According to MLBTraderumors.com, The Rays have claimed left-hander John Gaub off of waivers, from the Cubs. This, to me, speaks volumes. Why? I have to feel that it could be an acknowledgement that RHP Kyle Farnsworth will be on the DL for a longer clip than either the Rays, or Farnsworth, had originally anticipated. More on this to come.
The Rays have claimed left-hander John Gaub off of waivers, the Cubs announced. The Cubs also announced that they placed right-hander Marcos Mateo on the 60-day disabled list to create 40-man roster space.
Gaub, 26, appeared in four games for the 2011 Cubs after spending most of the season in the minor leagues. He posted a 3.42 ERA with 12.2 K/9 and 6.5 BB/9 in 55 1/3 innings for the Cubs’ Triple-A Iowa affiliate. Left-handed relievers J.P. Howell and Jake McGee made the Rays’ Opening Day roster and Cesar Ramos and Alex Torres are minor league options.
The Rays have posted their opening day starting lineup (below) which is convenient, because it now gives us less to do prior to the 3:05 first pitch, beyond tailgaiting. But I digress…
Rays opening day starting lineup:
Jennings CF
Zobrist RF
Longoria 3B
Keppinger DH
Rodriguez SS
Johnson 2B
Pena 1B
Molina C
Joyce LF
Shields P
After the Rays win against the Rays today, Joe Maddon and Co. set their 25 man opening day roster. Mind you, things will change a bit in the forthcoming weeks and months, as players come off of the DL.
Pitchers (12):
RH Burke Badenhop
RH Wade Davis
RH Kyle Farnsworth
RH Jeremy Hellickson
LH J.P. Howell
LH Jake McGee
LH Matt Moore
RH Jeff Niemann
RH Joel Peralta
LH David Price
RH Fernando Rodney
RH James Shields
Catchers (2):
Jose Lobaton
Jose Molina
Infielders (7):
Reid Brignac
Elliot Johnson
Jeff Keppinger
Evan Longoria
Carlos Peña
Sean Rodriguez
Luke Scott
Outfielders (4):
Desmond Jennings
Matt Joyce
Stephen Vogt
Ben Zobrist
DL (4):
OF Sam Fuld (4-5 months)
OF BJ Upton (1-2 weeks)
RHP Kyle Farnsworth (2-3 weeks)
C Robinson Chirinos (undetermined)
Desmond Jennings on his monster day at the plate, knocking out three home runs, including a grand slam. Incidentally, Jennings is the first player in Rays history to hit three home runs in a spring game, as well as the first player in the majors to do so since 2009.
James Shields on his strong start, allowing two hits over four innings, striking out six, and walking one. This was Shields last appearance of the spring. He and the Rays will take on CC Sabathia and the Evil Empire on Friday for the season opener.
The videos come courtesy of Marc Topkin and the Tampa Bay Times
Joe Maddon announced that Sean Rodriguez will be the primary short-stop this season. Well kids, we hit the nail on the head didn’t we?! According to Marc Topkin,
Manager Joe Maddon said this morning that Sean Rodriguez will be the primary shortstop to start the season, though Reid Brignac and Elliot Johnson also would get some time.
“Sean will get most of the starts,” Maddon said. “It’s not going to be a straight-up platoon.”
Maddon said Rodriguez was particularly impressive with his defense, narrowing the gap with Brignac, whom they consider the top glove man.
“Sean has really closed gap on the actual defensive play,” Maddon said.
Rodriguez started 49 games at shortstop last season and said he will continue to improve, defensively and offensively, with more playing time.
“Anybody given an opportunity to play every day is going to have more feel and more comfort level on the field, and I definitely see that happening,” he said.
Rodriguez will also get some time at second base, potentially moving over as a defensive replacement for Jeff Keppinger with Brignac coming in at short.
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We asked you, dear reader, to take a poll way back in January. The question du jour: Who should get the starting SS spot on the roster? At long last, here are the results.
Could Salazar fill in the outfield while Upton and Fuld are on the DL? All signs point to yes.
4/4/12 Update:
The results of Kyle Farnsworths MRI are in. Thankfully, his injury isn’t severe and he shouldn’t be on the DL for an extended amount of time. The MRI of his elbow showed only a strain. Farnsworth remains confident that he will be back to pitch this season. Of the injury, “We’ll just have to give it some time to calm down,” said the Rays RHP “closer.”
4/3/12 4:33 Update:
Two new Topkin updates. 1) “With Farnsworth headed to DL, RHP Josh Lueke a strong candidate to be called up by the Rays.” 2) “Rays send Salazar to Durham, and call up Vogt.” Interesting news indeed. Will they make an OF move?
4/3/12 Update:4/3/12 update: On the cusp of the upcoming season, some interesting news from the Rays camp is breaking regarding the status of a few of the injured Rays, among other things. Tampa Bay is reportedly seeking one or two other players, either within or outside of the organization, to fill out their roster. All of this comes prior to tomorrows 5:00 PM roster deadline.
Marc Topkin posted a few tweets earlier today (below) regarding the status of a few players; most notably Sam Fuld and Kyle Farnsworth.
Of Farnsworth:
“Farnsworth has elbow soreness. Closer Kyle Farnsworth is experiencing elbow soreness…#Rays Farnsworth is seeing a doctor today. Most likely won’t have any definitive word until Weds or Thurs, but best guess is he goes to DL…Nothing official from #Rays, but other players said they heard Farnsworth will be on DL to start season.”
