor tendon surgery in August. The club hasn’t provided a timeline for his recovery but some recent comparables can give us some idea. Danny Duffy underwent the procedure in October of 2021 and was hoping to return by June of 2022, though a setback prevented him from pitching at all on the year. Matthew Boyd went under the knife for flexor tendon surgery in September of 2021 and didn’t return to a big league mound until September of 2022.

Garrett Crochet/Liam Hendriks

Crochet of the White Sox underwent Tommy John surgery in April of last year but was already stretched out to throwing from 120 feet in November. Whether he’s able to return in the early parts of 2023 or not will depend on his continued progression in that recovery process. In a less conventional situation, Liam Hendriks announced last month that he’s beginning treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It’s unknown how long his treatment will take but general manager Rick Hahn said they don’t expect updates “prior to Opening Day at the very earliest.”

Chris Paddack/Royce Lewis

Paddack was recently extended by the Twins though he underwent Tommy John in May of last year and likely won’t be ready to return until the middle of the upcoming campaign. Lewis tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in June of last year, the second year in a row that he suffered that unfortunate injury. At the time, his recovery timeline was estimated at 12 months, which likely puts him on the shelf until midseason as well.

AL West

Brett Martin

It was reported last month that the Rangers lefty will require shoulder surgery. It was said that the timeline will become more clear in the aftermath of the procedure but he’s likely to miss the entirety of the upcoming season.

NL East

Bryce Harper

The Phillies superstar underwent Tommy John surgery in November and the club has announced they expect him to be out of action until around the All-Star break in July.

Huascar Ynoa/Tyler Matzek

Both these Braves pitchers underwent Tommy John last year, with Ynoa going under the knife in September and Matzek in October. That makes them both long shots for appearing at all this year, but especially not in the first half.

Max Meyer/Anthony Bender/Sixto Sanchez

The Marlins have a couple of arms that will certainly miss time this year and one more that’s a wild card. Meyer and Bender both underwent Tommy John in August and will miss most of the upcoming campaign. Sanchez underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery in October with the club announcing at that time they expected him back by spring. It was reported last month that Sanchez is already throwing bullpens, which perhaps points against an IL stint. However, after the shoulder issues completely wiped out his 2021 and 2022 seasons, it’s hard to know how much to rely on his health going forward.

Danny Mendick

The Mets signed Mendick after he was non-tendered by the White Sox. The infielder/outfielder tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in June of last year and missed the second half of the season. There haven’t been any updates on his status recently, but further clarity will likely come when camp gets rolling.

Tanner Rainey/Stephen Strasburg

The Nationals have one fairly straightforward case in Tanner Rainey, who underwent Tommy John in August and will likely miss most of the upcoming season. What’s less clear is the situation surrounding Strasburg, who’s hardly pitched at all over the past three years due to thoracic outlet syndrome and various issues seemingly related to that. He made one appearance in the big leagues last year, pitching 4 2/3 in one start in June but went on the IL right after and never returned. He spoke about the issue in September, saying he hadn’t thrown in months and that he is “not really sure what the future holds.”

NL Central

Ethan Roberts/Codi Heuer/Kyle Hendricks

Roberts underwent Tommy John in June and likely won’t be available for the Cubs until midseason. Heuer had TJS in March but the latest reporting suggests he won’t return until June or July. The status of Hendricks is less clear, with the righty trying to recover from a capsular tear in his shoulder. The club is hoping to have him back by Opening Day but also said they won’t rush him. He recently said that he’s expecting to be on a mound by March 1.

Vladimir Gutierrez/Tejay Antone

Gutierrez, a Reds righty, underwent Tommy John in July and should miss the first few months of the upcoming season at least. Antone was rehabbing from a Tommy John of his own when he suffered a flexor strain in his forearm. He announced today he’s received a platelet-rich plasma injection to treat the issue and suggested he might miss the first half of the season.

Max Kranick

The Pirates right-hander required Tommy John in June and will miss the first half of the upcoming campaign.

NL West

Antonio Senzatela/Tyler Kinley

The Rockies have a couple of murky situations on their hands with these hurlers. Senzatela tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last year and required surgery in August. The timeline at that point was given at 6-8 months, which would place his return somewhere in the February-April window. Whether he’ll require a lengthy IL stint will depend on if his recovery is still on that track. Kinley was diagnosed with an elbow strain and a flexor tear in his forearm in June of last year. He underwent surgery in July with the club announcing they expected him to miss one calendar year, which should prevent him from pitching early in the campaign.

