Rays Rumors

Rays Claim Ralph Garza, Select Chris Mazza

By Anthony Franco | April 7, 2022 at 12:51pm CDT

The Rays have claimed reliever Ralph Garza off waivers from the Red Sox, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. They’ve also selected reliever Chris Mazza onto the Opening Day roster. To create 40-man roster space, Brendan McKay and Pete Fairbanks have been placed on the 60-day injured list.

Boston claimed Garza off waivers themselves a couple weeks ago, but their subsequent attempt to pass him through waivers came up empty. The 28-year-old made his big league debut last season, splitting the year between the Astros and Twins. He tossed 30 1/3 innings over 27 outings, pitching to a 3.56 ERA despite slightly worse than average strikeout and walk rates (22.8% and 11%, respectively).

Garza still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, and the Rays have already sent him to Triple-A Durham. He’ll serve as a depth option for a bullpen that now includes Mazza. The 32-year-old pitched in 14 games for Tampa Bay last season, posting a 4.61 ERA. He only punched out 18.8% of opponents, but he dished out walks at just a 6.3% clip. The Rays outrighted Mazza but brought him back on a minor league deal this winter, and he’ll again crack the big league roster.

McKay has been plagued by injuries for the past few years. He’s made just seven minor league appearances since 2019, as he required shoulder surgery in 2020 and suffered a forearm strain last year. McKay underwent thoracic outlet surgery last November. That wasn’t expected to affect his readiness for this season, but he’s apparently not recovered and will be out of action until at least early June again. Fairbanks has a partially torn lat and might not pitch until after the All-Star Break.

Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported Mazza’s forthcoming promotion this morning.

Rays, Manuel Margot Agree To Two-Year Extension

By Anthony Franco | April 5, 2022 at 10:34pm CDT

10:36pm: Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times provides the breakdown, with Margot making $7MM in 2023, $10MM in 2024, followed by a $12MM mutual option for 2025 that comes with a $2MM buyout.

2:21pm: The Rays are reportedly in agreement with outfielder Manuel Margot on a two-year, $19MM extension, pending a physical. The terms will begin in 2023 and buy out Margot’s first two seasons of free agent eligibility. The 27-year-old had been on track to hit the open market for the first time after this season. He and the club have already agreed upon a $5.6MM salary for his final arbitration-eligible year, and that reportedly won’t be affected by this extension. Margot is represented by Wasserman.

Margot has spent the past two seasons in Tampa after coming over from the Padres in a 2019-20 offseason trade. In both years, he’s posted slightly below-average numbers at the plate. Margot has tallied 623 plate appearances over 166 games as a Ray, posting a cumulative .258/.317/.375 line with 11 home runs. He’s done well to put the ball in play, only striking out in 15.2% of his plate appearances, but Margot has neither hit for much power nor drawn many walks.

While Margot has been an ordinary hitter for the bulk of his career, he’s an excellent defensive outfielder. Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating have pegged him as a plus gloveman in all five of his full big league seasons. That’s been true regardless of where he’s suited up. Margot is more than capable of handling center field, and he was downright excellent when moving to right field in deference to Kevin Kiermaier last season. No outfielder fared better than Margot in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric, which pegged him at 16 plays above par.

Tampa Bay has run out strong outfield defenses for years. That’s in large part due to the presence of an otherworldly center fielder in Kiermaier, but players like Margot, Brett Phillips and Randy Arozarena have done well in their own right. The Rays front office seemingly places strong emphasis on outfield defense, so it’s not too surprising they’d like to keep Margot in the fold.

The Rays are set to open the 2022 campaign with a franchise-record player payroll in the $83MM range, according to Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. There are only around $15MM in guarantees for next season, however. The Rays will have another hefty arbitration class, but Tampa Bay is never afraid to move arb-eligible players for younger, more affordable options. Last night’s trade of Austin Meadows to the Tigers fit that bill, and it afforded an opportunity for top prospect Josh Lowe to get an extended major league look.

Lowe, Margot and Arozarena now look to be in place as Tampa Bay’s primary 2023 outfield. Kiermaier is headed into the final guaranteed season of his contract. He’s controllable next year via $13MM club option, but the Rays could look to trade him or simply buy the option out if they’re content with Margot as the everyday center fielder. Tampa Bay has reportedly explored potential Kiermaier deals for a few seasons, but they’ve yet to pull the trigger on such a move.

