The final week of the Grapefruit League season kicks off Sunday in Tampa, where the Tampa Bay Rays will take on the New York Yankees — the team they will face for real next Sunday on Opening Day.
The New What Next
The Rays’ number five starter, Matt Andriese, will take the hill, and he will be followed by Jumbo Diaz and Jaime Schultz. Bryan Mitchell will toe the rubber for the Yankees. Number three starter Alex Cobb, who was slated to throw in a minor league intrasquad game in Port Charlotte, was scratched with lower back tightness. Cash does not believe it will impact his readiness for the start of the regular season. Also scratched from the lineup this afternoon is Tim Beckham, who is suffering an irritated hip flexor that Cash said was not serious.
Rays 3/26/17 Starting Lineup (updated)
Dickerson LF
Kiermaier CF
Longoria 3B
Miller 2B
Morrison 1B
Weeks DH
Robertson SS
Sucre C
Smith RF
Andriese RHP
Noteworthiness
— The Rays officially announced the signing of catcher Derek Norris to a one-year deal on Saturday. We wrote about the pending deal then as well.
The addition of Norris provides Tampa Bay with an experienced catcher on Opening Day. A corresponding move will need to be made to formally add Norris to the 40-man roster, and trade winds have already started to circulate around Curt Casali.
Since several are asking, let’s make it a poll on which catcher #Rays should keep along with just-signed Derek Norris:
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) March 25, 2017
Per Neil Solondz (Rays Radio), Norris, who is excited to work with the Rays’ talented group of hurlers, will play in an intrasquad game on Sunday and a minor league game on Monday to get extra at-bats and get himself acclimated as quickly as possible.
— Veteran outfielder Colby Rasmus confirmed Saturday that he will start the season on the disabled list.
Although nothing major is holding Rasmus back, he allowed that he does not yet feel 100%:
We’ve been trying to progress up to that point, but it’s looking like I’m going to start on the DL. It’s not nothing major but I don’t feel like I’m ready to run something down in the gap for nine innings. I’ve been doing a lot of outfield work and it feels pretty good. But I don’t feel like I’m quite to that point yet, to [be ready to] play a full nine innings and run (balls) down in the gap.
With DL stays shortened from 15 days to 10 under Major League Baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement, as well as the ability for teams to backdate a player’s time on the DL three days, Rasmus could miss as few as six games over the first week of play.
Rays manager Kevin Cash confirmed the team’s plan:
Colby has made huge strides here the last couple days. We’ve all spent time talking with him. I think it’s a pretty good thought process that he has saying that when he comes out and plays the field he wants to make sure he feels good and can go track a ball down in the gap and he’s just not quite there yet. He will continue to get his at-bats DH-ing and just continue taking it day to day and see how he does. … We’re more optimistic, and I think he is, too, that it’s sooner than later if he does start with that scenario.
Mallex Smith will likely crack the Opening Day roster in Rasmus’ place, and probably will start in left field on Opening Day, with Corey Dickerson as the designated hitter.
— Many of those playing this afternoon in Tampa (including Evan Longoria, Corey Dickerson, Kevin Kiermaier and Mallex Smith) worked out at the Trop this morning as a means to get used to the new turf. Their review of the new turf: it played true and looked much better.
— Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) articulated a counter point to an article regarding the Stadium Saga which the Times published on Thursday:
Sternberg’s comments about the stadium sites were interpreted by some skeptics as hints the Rays don’t see a workable Tampa Bay site and eye a move out of the area. It didn’t come across that way at all, more as a matter-of-fact update on how difficult the project is — to find a good site, governmental support and cost-effective financing. If anything, as Tampa Bay Times colleague John Romano writes today (page 1B), it might have been a sign that the best option will be building new on the Trop site.