Walker Buehler/Blake Treinen/J.P. Feyereisen

The Dodgers have a trio of pitchers that are likely to miss most or perhaps all of the upcoming season. Buehler required Tommy John in August and could potentially return very late in the year. Treinen underwent shoulder surgery in November with an estimated recovery time of 10 months. Feyereisen underwent shoulder surgery in December and won’t be able to begin throwing until four months after that procedure, or around April. His eventual return to game shape will depend on how long it takes him to progress from simply throwing to getting up to full game speed.

Luke Jackson

The Giants signed the right-hander in free agency, despite Jackson undergoing Tommy John in April. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters last month that there was a chance Jackson begins the year on the 60-day IL, though that doesn’t seem to indicate any kind of setback. “He’s doing great in his rehab, so we’re going to wait and see how he’s doing in spring training,” Zaidi said.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Pitcher And Current Scout Tim Fortugno

By Tim Dierkes | February 6, 2023 at 10:00am CDT

Tim Fortugno’s path to a Major League life was an unlikely one. He’d played in high school, but didn’t seem to have much shot at the Majors. But as Danny Knobler told it in a Bleacher Report article, Tim threw around a tennis ball during his lunch hour on a construction job as a 20-year-old, which led to him joining the baseball team at Southern California College.

He was drafted multiple times, but didn’t end up signing due to shoulder pain. After a bout of acupuncture seemed to heal Tim’s shoulder, he landed with the Mariners on a $500 signing bonus.

Fortugno was eventually traded to the Phillies, who went on to sell his contract to the Brewers for $2,500 and 12 dozen baseballs. The Angels snagged the lefty in the Rule 5 draft, and in 1992 Fortugno made his MLB debut at the age of 30.

In his second big league appearance, Tim pitched the game of his life: a complete game, 12 strikeout, 129 pitch masterpiece against a vaunted Tigers lineup featuring Tony Phillips, Travis Fryman, Cecil Fielder, and Mickey Tettleton. Toward the end of that season, Tim gave up George Brett’s 3,000th hit – only to pick him off first base.

Tim bounced around after that, eventually finishing his career in Taiwan. Despite pitching only 110 1/3 innings over three seasons with the Angels, Reds, and White Sox, Fortugno can list Brett, Roberto Alomar, Don Mattingly, and Edgar Martinez among his strikeout victims.

After his pitching career, Fortugno moved into scouting. He spent seven years with the Rangers and 14 with the Mets, and has worked for the Rays since October 2019.

Tim chatted with MLBTR readers today, providing many interesting answers about a life in scouting. Click here to read the transcript.

If you’re a current or former MLB player, join us for a one-hour live chat! It’s easy and fun and you get to choose which questions you publish and answer. Click here to contact us.

Rays Notes: Adam, Peralta, Extensions

By Mark Polishuk | February 5, 2023 at 5:36pm CDT

The Rays and right-hander Jason Adam have had some talks about a multi-year deal, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports, in advance of Adam’s upcoming arbitration hearing. Adam is one of seven Rays players who couldn’t reach an agreement with the team before the filing deadline, though three of those players (Yandy Diaz, Pete Fairbanks, and Jeffrey Springs) have since signed longer-term contract extensions. This leaves Harold Ramirez, Colin Poche, Ryan Thompson, and Adam still without deals for the 2023 season, until either the arbiter makes their decision or unless the Rays and any of the players avoid arbitration by working out a contract.

Adam is in his first year of arb eligibility, and there isn’t a huge gap between the two sides — the 31-year-old is seeking $1.775MM while the Rays countered with $1.55MM. After intriguing but inconsistent results in his first four MLB campaigns, Adam signed with the Rays last winter and enjoyed the best overall season of his career. The righty posted a 1.56 ERA over 63 1/3 innings in Tampa, with one of the best sets of Statcast metrics of any reliever in baseball.

Jake McGee Retires

By Anthony Franco | February 3, 2023 at 10:59pm CDT

Longtime MLB reliever Jake McGee is retiring, he tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The 36-year-old said he’ll return to Tropicana Field at some point next season to celebrate his time with the Rays’ organization.

“I feel like it’s kind of the right time,” McGee said. “I’d rather be at home with my family. I played 13 years. I won a World Series in ‘20. It’s about time to stop. I don’t want to grind it out and keep bouncing around and stuff like that.” He tells Topkin that a combination of ongoing knee issues and a desire to spend more time with his wife and their daughter contributed to his decision to step away at this point.