Margot’s extension removes one of the better center fielders from the upcoming free agent market. Brandon Nimmo is set to headline that fairly thin class, with Kiermaier the second-best option if his option is declined. Beyond that duo, utilityman Enrique Hernández, Tyler Naquin (who’s a better fit in a corner) and veterans Lorenzo Cain and Jackie Bradley Jr. seem to be the top players available.

Tenchy Rodriguez first reported the Rays and Margot were in agreement on a two-year, $19MM extension. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times specified the deal would buy out his first two free agent seasons.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Yankees Select David McKay

By Anthony Franco | April 5, 2022 at 2:55pm CDT

APRIL 5: New York has formally selected McKay onto the 40-man roster. Fellow reliever Stephen Ridings was placed on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move.

APRIL 4: The Yankees are acquiring reliever David McKay from the Rays, report Ken Rosenthal and Lindsey Adler of the Athletic (Twitter link). The right-hander will be added to New York’s 40-man roster. It’ll be cash considerations heading back to the Rays, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.

McKay, who joined the Rays in February via minor league deal, had already been reassigned to the minors. With the Yankees willing to give him a roster spot the Rays were not, Tampa Bay will flip him to a division rival with a clearer path to big league time. McKay does still have a minor league option year remaining, so the Yankees can shuttle him between the Bronx and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre all season.

The 27-year-old has appeared in two big league campaigns. He suited up with the Mariners and Tigers between 2019-20, tossing 26 2/3 innings over 26 appearances. McKay pitched to a 6.08 ERA in that time, walking an elevated 15.3% of opponents. To his credit, he punched out a strong 28.8% of batters faced, albeit with just an 8.6% swinging strike percentage.

McKay owns a 4.82 ERA in 46 2/3 Triple-A frames, but he’s fanned an excellent 36.5% of opponents at the minors’ top level. The Yankees will add him to a righty relief group that thinned out a bit over the weekend when New York shipped Albert Abreu to the Rangers for catcher Jose Trevino.

Tigers Acquire Austin Meadows

By Anthony Franco | April 4, 2022 at 10:31pm CDT

The Tigers announced this evening they’ve acquired outfielder Austin Meadows from the Rays for infielder Isaac Paredes and a Competitive Balance Round B selection. Tampa Bay had reportedly been shopping Meadows in recent weeks, and he’ll land in Detroit.

It’s a notable, largely unexpected strike for Detroit. There wasn’t any indication the Tigers were on the hunt for outfield help, as they’d seemingly been content to open the year with a Robbie Grossman, Víctor Reyes, Akil Baddoo trio. Top prospect Riley Greene fractured his foot over the weekend, however, and is expected to be sidelined for six-to-eight weeks. Whether Greene’s injury increased the urgency for general manager Al Avila and his staff to add to the outfield isn’t clear, but they’ll do so by bringing aboard a player who’s only a couple seasons removed from an All-Star campaign.

Meadows was part of the Rays now-famous haul from the Pirates at the 2018 trade deadline for Chris Archer. A top prospect during his days in the Pittsburgh farm system, he hit the ground running with a solid rookie showing before breaking out the following season. Meadows hit a massive .291/.364/.558 with 33 home runs in 591 plate appearances in 2019, seemingly emerging as one of the sport’s top young sluggers.

He hasn’t kept up that pace in the past two seasons. The lefty-hitting Meadows stumbled to a .205/.296/.371 line during the shortened 2020 campaign, striking out at an alarming 32.9% clip. That was obviously an anomalous year, and the the former 9th overall pick did bounce back this past season — albeit not close to his 2019 levels. Meadows hit .234/.315/.458 in 591 plate appearances, somewhat offsetting his 27 homers with a mediocre batting average and on-base percentage.

To his credit, the strikeout woes that had plagued Meadows in 2020 were corrected. He only fanned in 20.6% of his trips to the dish last season. His 77.2% contact rate was right in line with the league mark, while his average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard contact percentage were all a bit higher than average. Meadows was instead plagued by a career-low .249 batting average on balls in play.

