X-Rays Spex

A Below Average Rays Fan Blog

Rays re-acquire Oliver Drake; designate Jamie Schultz for assignment

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The Rays re-acquired right-hander Oliver Drake from the Toronto Blue Jays for cash considerations on Friday.

The Tampa Bay Rays announced that they re-acquired right-hander Oliver Drake from the Toronto Blue Jays for cash considerations on Friday.

The Rays initially claimed Drake off waivers in November, yet designated him for assignment a couple of weeks later. Meanwhile, after being claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays, Toronto designated Drake for assignment last week in order to open a spot on the roster for southpaw Clayton Richard. In order to open a spot for Drake on the 40-man roster, Tampa Bay announced that right-hander Jaime Schultz has been designated for assignment.

Drake, 31, hasn’t had much success in his brief big league career, however, there are reasons to believe he could succeed in the near future. The right-hander has been rather unlucky over the past couple of seasons, having been staked to a .353 BABIP, albeit with an exceptional 47% swinging strike percentage. Drake worked to a 2.21 ERA with an impressive 3.3 K/BB ratio and a 50% ground-ball rate across 20-1/3 innings with the Twins — the only team with which he found real success.

Drake also saw MLB action with four other teams in 2018 (Blue Jays, Angels, Indians, Brewers), and he’s seen time with six Major League clubs over the past two seasons. Drake is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to break camp with Tampa Bay (or another club) next spring or else be exposed to waivers yet again.

Schultz, 27, was once considered one of Tampa Bay’s most promising MiLB arms. However, he struggled to a 5.64 ERA in 30-1/3 innings last season. Even though he racked up 35 strikeouts in the time, struggled mightily with command, issuing 17 walks and hit three batters. The right-hander also underperformed in Durham last season and hasn’t been able to consistently avoid a bloated walk rate in the upper minors.

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Rays to reduce seating capacity at Tropicana Field; announce stadium improvements

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The Tampa Bay Rays will further shrink the capacity of Tropicana Field ahead of the 2019 season.

Less than a month after the Tampa Bay Rays made it known they would abandon their plans to build a stadium in Ybor City, the team announced its intent to reduce the seating at Tropicana Field to about 25,000 to 26,000 under a renovation plan aimed at improving fans’ experience.

In a statement, Rays President Matt Silverman said the plan would create a more “intimate” atmosphere.

These renovations mark our continued commitment to providing a first-rate fan experience at Tropicana Field. Together, in concert with the reduction in seating capacity, these investments will help create a more intimate, entertaining and appealing experience for our fans.

The team also announced plans to create more social gathering spaces with the creation of the Left Field Ledge, which will include premium seating for small groups, a full-service bar, ledge tables, and seated drink rails, as well as the elimination of the upper-deck 300 level.

Here’s a full look at the renovations planned for the Trop this season:

  • Offering more social gathering spaces with the creation of a new common area, the Left Field Ledge.
  • Redesigning and enhancing two primary fan entrances (Gate 4 and 5) to improve the flow of fans through increased access points and wayfinding features.
  • Exchanging the current turf for a new Shaw Sports Turf product, designed to withstand the myriad events held at Tropicana Field throughout the year.
  • Adding access from the Budweiser Porch and Ballpark & Rec areas to the Outfielder bar behind center field, as well as creating an external entrance to the food and beverage space.
  • Redoubling the organization’s commitment to sustainable energy practices by replacing the existing field lights with energy-efficient LED lights, improving overall on-field playability and entertainment lighting throughout the ballpark.
  • Elimination of the upper deck, which reconfigures the ballpark seating areas to include the first, mezzanine and second seating levels, as well as the new GTE Financial Party Deck. This will bring all fans closer to the field of play.

This marks the second consecutive year that the Trop has undergone renovations. Prior to the start of the 2018 season, the team created new concession concepts that reflected the surrounding community, while also renovating the team store, theRays Republic.

According to a team press release, the Rays have invested more than $50-million in Tropicana Field renovations since 2005, including more than $15-million in the last two years.

Noteworthiness

— One cannot help but wonder if this is a step toward a complete overhaul of Tropicana Field, which would be far cheaper than building a new facility? There is nothing structurally wrong with the stadium, which begs the question, might the team eventually propose a massive renovation of the stadium, something similar to the design of the $892-million proposed facility in Ybor City?