McGee entered the professional ranks nearly two decades ago. Drafted by the then-Devil Rays in the fifth round in 2004 out of a Nevada high school, he spent a few seasons climbing the minor league ladder as a starting pitcher. He thrice appeared among Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list, peaking at 15th heading into the 2008 season. While initial reports of a potential future as a top-of-the-rotation starter didn’t materialize — perhaps in part due to a 2008 Tommy John procedure — McGee took off upon moving to the bullpen in 2010.

The southpaw made his big league debut as a September call-up that year, not long after his 24th birthday. He bounced on and off the MLB roster the following season and carved out a permanent bullpen role by 2012. McGee posted a sparkling 1.95 ERA with a massive 34.4% strikeout rate across 55 1/3 innings, kicking off a few seasons as one of the game’s best relief weapons.

Over a three-year stretch from 2012-14, McGee avoided the injured list and soaked up 189 1/3 frames of 2.61 ERA ball. His 31.9% strikeout percentage over that run ranked 13th among relievers with 100+ innings and only seven relievers had a larger gap between their strikeout and walk rates. While he never made an All-Star team, he was clearly among the sport’s top high-leverage arms.

The 2015 season was McGee’s final with the Rays. It proved a challenge, as he was delayed to start the year by offseason elbow surgery and tore the meniscus in his left knee late in the season. When healthy enough to take the mound, he had another excellent showing. McGee twirled 37 1/3 innings with a 2.41 ERA and 32.7% strikeout percentage.

With Tampa Bay coming off an 80-82 record and McGee two seasons from free agency, he became one of the following offseason’s more intriguing trade chips. The Rays eventually packaged him with then-prospect Germán Márquez to the Rockies for outfielder Corey Dickerson and minor league infielder Kevin Padlo. The deal paid particular dividends for Colorado with Márquez’s emergence into staff ace, but McGee himself had a solid run early in his time there.

After a disappointing 4.73 ERA showing during his first season as a Rockie, he bounced back to the tune of a 3.61 mark across 57 1/3 innings in 2017 — helping the team to a Wild Card berth. That’s no small feat in the sport’s most hitter-friendly home venue, and the Rox kept him around via free agency. He signed a three-year, $27MM deal over the 2017-18 offseason, part of a bullpen spending spree that also saw Colorado bring in Bryan Shaw and Wade Davis.

That didn’t pan out as the organization hoped. Each of Shaw, McGee and Davis struggled to varying degrees. Home runs became a particular issues in McGee’s case, as his heavy reliance on four-seam fastballs up in the strike zone lost effectiveness when his velocity dipped a couple ticks during the 2018-19 seasons. The Rockies released McGee two seasons into the contract, but he promptly kicked off a late-career renaissance with a pair of division rivals.

Signing with the Dodgers for the shortened 2020 campaign, McGee ranked fifth among qualified relievers with a 41.8% strikeout rate over 24 outings. He saw some action in both the Championship Series and the World Series, getting into one game during a Fall Classic against his original organization. The Dodgers defeated the Rays in six games to win the only championship of McGee’s career, though he was part of another very successful club in San Francisco the next season.

He inked a two-year, $7MM deal with the Giants. During the first season, he picked up mostly where he’d left off in L.A. McGee’s strikeouts fell back to 24.3%, but he was among the game’s stingiest at avoiding walks and posted a 2.72 ERA through 59 2/3 innings. He assumed the closing role for a good chunk of the year, saving 31 of San Francisco’s 107 wins. The Giants edged out the Dodgers in a tight NL West race but saw L.A. get their revenge in a five-game Division Series that October.

The 2022 season, which’ll prove to be McGee’s last, was a struggle. He was hit hard through 24 contests in San Francisco, leading to his release in July. The veteran caught on briefly with the Brewers and Nationals at points during the second half but didn’t find much success at either stop. His final outing came in early September before Washington released him.

While he didn’t punctuate things with a great season, McGee steps away with a very strong body of work. He pitched for six different clubs over a 13-year MLB career, posting a cumulative 3.71 ERA through 572 1/3 innings. He struck out 613 of the 2359 batters he faced, a strong 26% clip. McGee finished 182 contests and collected 79 saves while holding 141 more leads and was credited with 32 wins. He had five separate seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA and four years in which he fanned upwards of 30% of opponents. According to Baseball Reference, he collected more than $37MM in earnings along the way.