That can’t all be chalked up to misfortune, as he has gotten increasingly fly-ball oriented over the past couple seasons. Among 135 hitters with 500+ plate appearances in 2021, no one had a higher fly-ball rate than Meadows’ 53% clip. That’s a recipe for hitting for power but also for poor ball in play results, as non-homer fly balls rarely turn into hits.

Whatever concerns one may have about Meadows’ batted ball profile, it’s still easy to see his appeal to the Tigers. Over parts of four big league seasons, he owns a .260/.333/.489 slash line — offensive production that checks in 22 percentage points above league average by measure of wRC+. While he hasn’t been at his best in two years, he was still an above-average hitter in 2021, and the 2019 campaign offers a hint of the kind of offensive upside he possesses if he can again bring his fly-ball rate closer to that season’s 42.9%.

Meadows does have rather marked platoon splits. For his career, he’s a .271/.351/.525 hitter against right-handed pitching. He owns a more pedestrian .237/.295/.412 slash against southpaws. The Tigers outfield already skewed a bit left-handed, with Greene and Baddoo hitting from that side of the dish while Reyes are Grossman are switch-hitters. Meadows doesn’t need to be a strict platoon player, though, and the rest of the Detroit lineup is heavily right-handed. Presumably, Meadows will step into an everyday corner outfield role for skipper A.J. Hinch, who’ll have the freedom to perhaps drop him down a bit in the order on days when the opposing team will roll out a tough lefty starter.

It’s an immediate upgrade for a Detroit team that has also added Javier Báez, Eduardo Rodríguez, Tucker Barnhart, Andrew Chafin and Michael Pineda this winter. Avila and his staff are clearly trying to pull out of their recent rebuild, and the Meadows addition should be a notable upgrade to the offense. It’s not an absolute win-now move, though, as the 26-year-old (27 next month) is controllable for three seasons via arbitration. Meadows and the Rays had settled on a $4MM salary for 2022, and he’s not slated to hit free agency until after 2024.

That makes Meadows a fairly affordable pick-up for Detroit, but he was part of a large arbitration class that might’ve put a strain on the Rays payroll. Even after subtracting his $4MM salary from the books, Tampa Bay has a projected franchise-record $83MM player payroll, according to Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. The Rays reportedly made a run at Freddie Freeman, so they were willing to stretch beyond their typical comfort zone for the right player, but that surprising pursuit always seemed to be a recognition of Freeman’s star status.

In addition to whatever payroll constraints president of baseball operations Erik Neander and his staff might’ve been facing, they clearly felt prepared to deal from a position of organizational depth. The Rays have Randy Arozarena, Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot on hand as outfield options. Top prospect Josh Lowe, meanwhile, seems ready for a big league look after hitting .291/.381/.535 in 111 games with Triple-A Durham last season.

The team apparently feels Lowe is ready for a significant role on a team with World Series aspirations. Rays pre-game broadcaster Neil Solondz tweets that the club plans to recall the 24-year-old to break camp in the majors. Given his status as a consensus Top 50 prospect, Lowe will certainly be in line for regular at-bats. He, Margot and Kiermaier are each possible plus defenders at all three outfield spots, giving manager Kevin Cash a chance to run some excellent defensive groups on the grass. (Arozarena is primarily a corner outfielder but rates well there in his own right).

In exchange for dealing from that outfield depth, the Rays add another young bat to their infield mix. Paredes has been on the prospect radar for quite some time, but he only recently turned 23 years old. A right-handed hitter, he doesn’t possess overwhelming power or athleticism but he has excellent bat-to-ball skills.

Paredes hasn’t produced much in limited big league action the past couple seasons. Over 163 plate appearances, he owns a meager .215/.290/.302 line with a pair of home runs. He has posted excellent offensive numbers all the way up the minor league ladder, though, and the Rays are betting on those skills eventually carrying over against big league pitching.

