Hot-Stove: Rays Sign Three More to Minor League Contracts

The Rays have signed three more players to minor league contracts: Juan Miranda, Matt Mangini, and Ricky Orta. Miranda, 28, looks particularly interesting. Miranda spent a good amount of the 2011 season with the Diamondbacks and posted a .717 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in 202 plate appearances. Mangini was acquired from the Mariners, though it’s …

Hot-Stove: Are the Rays Making A Serious Run At Josh Willingham? The Updated BJ Upton Edition

Hooray for the Winter Meetings! The latest rumors coming out of Dallas surround 32-year-old LF Josh Willingham, and the Rays potential interest in signing him. Fox Sports baseball analyst tweeted earlier today that, “while the Rays are not close on Willingham, they’re one of three to four finalists.” As of the two o’ clock hour, …

Hot-Stove: Niemann, Brignac, and Davis

We here at Raysbaseball.co speculated a bit back, that there could be the potential of a trade involving John Jaso, Jeff Niemann, and Reid Brignac in order to make room for Matt Moore, and to supplement the roster. On the heals of last weekends Jaso trade, mlbtraderumors.com just reported that Tampa Bay is looking to trade SS Reid …

Manny Ramirez Files For Reinstatement

In another case of Manny being Manny, Ramirez, 39, is filing papers to be reinstated. Currently in Florida working out (read: fatties getting back into shape), Manny would take a fifty game suspension for his use of steroids. According to Olney, “He and his agents have told teams that he is ready to begin discussions. …

Hot-Stove: Jhonny Nunez, and Other Random Musings

On December 1, Tampa Bay signed 26-year-old RHP reliever, Jhonny Nunez, to a minor league contract. Nunez is a slider/fastball pitcher with good velocity, in the 94-97 MPH range. Nunez’s big league experience came in 2009 where he went 0-0 with a 9.53 ERA, a strike out ratio of 9K/9IP, and a walk ratio of …