MLBTR congratulates McGee on an excellent run and wishes him the best in his post-playing days.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays Extend Yandy Diaz

By Mark Polishuk | January 31, 2023 at 1:48pm CDT

Jan. 31: The Rays have formally announced their extension with Diaz. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that Diaz will be paid $6MM in 2023, $8MM in 2024 and $10MM in 2025. There’s a $12MM option for a fourth season, which does not contain a buyout.

Jan. 28: The Rays and infielder Yandy Diaz are close to finalizing a contract extension, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (Twitter link). The deal is a three-year, $24MM pact that contains a club option for the 2026, according to Feinsand and his MLB.com colleague Juan Toribio (via Twitter). Diaz is represented by ACES.

The extension would cover Diaz’s final two years of arbitration control and at least one of his free agent-eligible seasons. Diaz and the Rays were slated for an arbitration hearing to determine his 2023 salary after not reaching an agreement by the filing deadline — Diaz was looking for $6.3MM and the club countered with $5.5MM.

Instead, it now looks like Diaz will be the third hearing-bound Tampa Bay player to sign an extension this week. Jeffrey Springs signed a four-year, $31MM extension on Wednesday, while Pete Fairbanks agreed to a deal worth $12MM over three guaranteed years on Friday. An arb hearing is usually the result when the two sides don’t agree on a one-year salary prior to the figure-exchange deadline, yet clubs often try to pursue multi-year deals as something of a loophole around the self-imposed “file and trial” strategy deployed by most of the league.

Diaz, Springs, and Fairbanks were three of seven Rays players that didn’t agree to terms by the deadline, and even the remaining group of four (Harold Ramirez, Colin Poche, Ryan Thompson, Jason Adam) still represents an unusually large number of players to be headed for hearings. It certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see the Rays work out at least one more extension before hearings start taking place in the coming weeks.

For Diaz, the new contract locks in some long-term security and the first major payday for a player who turned 31 last August. Beginning his career in his native Cuba, Diaz was twice arrested before finally defecting on his third attempt, and then signed with Cleveland for a $300K bonus. Diaz didn’t make his MLB debut until 2017, when he was already 25 years old.

Back in December 2018, a headline-grabbing three-team trade between the Rays, Indians, and Mariners saw Diaz head from Cleveland to Tampa as part of the five-player swap. The Rays had interest in Diaz’s ability to make contact and draw walks, and those skills have certainly translated as Diaz’s career has progressed. Since the start of the 2020 season, Diaz ranks sixth among all qualified hitters in walk rate (13.7%) and ninth in strikeout rate (13.1%).

Diaz hit .266/.359/.418 over his first three seasons with the Rays, good for a solid 117 wRC+ over 1026 plate appearances. However, Diaz took the production up a level last season, posting a 146 wRC+ while hitting .296/.401/.423 with nine home runs over 558 PA, and finishing with elite percentiles in several major Statcast categories. For a right-handed batter, Diaz’s career numbers against left-handed pitchers had been relatively modest heading into 2022, but last year he crushed southpaws to the tune of an .892 OPS over 145 PA.

One flaw in Diaz’s performance was a lack of glovework, as public defensive metrics have indicated that he has been well below average over 1282 1/3 innings as a third baseman over the last two seasons. This stands out even more on a defense-conscious club like Tampa Bay, though the Rays might ideally look to use Diaz more often as a first baseman in 2023 or over the course of the longer-term deal.

In the big picture, locking up Diaz seems like a shrewd move for Tampa. While a 146 wRC+ is a high-water mark for Diaz, there wasn’t much (apart from a spike in hard-hit ball rate) to suggest that his 2022 numbers were a departure from his prior career numbers, so it’s reasonable for the Rays to expect roughly similar production going forward over the life of Diaz’s deal.

Perhaps the most intriguing element is that the Rays have now extended a 31-year-old player, as it is fairly common for the team to shop players as they get increasingly expensive. There hadn’t been any real trade buzz surrounding Diaz, however, and thus the Rays have now locked up three members of their infield (Diaz, Wander Franco, and Brandon Lowe) though possibly the 2026 season, depending on the status of club options for Diaz and Lowe. Of course, the Rays could still end up shopping Diaz, Lowe, or conceivably even Franco down the road, especially if the club continues to generate quality infield prospects from its minor league pipeline.

