The end of the Brad Miller era is now. (Photo Credit: USA Today Sports)

The Tampa Bay Rays formerly announced the roster move which allowed for the addition of 1B Jake Bauers to the 25-man roster, designating INF/DH Brad Miller for assignment, as opposed to either releasing him from his contract, or optioning him to Triple-A Durham.

The move gives Tampa Bay 10-days to trade Miller before either losing him to waivers, or releasing him and eating the remainder of his $4.5-million contract.

Miller, 28, had started 34 games at first base for Tampa Bay this season, but the team needed to clear a roster spot for first baseman Jake Bauers, who has been promoted from Triple-A Durham.

Bauers, 22, was acquired by the Rays in the three-team, 11-player trade in December 2014 that sent Wil Myers to the San Diego Padres and Trea Turner to the Washington Nationals.

You can read more about Bauers’ promotion at the link below.

Rays Roster Moves: Jake Bauers to be promoted on Thursday

Rays 6/7/18 Starting Lineup

Robertson SS
Cron DH
Wendle 2B
Ramos C
Duffy 3B
Bauers 1B
Gomez RF
Smith CF
Field LF
Stanek RHP

Noteworthiness

— Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder, who was hospitalized on Saturday in Seattle, has been medically cleared to rejoin the team. We wish him nothing but the best on his speedy recovery back to full health!

— The St. Petersburg City Council has approved an agreement with HKS Architects to develop a plan for the future of Tropicana Field, and the remaining acres surrounding it, without the Tampa Bay Rays.

It, however, should be noted that the city of St. Petersburg — by way of the Baseball Forever Campaign and the above mentioned architectural firm — previously developed a master plan that took into consideration the construction of a new facility on the north-east side of the property.

[embeddoc url=”http://www.baseballforever.com/assets/TheProposal.pdf”]

Today’s agreement allows the city to enter phase two, developing a master plan without ballpark, something that has always been in the works.

Before we get way ahead of ourselves, by assuming that a sparkling new facility across the bay is an inevitability, the City Council is still planning for a future with the team, be that at Tropicana Field or somewhere else, like Derby Lane or Mid Pinellas/Carillon.

According to the terms of the memorandum of understanding which allowed the Rays to search for a new stadium site in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, the team can share 50% of the development rights should it choose to build a stadium at the Tropicana Field site, which has been appraised at $1.2-billion. The Rays, however, lose the ability to cash in if they ultimately build a stadium elsewhere, even within Pinellas County. Because of it, neither the City of St. Petersburg, nor the Rays, are closing the door on a new stadium adjacent to Tropicana Field just yet. In other words, development revenues will be bonkers, and the Rays stand to lose a lot of money by building elsewhere.

So why get the ball rolling on the development of a second master plan now, with seven months left in the Rays MOU with the city? Noah Pransky (WTSP Action News) said it best:

— You can read about the Rays/M’s series in our series preview.

The New What Next: Rays vs Mariners — a series preview, part two

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