According to the terms of their use agreement, the Rays stand to collect 50% of the development rights at the Tropicana Field site should the team stay put, which includes the construction of a new facility on the Trop’s 86 acres.

— On a related note, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman spoke with Janelle Irwin Taylor (WMNF) on the potential for a light rail system that would connect the proposed Brightline-Virgin Rail Service station in downtown Tampa to the Tropicana Field site, among other things.

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Rays acquire Emilio Pagan in three-team trade

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The Rays acquired Emilio Pagan from the Athletics in a three-team trade on Friday.

The Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, and Texas Rangers have completed a three-team trade that will bring right-handed reliever Emilio Pagan to St. Petersburg from Oakland. The Rays will also receive the Athletics’ Competitive Balance Round A selection in next year’s draft (currently slotted in at number 38 overall) and a Minor League right-hander, Rollie Lacy, from Texas. In return, Tampa Bay will send minor league southpaws Brock Burke and Kyle Bird and Minor League right-hander Yoel Espinal to the Rangers.

Pagan, 27, will join his third organization in three years. He spent just one season in Oakland after being acquired from the Mariners in the 2017-18 offseason. Though he’s moved journeyed a fair bit, Pagan has generally had useful big league results, notching a 3.85 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 across 112-1/3 innings as a Major Leaguer.

Pagan pitched in 55 games for Oakland, finishing the 2018 campaign with a 4.35 ERA/4.92 FIP to pair with a 24.1 K% and 7.3 BB% across 62 innings pitched.

The reliever has been tremendous against right-handed batters, holding them to a .192 BA/.237 OBP/.336 SLG/.573 OPS line while posting a 6.23% K/BB in his big league career. Even though Pagan shows the ability to miss plenty of bats, his kryptonite has been left-handed hitters, which have lit him up. He’s also an extreme fly-ball pitcher that’s yielded a 1.6 HR/9 at the Major League level.

Even so, JT Morgan (DRaysBay) calls Pagan an apt replacement for Sergio Romo:

Pagan makes sense as a replacement for Sergio Romo. He shouldn’t be getting the ninth inning role, but with teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, and Los Angeles Angels being primarily stacked with right handed batters at the top of their lineups being an opener could make some sense for the Rays against the teams they are most likely looking to compete with.

Pagan is able to pitch in multiple innings which was likely appealing to the Rays, who lean on multi-inning relievers as part of their opener strategy.

His repertoire, according to Brooks Baseball:

Emilio Pagan has thrown 1,901 pitches that have been tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2016 and 2018, including pitches thrown in the MLB Regular Season, The World Baseball Classic, Spring Training and Fall/Winter Ball. In 2018, he has relied primarily on his Fourseam Fastball (95mph) and Slider (86mph). He also rarely throws a Change (88mph) and Sinker (94mph).

His fourseam fastball generates a high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers’ fourseamers, has less armside movement than typical, results in somewhat more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ fourseamers, has slightly above average velo and has some added backspin. His slider is a prototypical pitch with few remarkable qualities. His change generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers’ changeups, is much firmer than usual, results in more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ changeups and has a lot of backspin. His sinker (take this with a grain of salt because he’s only thrown 12 of them in 2018) is basically never swung at and missed compared to other pitchers’ sinkers, is an extreme flyball pitch compared to other pitchers’ sinkers, has well above average velo, has less armside run than typical and has little sinking action compared to a true sinker.

Mark Polishuk (MLB Trade Rumors) wrote about Lacy, saying:

The 23-year-old Lacy will join the Tampa Bay organization after spending only a brief time with the Rangers. Texas acquired Lacy in the July trade that sent Cole Hamels to the Cubs, though his results with the Rangers dropped off a bit from the numbers he posted in the Cubs’ minor league system. Some of that surely coincides with a move from Class-A to Class-A Advanced, and it’s worth noting that Lacy only totaled 28 1/3 innings in the Rangers’ system before the season ended, so it’s also a small sample of data. On the season as a whole, the right-hander worked to a 2.97 ERA with 10.0 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate of nearly 60 percent through 109 innings between those two levels this season.

The deal cleared space on the 40-man roster for Charlie Morton, who was acquired at the 2018 MLB Winter Meetings on December 12.

On Thursday, the Rays came to terms on a Minor League deal for left-hander Jairo Labourt.