Between the yet-unknown specifics of Diaz’s contract numbers and the unresolved arbitration cases, the Rays are likely to match or exceed their previous franchise high for payroll, even if their overall spending is still quite modest by league-wide standards. Tampa Bay’s Opening Day payroll last season was approximately $83.86MM, and Roster Resource currently (without a Diaz extension involved) projects the Rays for around $76.86MM on the books in 2023.

Rays’ Proposed Stadium Redevelopment Plan Receives Support Of St. Petersburg Mayor

By Anthony Franco | January 30, 2023 at 10:25pm CDT

St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch announced this morning he’s selected the Rays’ proposed plan for redevelopment of St. Petersburg’s Gas Plant District (link via Colleen Welch of the Tampa Bay Times). The Rays had partnered with real estate development firm Hines for a proposed project, one of four such proposals submitted to the St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office in early December.

The selection does not represent a firm commitment between the Rays and the city of St. Petersburg for a new stadium. The organization still needs the approval of a term sheet by the city council, and Wright indicates that’s not expected to be decided upon until at least the summer. The mayor’s office selection of the Rays’ proposal over the other three under consideration represents a step forward in those negotiations, however.

Rays team president Brian Auld said Monday the team was “fully engaged” with St. Petersburg on negotiations but cautioned they’re still in the very early stages of the process (link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). The Rays can continue to explore other long-term stadium possibilities until/unless a term sheet is agreed upon. While Welch expressed optimism the franchise would not do so, Auld indicated the organization was “continuing the dialogue” with the City of Tampa as well.

The Rays/Hines proposal extends well beyond the construction of a new ballpark. The Rays promoted the plan as a project featuring “more than 5,700 multifamily units, 1.4 million square feet of office, 300,000 square feet of retail, 700 hotel rooms, 600 senior living residences, a 2,500 person entertainment venue, and various civic uses” as part of a press release last month. The proposed new stadium would be a 30,000-seat venue at the site of current Tropicana Field. Topkin notes the project comes with an estimated price tag in the $1.2 billion range and would require agreement from the Rays, St. Petersburg city council, and Pinellas County on funding — highlighting the challenges still remaining in settling on finances in the coming months.

While far from an endpoint, the mayor’s decision represents some progress toward a potential agreement on a new stadium plan that’d keep the Rays in St. Petersburg. The franchise’s lease at Tropicana Field runs through the 2027 campaign, which obviously places a sense of urgency on any negotiations that’d involve a massive construction plan for the organization’s new venue (and associated projects). Hannah Dineen of WTSP chronicles some disparate responses among those within the St. Petersburg community regarding Welch’s decision.

Rays Sign Pete Fairbanks To Extension

By Steve Adams | January 27, 2023 at 2:40pm CDT

The Rays announced Friday afternoon they’ve signed reliever Pete Fairbanks to a three-year extension with a 2026 club option. The deal buys out his three remaining seasons of arbitration eligibility, while the club option covers what would’ve been his first free-agent season.

Fairbanks, a client of Republik Sports, is reportedly guaranteed $12MM over the next three seasons (including a $1MM buyout on the 2026 option). Fairbanks will be paid $3.666MM annually between 2023-25, while the option comes with a $7MM base value. The deal also contains various incentives and escalators that could max it out at $24.6MM over four seasons.

Fairbanks and the Rays had yet to settle on a salary for the upcoming season, as he’d filed for a $1.9MM figure in his first time through the arbitration process, while the team countered at $1.5MM. Fairbanks would’ve been in line for another pair of raises in 2024 and 2025, but those salaries are now locked into place. In exchange for a guarantee that could err toward the high end of what he might’ve earned going year to year, Fairbanks will give the Rays control over his first free-agent campaign — his age-32 season.

The 29-year-old Fairbanks, acquired from the Rangers in a straight-up swap for infielder/outfielder Nick Solak back in 2019, has become one of the Rays’ top late-inning options. Tampa Bay doesn’t typically deploy one set closer, but Fairbanks is among the favorites to lead the club in saves during the upcoming season. Over the past three years, he’s pitched to a 2.70 ERA with a 33.8% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate in 93 1/3 innings.

Injuries have kept Fairbanks from working a full slate of innings over a 162-game season, however. In 2021, he twice landed on the injured list due to shoulder troubles — first a strained rotator cuff, then a bout of inflammation — missing roughly a month each time. He missed more than three months of the 2022 season due to a lat strain.