Paredes, who appeared at the tail end of Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects in both 2019 and 2020, is coming off a .265/.397/.451 showing in 315 Triple-A plate appearances. He hit 11 homers and walked at a huge 17.8% clip while only striking out 14.9% of the time. Among 96 Triple-A East hitters with 300+ plate appearances, Paredes sported the third-highest walk rate. No one in that group had a better walk to strikeout ratio, with minor league veteran Tyler White the only other player in the league to even walk more often than he punched out.

While Paredes has experience at each of second base, third base and shortstop, he’s primarily played the former two positions in recent years. He’ll step into a Tampa Bay infield mix that is quite crowded itself. Wander Franco and Brandon Lowe have the middle infield spoken for, while Yandy Díaz joins Paredes and fellow former top prospects Taylor Walls and Vidal Bruján in the mix at third base. Díaz figures to assume some DH at-bats vacated by Meadows’ departure, which would enable the Rays to get their younger players some action at the hot corner. All three of Walls, Bruján and Paredes have minor league option years remaining, so they can each bounce between St. Petersburg and Durham as well.

The Rays have never shied away from churning players off the big league club to bolster the long-term organizational depth. Paredes has just over one year of big league service under his belt. He won’t reach free agency until at least after the 2026 campaign, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he spends enough time in the minors this season to push that trajectory back a year further. Tampa Bay also adds a draft choice that’ll fall after the second round, currently projected for #71 overall. Along with a Competitive Balance Round B pick of their own, the Rays now own four of the top 75 selections — along with the accompanying bonus pool space that stockpiling picks provides.

It’s a fascinating deal between two teams envisioning both immediate and long-term contention in the American League. The Tigers add a potential middle-of-the-order bat, bolstering an outfield fresh off an injury setback. (In a fun tidbit, they also raise the possibility of Meadows pairing with his younger brother Parker — a High-A outfielder in the Detroit system — in the Comerica Park outfield someday). The Rays continue to preemptively stockpile young players and draft capital, building the kind of organizational depth that allows them to perpetually deal good players like Meadows with the knowledge that additional talented players are on the horizon.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

AL East Notes: Pearson, Borucki, Harvey, Judge, Meadows, Rays, Pollock

By Mark Polishuk | April 2, 2022 at 5:12pm CDT

The Blue Jays are dealing with some injury concerns in their bullpen, as Nate Pearson is dealing with a non-COVID illness and Ryan Borucki left yesterday’s game with discomfort in his right hamstring. Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith (Twitter link) and other reporters that Borucki will undergo an MRI. More will be known about Borucki’s situation when the MRI results are in, but for Pearson, his illness has limited him to only two appearances thus far in Grapefruit League action.

In all likelihood, Pearson’s illness will keep him from making Toronto’s Opening Day roster. While this issue seems less serious than the other injuries that have sidelined the righty over the last two years, it represents yet another setback for the former top prospect. As for Borucki, the southpaw has been a pretty solid reliever when healthy, though he missed almost all of the 2019 season due to elbow problems and over two months of last season with a forearm strain. If another IL stint is required for Borucki, Tim Mayza will be the only left-hander in the Jays’ projected bullpen, which could open the door for Anthony Kay, Tayler Saucedo, or Andrew Vasquez to break camp.

Pete Fairbanks Has Partially Torn Lat, Expected To Miss Multiple Months

By Anthony Franco | March 30, 2022 at 3:17pm CDT

MARCH 30: Fairbanks has a partially torn lat, Topkin reports (on Twitter). He’ll be shut down from throwing for at least six weeks as initially expected, at which point he’ll be reevaluated. Topkin suggests it’d take another six weeks for him to ramp back up into game shape once he begins a throwing program. It seems a late June or early July return to the majors is the best case scenario.

MARCH 28: Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks underwent an MRI this afternoon after leaving yesterday’s Grapefruit League action due to lat tightness. The initial recommendation is that Fairbanks be shut down from throwing for six weeks, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, and the club is now seeking second opinions.

If Fairbanks indeed needs to shut things down entirely for six weeks, he’d likely miss most or all of the first half of the season. That’d set around a mid-May timetable for the right-hander to pick up a ball, and he’d certainly need a good bit of time to gradually ramp back up into game shape. An absence of that length would require a minor league rehab assignment as well, perhaps keeping him out of MLB action until July.