Lambourt, 24, came over to Toronto as part of the 2015 David Price trade with the Tigers. He pitched in the MLB Future’s Game in 2017 and made his Major League debut later that season. He posted a 4.76 ERA and an 11/9 K/BB across 5-2/3 innings of work last season with the White Sox’s affiliate. He will need to improve his shaky control if he wants to make it back to the majors with the Rays.

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Rays officially terminate stadium negotiation window

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The 86 acre Tropicana Field site, home of the Tampa Bay Rays … at least until 2027.

The Tampa Bay Rays formally closed the three-year negotiating window that permitted the team to search both Pinellas and Hillsborough and counties for a new stadium site.

The team sent a two-sentence letter, drafted by Senior Vice President of Administration John P. Higgins, to St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman which was similar to the announcement made by Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg last week at Major League Baseball’s winter meetings in Las Vegas. You can read the text of the letter below.

Dear Mayor Kriseman:

This letter shall serve as the “Decision Notice” [as that term is defined in that certain Memorandum of Understanding between Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Ltd. (the “Rays”) and that City of St. Petersburg (the “City”) dated January 15, 2016 (the “MOU”)]. Please be advised that, as required by Section 9.B. of the MOU, the Rays hereby notify the City that the Rays will not attempt to negotiate the “New Agreements” (as that term is defined in the MOU) or prepare a “Termination Agreement” (as that term is defined in the MOU).

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Very truly yours,

John P. Higgins

The team — which stands to net 50% of the development rights at the Tropicana Field site — remains silent on its future, although there is far more money available for the Rays if they choose to renegotiate in St. Petersburg. In fact, when asked by Noah Pransky (WTSP) if Sternberg would sign away the developments rights at the Trop in July, the answer was pretty clear: “no.”

At the moment, St. Petersburg can contribute $100-million+ in county bed taxes, $75-million+ in county infrastructure funds, and $40-million+ in general revenue funds.

St. Petersburg City Council Chair Charlie Gerdes said it’s time to make sure the team stays here for the long haul.

I don’t have a sense of relief, said Gerdes, who said he’d rather see the team find a long-term home in Pinellas County, but would also rather the team stay in the Tampa Bay area than leave altogether. It’s not time to be relieved, it’s time to make sure they stay here for a long time.

I want them to find a place where they can keep ‘TB’ on their hats for a long time.

The Rays decision to pull out of the Hillsborough County stadium proposal not only marks the second time the team hasn’t seen a proposal through in a decade but has also stoked local sportswriters dire warnings that if you don’t build it, the team will leave. That, however, is patently false in most cases, yet many people continue to believe it. That narrative has been driven home by those sportswriters, not the team which up to now has been very clear that it remains committed to finding a new stadium in the Tampa Bay area.

Neil de Mause (Field of Schemes) attempted to quell the fears of Rays fans, saying:

Look, Tampa Bay is, it has now been well established, a middling MLB market, but that’s still better than most non-MLB markets, since they are non-MLB markets precisely because they can’t even manage to be middling. All things being equal, would Stuart Sternberg make as much money running a team in Montreal as in Tampa Bay? Maybe! Would he make more? Probably not, all things being equal. Could all things not be equal, like if Montreal throws the kind of money at Sternberg that Tampa Bay is so far refusing to? Conceivably, but that didn’t go so well the last time, and the current Montreal mayor sounds at least somewhat skittish about promising piles of cash — saying “We need to evaluate what kind of participation, how we will collaborate, but so far, so good” and “if it comes to asking Montrealers for money, for example to build a stadium, yes, I will ask Montrealers” — so probably won’t to the degree that this is likely to turn into an international bidding war.

It is absolutely important to remember at all times that sports leagues have a monopoly on franchises, and can use that as leverage — but it’s also important to remember that there are only so many cities with the population (and TV eyeballs) to enable a pro sports team to make fistfuls of money, and cities can use that as leverage, too. Romano is right about one thing: This is a business negotiation, and team owners are just trying to maximize their profits (plus maybe their egos), and will use any advantage they can to do so; but there’s nothing stopping elected officials from doing the same. Right now, the Rays and Tampa/St. Pete are still in the staring-each-other-down phase of negotiations, so there are likely at least a few more summers of baseball left before anybody starts storming off and slamming doors.

All of which is to say: Everybody take a deep breath, okay? I know it’s bad for clicks, but it’s good for making sensible policy decisions, and journalism is still about trying to inform people so they can make the world a better place — or at least that’s what the internet tells me.

The Rays previously said they had no interest in getting into the real estate business, yet they commissioned a study on real estate opportunities in Ybor City. It could be assumed that Sternberg could be coming around to the idea of property development since the study also identified downtown St. Petersburg and Mid-Pinellas/Carillon as two of Tampa Bay’s largest areas of growth.

Noteworthiness

— Per Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), the two-year, $30-million deal with Charlie Morton expected to be announced later this week. The Rays still have to make room on the 40-man roster.

In other news, the race is still on for catcher J.T. Realmuto. The Rays, Astros, Padres, and Dodgers are said to be in on the catcher.

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Rays trade Jake Bauers to Cleveland for INF Yandy Diaz

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Meet the Rays newest utility player, Yandy Diaz, who comes over from Cleveland in a three-way trade involving Jake Bauers.

In the waning hours of the 2018 Winter Meetings, the Tampa Bay Rays made another big trade, sending 1B Jake Bauers to Cleveland to for INF Yandy Diaz and a minor-league pitcher, RHP Cole Sulser, as part of a three-team deal also involving Seattle.

Long considered a top prospect for Tampa Bay, Bauers seemed to be a key part of the Rays’ core of young players. Yet his late-season struggles across August and September changed the calculus a bit.

Senior VP of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) they did not sour or give up in any way on Bauers, but felt Diaz — with the versatility to play first or third — was a better fit.

Obviously, giving up Jake in this deal is not easy to do, Bloom said. We love Jake and feel really strongly about him, too. That was just the price we needed to pay to get Yandy. We thought, all things considered, it was the right thing for us to do. It’s good for our roster going forward.

According to Bloom, the trade was about getting a player the Rays like … one who gives manager Kevin Cash additional roster flexibility.

I think it’s premature to say we know exactly where he’s going to play, Bloom said. We’ll have to see how things unfold from here. But the versatility he has does give us more options and more possible paths for our roster to go.

Diaz hits right-handed, has good contact skills and a developing power profile.

Diaz posted .797 OPS figures at both the Triple-A (426 plate appearances) and MLB (120 plate appearances) levels last season. In 299 overall big league plate appearances, Diaz slashed .283 BA/.361 OBP/.366 SLG and put up a 97 wRC+, with a  10.7% walk rate and 18.1% strikeout rate.

In addition to having huge biceps, Diaz hit the baseball hard more consistently than almost anyone, according to Statcast™.

Of 504 players over the last two seasons, Diaz ranks 19th with a 47.6% hard-hit rate, and 22nd in exit velocity at 92.1 mph. It bears mentioning, three of the top 26 players have been acquired by Tampa Bay in the last six months:

Diaz (19th), 47.6%
Tommy Pham (23rd), 46.6%
Mike Zunino (26th), 45.9%

However, Diaz hit just one home run in 265 at-bats and boasts just a .087 ISO. The question begs, why is that?

As it stands, Diaz has the eighth-lowest launch angle (4.4 degrees), resulting in the 25th-highest ground-ball rate. Bloom said the team is hopeful they can get him to elevate the ball.

We like him as is, Bloom said, but any time you get a guy who hits the ball really hard, there’s always an additional upside, to the extent they can drive the ball a little bit. Even if he doesn’t do that, we think he’s a very polished hitter.

As JT Morgan (DRaysBay) wrote, the answer might not be to drastically alter Diaz’s launch angle.

On average, Diaz was tied with Wilson Ramos in launch angle. And though they have posted very similar numbers, Ramos has a couple mph of exit velocity on balls in the air, whereas Diaz’s launch angle is just under Duffy’s 4.6.

… Diaz doesn’t need to go all out on launch angle. It’s more likely that he needs to get more line drives overall to improve his power output. He looks the part of a guy who should hit for quite a bit of power and the exit velocity readings mostly agree.

Sulser, 28, has yet to reach the big leagues, although he could factor into a deep Rays relief corps after throwing 105 innings of 3.51 ERA ball with 12.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 at Triple-A over the past three seasons.

Noteworthiness

— No, thank you, Jake, it was a pleasure watching you become Rake Bauers!

— Per Topkin, Bloom said they “are still open to getting another hitter” and this isn’t the end of their offseason plans.

— I’d reckon it’s been a pretty, uhh … confusing 24 hours for the Rays front office.

— In the words of Danny Russell (DRaysBay), Charlie Frago at the Tampa Bay Times is reporting the stadium deal died in November of this year after key business leader Ron Christaldi attempted to broker a deal to finance the stadium with little transparency.

Then again…

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