Though there are some durability concerns, Fairbanks’ 2022 campaign, in particular, illustrate the potentially dominant arm the Rays are locking up on this deal. Fairbanks averaged a blistering 99.2 mph on his heater while pitching to a 1.13 ERA with a comical 43.7% strikeout rate, a brilliant 3.4% walk rate and a well above-average 53.3% ground-ball rate. He also registered a 17% swinging-strike rate that ranked 16th out of the 546 pitchers who tossed at least 20 innings in 2022. Fairbanks didn’t allow a run over his final 22 innings of the season.

It’s the second multi-year extension this week for the Rays, who exchanged arbitration figures with a whopping seven players ago two weeks ago on exchange day. Southpaw Jeffrey Springs agreed to a four-year, $31MM contract that bought out two arbitration seasons and two free-agent years earlier in the week. The Rays, like many other clubs, have taken a file-and-trial approach to arbitration in recent years — effectively cutting off talks on one-year deals once figures are exchanged. Those clubs will typically remain open to working out multi-year arrangements if the player is amenable, and otherwise, an arbitration hearing is the typical outcome.

The Rays still have another five players with unresolved cases. Infielder Yandy Diaz (requested $6.3MM to the Rays’ $5.5MM), first baseman/outfielder Harold Ramirez ($2.2MM vs. $1.9MM), lefty Colin Poche ($1.3MM vs. $1.175MM), righty Ryan Thompson ($1.2MM vs. $1MM) and righty Jason Adam ($1.775MM vs. $1.55MM) all exchanged figures with the team on Jan. 13 after being unable to come to terms on a one-year salary figure.

With the recent rash of extensions over the past year-plus — Wander Franco, Tyler Glasnow, Manuel Margot and Springs also agreed to multi-year deals — and the Rays’ signing of Zach Eflin to a three-year contract, Tampa Bay is in the rare position of having a decent bit of cash already on the books two years down the road. The Rays already have $65.666MM guaranteed to seven players for the 2024 campaign, and that’s before factoring in what’s currently slated to be 13 arbitration-eligible players, league-minimum players to round out the group and, of course, any forthcoming additions via trade or free agency over the next 12 months or so.

The Rays have never opened a season with a payroll higher than last year’s $83.8MM total. That won’t change in 2023, barring an unexpected late addition to the roster, but barring a major trade or trades, they look like locks to set a new franchise record in player payroll in 2024. And with each of Diaz, Ramirez, Poche, Thompson and Adam all still unsettled, it’s possible Tampa Bay could yet add a few more guaranteed salaries to that ledger by hammering out additional multi-year pacts with the currently outstanding members of their arbitration class.

Jeff Passan of ESPN was first to report the Rays and Fairbanks had agreed to a three-year, $12MM guarantee with a fourth-year club option. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the option’s base value and buyout. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the contract’s maximum value and specific salary breakdown.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays Extend Jeffrey Springs

By Darragh McDonald | January 25, 2023 at 11:59pm CDT

The Rays announced they’ve signed left-hander Jeffrey Springs to a four-year contract extension. Springs, who’s represented by Ryan Ware of Alliance Sports Management, will be guaranteed $31MM over the course of the deal but there’s also incentives and a $15MM club option for 2027 with a $750K buyout. If Springs hits all the incentives and Cy Young award escalators and the club picks up the option, he’ll earn $65.75MM over five years.

The exact details of those incentives and escalators aren’t known. Springs will earn a salary of $4MM this year, $5.25MM next year, followed by $10.5MM in each of the following two seasons. Springs was set to reach free agency after 2024, so this could allow the Rays to secure him for three additional seasons, if they end up triggering that option.

Springs, 30, has had a unique baseball journey. A 30th round draft pick of the Rangers, he drew little fanfare from prospect evaluators in his first few professional seasons. Though he got some rotation work for a few years, the Rangers used him exclusively in relief in 2018 to good results. He tossed 56 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A that year. The 4.13 ERA might not seem very impressive, but it was surely inflated by a .438 batting average on balls in play. He kept his walks down to a reasonable 8.1% level while striking out an incredible 41.7% of batters faced. He got to make his MLB debut that year, throwing 32 innings over 18 appearances with a 3.38 ERA.