Regardless of whether further evaluation confirms that timetable, it’s clear Fairbanks won’t be an option for manager Kevin Cash early in the season. That’s a tough blow for the Rays, as the 28-year-old has emerged as a key high-leverage arm. Over the past two seasons, Fairbanks has pitched to a 3.25 ERA/2.83 FIP in 69 1/3 innings. The University of Missouri product has averaged just under 98 MPH on his high-spin fastball, and it’s little surprise he’s missed bats in droves with that offering. Since the start of 2020, he has fanned an excellent 31% of opposing hitters.

Fairbanks becomes another notable loss for a Tampa Bay pitching staff that’ll be without a few important arms. Tyler Glasnow, Nick Anderson and Yonny Chirinos are each going to miss significant chunks of the season recovering from injuries that date back to last year. Top prospect Shane Baz was shut down for a bit last week after undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery. With Fairbanks out, Andrew Kittredge, JT Chargois, Matt Wisler and offseason signee Brooks Raley look like the top options to take the most important outs late in games at the start of the season.

AL East Notes: Fairbanks, Jays, Arroyo, Duran, Donaldson

By Darragh McDonald | March 27, 2022 at 10:29pm CDT

Rays’ right-hander Pete Fairbanks was removed from today’s game due to right lat tightness, per Rays broadcaster Neil Solondz. Manager Kevin Cash spoke with reporters, including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, saying that more information will be forthcoming but that Fairbanks is “going to miss some time.” Topkin relays that Fairbanks will undergo an MRI on Monday.

It’s been a fairly quiet offseason for the Rays so far, at least in terms of bringing in new faces, as their biggest move of the past few months has been to extend Wander Franco. In terms of new additions, it’s been Corey Kluber, Brooks Raley and Jason Adam. Of course, the team wasn’t desperate for upgrades, having won the AL East in each of the past two seasons. Fairbanks has somewhat quietly emerged as a dominant part of the club’s pitching staff over those two seasons. Since the start of the 2020 campaign, he’s thrown 69 1/3 innings with a 3.25 ERA, 31% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate. If Fairbanks is headed for the IL, the club would certainly miss that level of performance. They’d be well-equipped to weather his absence, given the many talented arms they have in their relief corps, such as Andrew Kittredge, J.P. Feyereisen and JT Chargois. However, given that the AL East is expected to be a heated four-team standoff, every inch will count in the next six months.

Elsewhere from around the division…

The Blue Jays are set to begin the season with an Opening Day payroll around $171MM, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That would be a new franchise record, going just beyond the $163MM of 2017, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. But it’s possible that the spending could be pushed even further, according to team president/CEO Mark Shapiro. “Those wins from like 90 to 93 are usually the most important ones and you usually have to outpace revenue at some point,” Shapiro told Scott Mitchell of TSN. “When they start to outpace our budget, then it’s up to me to go (to ownership) and propose and say, ‘Here’s what we feel another addition beyond our budget could mean.’ We never feel limited by that.” The Jays somehow missed the playoffs last year despite winning 91 games, as that was only good enough for fourth place in the stacked AL East. The club has been aggressive in making moves for the upcoming campaign, adding free agents such as Kevin Gausman and Yusei Kikuchi, as well as trading for Matt Chapman and Raimel Tapia. Despite looking good on paper, Shapiro knows that they will inevitably need resources to react to events as the season unfolds. “We’re going to face something that none of us are thinking about right now.”
Christian Arroyo got his first taste of outfield action on the spring today, manning right field for the Red Sox. Manager Alex Cora was apparently pleased, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Arroyo has played all four infield positions in his career but never on the grass. However, Boston’s recent signing of Trevor Story has reduced his likelihood of seeing any significant playing time on the dirt, forcing him to attempt to expand his defensive repertoire. Enrique Hernandez and Alex Verdugo figure to be fixtures in the outfield mix, leaving one spot up for grabs. J.D. Martinez will still be the club’s primary designated hitter but will apparently see more time in the field this year. Jackie Bradley Jr. is also around, though he’s coming off an awful campaign with Milwaukee, posting a wRC+ of just 35, the lowest in the league among hitters with at least 200 plate appearances. Jarren Duran was thought to be in the mix, despite a lackluster showing in his MLB debut last year, but the club announced today that he’s been optioned to Triple-A. Taking all that into consideration, there’s a path for Arroyo to earn himself some playing time, should he adapt well to the defensive switch. In 57 games with the Red Sox last year, he hit .262/.324/.445 for a wRC+ of 106.
Josh Donaldson is under consideration to be the Yankees’ leadoff hitter, according to manager Aaron Boone. Newsday’s Erik Boland relays word from the skipper, who had this to say about the idea: “Guy that controls the strike zone like he does, the ability to get on, power, great hitter…yeah, he’s definitely someone I would consider.” Boone is certainly correct about Donaldson’s on-base abilities, as the slugger has posted an above-average walk rate for each of the past nine seasons. While he might not fit the classic model of leadoff hitter, Donaldson would certainly fit the recent trend of opting for on-base ability over speed. It wouldn’t be the first time the experiment was tried, as he was pencilled into the top spot of the lineup seven times by the Jays in 2015, the year he went on to be crowned AL MVP. In those seven games, he hit .276/.313/.586 over 32 plate appearances. That amounted to a wRC+ of 137, not too far below his season-long number of 154, suggesting Donaldson didn’t seem to be bothered by the switch.

Rays Acquire Harold Ramirez From Cubs

By Anthony Franco | March 25, 2022 at 8:37pm CDT

The Rays have acquired outfielder Harold Ramírez from the Cubs in exchange for minor league infielder Esteban Quiroz, according to announcements from both teams. Tampa Bay announced they’ve placed reliever Nick Anderson on the 60-day injured list to open space for Ramírez on the 40-man roster.

The move brings Ramírez’s Chicago tenure to an end before he ever suited up for the team. The Cubs acquired the right-handed hitting outfielder from the Guardians in exchange for cash in late November. That came after Cleveland had designated him for assignment in advance of Rule 5 protection day, part of an overhaul of more than a quarter of the Guardians’ 40-man roster.

While Ramírez didn’t play in a game with the Cubs, he has logged a fair bit of MLB action over the past few seasons. A former Blue Jays’ farmhand, Ramírez debuted in the majors with the Marlins in 2019. He hit .276/.312/.416 in 119 games as a rookie, but he missed almost all of the following season after suffering a severe hamstring strain. Cleveland picked him up off waivers in February and gave him 361 plate appearances, and his .268/.305/.398 line wasn’t much different than his 2019 performance.

The 27-year-old Ramírez has a career .271/.308/.405 mark in a bit more than 800 plate appearances. He makes a fair amount of contact, leading to a solid batting average. Yet he’s paired that with a minuscule 4% walk rate and a below-average .134 ISO (slugging minus average). Ramírez’s 47.2% hard contact percentage and 91.3 MPH average exit velocity were more impressive than those bottom line power numbers might suggest, but he negated a good bit of that batted ball authority by putting more than half his balls in play on the ground.

Ramírez adds an affordable option to the Tampa Bay outfield. He’ll play the 2022 campaign on just a $728K salary and is controllable via arbitration through 2025. The Rays could keep him around as a long-term piece, but he’s also out of minor league option years. That means Tampa Bay must either carry him on the active roster all season or DFA him themselves.

Whether Ramírez sticks long-term could be determined by what the Rays have planned for the coming weeks. The outfield is already pretty crowded, with Randy Arozarena, Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot lined up as the projected starting group. Austin Meadows will see some time in the corners and at designated hitter, while the out-of-options Brett Phillips and top prospect Josh Lowe figure to be in the mix. It may be tough to carry both Phillips and Ramírez in depth capacities all season, but the former is a better defensive option off the bench. Ramírez has some experience in center field but is better suited for the corners.

Of course, it’s possible the Rays deal from the outfield logjam before the season. Meadows, in particular, has been floated in trade rumors since the lockout was lifted. The front office isn’t going to be pressured to deal one of their regulars because they picked up Ramírez in a minor trade, but today’s deal could be a preemptive move to bolster the outfield depth in case another swap on the horizon.

From the Cubs’ perspective, the pair of Ramírez trades essentially amounts to picking up Quiroz for cash. Despite never having appeared in the majors, Quiroz is actually a few years older than Ramírez. At 30 years old, the lefty-hitting infielder isn’t a prototypical prospect. Yet he has a long track record of performing well in both the Mexican League and in the high minors, one that has caught the attention of a handful of clubs.

Originally signed by the Red Sox out of Mexico, Quiroz was dealt to the Padres for Colten Brewer over the 2018-19 offseason. Tampa Bay picked him up in March 2020 as the player to be named later in the Tommy Pham, Jake Cronenworth, Hunter Renfroe deal. Listed at 5’6″, 199 pounds, he doesn’t have overwhelming physical tools. Yet Quiroz owns a .270/.391/.534 line in his Triple-A career, including a .268/.401/.526 mark with the Rays’ top affiliate in Durham last season. Quiroz won’t occupy a spot on the Cubs 40-man roster; he’ll presumably head to Triple-A Iowa and keep trying to earn an MLB debut.

Anderson’s placement on the 60-day IL was a formality whenever the Rays needed a roster spot. The righty underwent a UCL brace procedure last October that was always expected to keep him out of action past the All-Star Break.

Rays Sign Robert Dugger To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | March 24, 2022 at 6:29pm CDT

The Rays have signed right-hander Robert Dugger to a minor league contract, Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle notes as part of his latest transactions round-up. The 26-year-old has appeared in the majors in each of the past three seasons, suiting up with the Marlins and Mariners.

Dugger’s 12 appearances with Seattle last season marked a career-high. He started four of those games but never worked more than 3 1/3 innings, serving as more of a long relief type. Dugger posted a 7.36 ERA in 25 2/3 innings, striking out only 15.7% of opposing hitters. The Texas Tech product also had a rough season with Triple-A Tacoma, where he was tagged for a 6.10 ERA in 69 1/3 frames.

The M’s outrighted Dugger off their 40-man roster in August. He elected minor league free agency at the end of the season and will join the third organization of his career. Originally a Mariners draftee, Dugger was traded to Miami as part of the Dee Strange-Gordon deal. He debuted in the big leagues with the Marlins in 2019 but ended up back in Seattle last winter when they nabbed him off waivers from the Fish.

Dugger has made 23 big league appearances, including 12 starts. Owner of a 7.39 career ERA, he’s yet to find success at the major league level. Dugger has pitched pretty well up through Double-A, though, and he appeared among Baseball America’s Top 30 Marlins’ prospects each offseason from 2018-20. He’ll offer some swing depth to a Tampa Bay organization that is among the league’s most flexible with regards to pitcher usage.

Rays Sign Luke Bard

By Steve Adams | March 24, 2022 at 7:37am CDT

Right-hander Luke Bard has agreed to a deal with the Rays, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). The team hasn’t announced the move, but Bard is in the clubhouse and has a locker set up. Rays broadcaster Neil Solondz adds that it’s a minor league contract for Bard, a client of ISE Baseball.

Bard, 31, is a former supplemental first-round pick (No. 42 by the Twins in 2012) who made his big league debut with the Angels back in 2018. He spent parts of the 2018-20 seasons in the Majors with the Halos, pitching to a combined 5.05 ERA with a 21.8% strikeout rate, a 6.5% walk rate and a 33.3% ground-ball rate in 46 appearances. Three of those were technically “starts,” though Bard served as an opener in each.

The younger brother of Rockies righty Daniel Bard, Luke was with the Angels again for the 2021 season but did not pitch either in the big leagues or in the minors. The younger Bard brother was slowed last spring by a hip injury that eventually required surgery and an eight-month recovery period.

Bard hasn’t had much success in the Majors, and his three Triple-A seasons have produced a 5.04 ERA that’s a near-identical match with his big league ERA. That said, he’s a fairly unsurprising Rays target all the same. Bard possesses off-the-chart spin rates on his four-seamer and, to a slightly lesser extent, on his slider. He led the Majors in four-seam spin rate during the 2019 season, but that didn’t translate to a gaudy swinging-strike rate or overall strikeout rate. The Rays surely have their own ideas on how to get the most out of Bard, who can be controlled through at least the 2025 season if he makes the roster and enjoys a late-blooming breakout.

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