Of Fuld:
“#Rays announce that Fuld had successful surgery on wrist.”
Of potential roster moves:
“#Rays Maddon on potential roster moves: “Not yet.” Could be something later today/tomorrow. Looking external, but also internal…#Rays most likely targets would be C and/or OF.”
Sammy probably won’t be back until August. BJ Upton is expected to be back in the middle of April. I suspect that the Rays will be looking from within to fill this/these gap(s), especially when you consider that they’d be looking for someone to fill a niche roll on a day that Joyce may not be in the lineup. My mind really hasn’t changed, and I think Salazar will probably be that man. I really don’t see them signing someone outside of the organization to fill, at best, a two week part time position.
As for catcher, I think they may look outside of the organization. Why? If Molina is going to play half of the games this season, a somewhat inexperienced Jose Lobaton will be expected to cover the rests. Gimenez and Chirinos were sent back to AAA for a reason: they weren’t ready. And though I don’t think Lobaton, himself, is fully ready, he is more so than the others. The Rays picking up an experienced catcher to platoon with Lobaton, seems within the realms of possibility. We need to look no further than last season, when the Rays had at least three catchers on the roster, to see that Maddon’s not afraid to platoon a 2A and 2B catcher behind the primary catcher, especially if the quality or experience is lacking.
There’s been some speculation that the Rays may be seeking a reliever prior to tomorrows deadline. With the announcement of Farnsworth’s elbow soreness, compounded with Farnsy (presumably) starting the season on the DL, the Rays are going to need to fill his spot somehow. I think the severity of his injury will dictate whether or not they would promote someone from within, or look elsewhere. It’d be easy to imagine Peralta filling that role in the short term, while promoting someone like Gomes. After all, Peralta has already done so (and effectively at that) toward the end of the 2011 season. However, if Farnsworth’s injury is more severe, expect to see the Rays make moves outside of the organization.
In any case, we’ll certainly know more, by latest, tomorrow or Thursday. More to come as the news breaks.
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The Rays will walk into Sarasota to face the Orioles today and begin their last full week of spring training ahead of opening day, April 6th. Some relatively big news came out of Port Charlotte in the last week that both BJ Upton and Sam Fuld will start the season on the DL. Though Fuld isn’t an everyday player, he was filling in for Upton in spring training, and his loss is a fairly big one. So what are the Rays to do?
The Rays have a few players still on the active roster, or in the minors, that could potentially fill the role: Jesus Feliciano, Brandon Guyer, Jeff Salazar, Will Rhymes and Elliot Johnson. At the moment, Jeff Salazar seems to be the main candidate, though Maddon and Friedman are being intentionally vague on the subject while they explore the trade and waiver wire pickups ahead of the Wednesday roster deadline. When asked about this conundrum Maddon said, “He’s (Salazar) obviously the last man standing, but it’s not been decided yet.”
In my meager opinion, I wouldn’t imagine that Rhymes or Johnson would be suitable candidates, especially when they’d be filling some pretty big defensive shoes. Rhymes is a career middle-infielder, and hasn’t especially excelled in the outfield this spring. Like Rhymes, the majority of Johnson’s experience comes in the infield. Of the two, he could fill the spot, yet I’d think the Rays to be hesitant to commit him solely to the outfield while Upton and Fuld are on the DL. With Rhymes committed to the minors at the moment, I’d imagine that Johnson will ride the bench, filling in the middle infield in times of need, or playing the outfield in a pinch.
That leaves Guyer, Salazar and Feliciano. I don’t think this situation usurps the fact that Guyer still needs to work on things, offensively speaking, before he could effectively make the jump to the bigs. Sure, he hit .312 with 14 home runs, 78 runs, and 61 RBI in Durham last season, yet those numbers didn’t really translate to much in his 15 games on the Rays roster. Too, Guyer is a player that the Rays want to see over the course of the long-term and not necessarily as a short-term fill-in position player. Feliciano has had a good spring, but his experience at this level of play is just not there.
On the other hand, Salazar has that experience. Of Salazar, Marc Topkin said it best, “Salazar, 31, separated himself recently with his overall play, Maddon said, including the quality of his at-bats (.258 average, 10 walks to six strikeouts), power potential, defense and arm strength. Also, he has the most major-league experience, having played in parts of four seasons.” Oh, and there’s one lil old wrench in the gears with concerns to sending Salazar to the minors. He cannot be sent to the minors without being exposed to waivers, which would allow any team to claim him. Meaning: the potential is there for the Rays to lose Salazar if they didn’t keep him on the roster. Friedman wouldn’t make such a bold move in this time of need.
The starting lineup (below) seems close to the way the Rays will handle the OF for the moment, with Matt Joyce in left and Jennings in center. Johnson is in right today, though I’d think that’s so because they want to give Zobrist a day off more than anything else.
The Rays acquired 25 year-old outfielder Kyle Hudson late last night. Hudson’s spent some time on the Orioles and represents more OF depth, presumably, in Durham.
Rays 4/1/12 starting lineup:
Jennings CF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Keppinger DH
Rodriguez SS
Molina C
Joyce LF
Johnson RF
Brignac 2B
Shields P
According to MLBTraderumors.com, The Rays have claimed left-hander John Gaub off of waivers, from the Cubs. This, to me, speaks volumes. Why? I have to feel that it could be an acknowledgement that RHP Kyle Farnsworth will be on the DL for a longer clip than either the Rays, or Farnsworth, had originally anticipated. More on this to come.