He took a step back in 2019, missing a few months with left biceps tendinitis and posting a 6.40 ERA. Texas designated him for assignment going into 2020 and then traded him to the Red Sox for Sam Travis. The change of scenery didn’t help Springs get back on track, as he posted a 7.08 ERA in the shortened 2020 campaign. He was designated for assignment again and then flipped to the Rays alongside Chris Mazza for prospects Ronaldo Hernández and Nick Sogard.

The move to Tampa appears to have been the one Springs needed, as his results have completely turned around since then. He registered a 3.43 ERA over 43 appearances in 2021, striking out 35.2% of batters faced while walking just 7.8% of them. In 2022, he started in the bullpen but the club began stretching him into a starter as the season went along. He responded well to the change, eventually throwing 135 1/3 innings with a 2.46 ERA, 26.2% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate and 40.9% ground ball rate.

After a few years of floundering and struggling, it’s not a huge surprise that Springs would jump at the chance to lock in some life-changing money here. He reached arbitration for the first time going into 2022 but only made $947.5K, a slight bump over the $700K league minimum. He was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a jump to $3MM this year, though he and the club didn’t come to an agreement prior to the filing deadline earlier this month. He submitted a $3.55MM figure while the Rays filed at $2.7MM. Instead, he’ll make $4MM and lock in some eight-figure salaries for the future.

For the Rays, they clearly believe Springs is capable of continuing as an effective starter, though there’s some risk here. Springs had excellent results in 2022 but it’s still just one season, and it wasn’t even a full one. As mentioned, Springs began the year in the bullpen and wasn’t stretched out until the end of May. He also went on the injured list for a couple of weeks in July due to right lower leg tightness. Concerns aside, the Rays are confident enough in the lefty that they’re willing to take a gamble on him.

For a low-spending team like the Rays, extensions are an important part of having talent on the roster. Since they don’t usually shop at the top of the free agent market, they need to keep guys around by locking them up before they get closer to the open market and increase their earning power. In recent years, they’ve given extensions to players like Kevin Kiermaier, Blake Snell, Brandon Lowe, Wander Franco, Manuel Margot and Tyler Glasnow, with Springs now joining them on that list.

This won’t have a huge impact on the club’s 2023 payroll but will add some decent commitments to 2025 and 2026. The club now has three players locked into the former season with Franco and Zach Eflin on the books there, along with a club option for Lowe. In exchange for putting that money on the table, the Rays now have arguably the most rotation stability they’ve had in years. Recent seasons have seen them rely on bullpen games and openers to get through a season but they now have Springs, Glasnow, Eflin, Drew Rasmussen and Shane McClanahan, with depth options like Yonny Chirinos, Luis Patiño and Josh Fleming. Most of that group are still in their pre-arbitration years, giving the club years of affordable control. None of them are slated for free agency after this year and Glasnow is now the only one set to hit the open market after 2024. The club also has one of the top pitching prospects in the sport in Taj Bradley, who finished last year at Triple-A and could make his debut this year.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported the deal and many of the details. Joel Sherman of the New York Post was the first with the year-to-year salary breakdown.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays, Jaime Schultz Agree To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | January 25, 2023 at 7:05pm CDT

The Rays are signing reliever Jaime Schultz to a minor league deal, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’ll be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.

Schultz has plenty of familiarity with the Tampa Bay organization. He began his professional career as a Rays draftee in 2013. Within a few seasons, he garnered some prospect attention as a potential high-leverage bullpen arm. That hasn’t materialized, as Schultz has battled scattershot command and injuries that have kept him from establishing himself in an MLB relief unit.

The High Point product pitched at the highest level in 2018-19, with the first of those seasons spent in Tampa Bay. He made 22 appearances for the Rays and four more as a Dodger the following season. Between the two clubs, he’s posted a 5.86 ERA across 35 1/3 MLB innings. Schultz struck out roughly 26% of opponents while averaging around 95 MPH on his fastball. That came with an alarming 13.6% walk percentage, leading Los Angeles to outright him off their roster towards the end of the 2019 season.

Schultz has signed minor league deals with the A’s and Mariners in recent years but been limited to five combined Triple-A outings since 2020. He didn’t sign with any team for 2022 but returns to the affiliated ranks this year. He’ll add a live arm to the upper levels of the Rays’ minor league system. Schultz figures to open the season with Triple-A Durham. He’s out of option years, so he’d have to stick on the active roster or be made available to other teams if he earns a call-up at any point.

« Previous Page

Load More Posts

Show all

Headlines

Rays Rumors

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect