On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Rays announced their Opening Day 30-man roster. The Rays elected to carry 16 pitchers and 14 position players.
I think it’s a talented team that has pitching depth and has a lot of versatility on the position-player side (of) the roster. (I’m) confident that we’re going to really do our best and be good at catching the ball defending. The guys have taken so much pride in that.
— Kevin Cash
It should be noted: The Rays will trim the roster to 28 players after two weeks, and then to 26 players on Day 29 of the season.
What follows is a rundown of the 30-man roster by position, as well as a few brief thoughts.
Pitchers
Jose Alvarado, Nick Anderson, Jalen Beeks, Diego Castillo, Yonny Chirinos, Oliver Drake, Pete Fairbanks, Tyler Glasnow, Andrew Kittredge, Aaron Loup, Charlie Morton, Trevor Richards, Chaz Roe, Blake Snell, Ryan Thompson, Ryan Yarbrough
Catchers
Michael Perez, Kevan Smith, Mike Zunino
Infielders
Willy Adames, Mike Brosseau, Ji-Man Choi, Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe, Jose Martinez, Joey Wendle
Outfielders
Kevin Kiermaier, Manuel Margot, Hunter Renfroe, Yoshi Tsutsugo
Injured List
Randy Arozarena, Austin Meadows, Colin Poche
Optioned
Daniel Robertson (to the alternate training site)
Reassigned
Randy Arozarena (to the alternate training site; placed on IL), Anthony Banda, Nate Lowe, and Brendan McKay (to the alternate training site)
Surprises
The last position player decision came down to Brosseau, who has more positional flexibility (the ability to cover both outfield corner positions), over Robertson, who is a pure infielder. Rays manager Kevin Cash called the decision a tough one, telling Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) Brosseau swung the bat really well during Spring Training 1.0 and 2.0. He also said that Robertson will help at some point this season given his strong defense and improvement in the batter’s box.
Reassigning McKay to the alternate site without placement on the IL is a surprise as well since the two-way player was all but M.I.A. during Summer Camp. His absence still has not been explained.
Noteworthiness
— Cash told Solondz he felt great for Ryan Thompson, who earned the opportunity by not allowing a run during Spring Training or Summer Camp.
The Rays took a chance on Thompson, selecting him in the December 2018 Minor League Rule-5 draft while he was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.
The right-hander said the pandemic gave him the opportunity to improve his slider — getting more horizontal movement with assistance from Rapsodo.
— Right-hander Yonny Chirinos threw live at-bats against Kevin Kiermaier, Jose Martinez, and Mike Brosseau among others. His velocity was normal (92-94 mph on the Rays’ in-house radar, which has been a touch conservative during Summer Camp) and he, according to Solondz, appeared to have good sink on his fastball and a solid slider across four innings of work. He threw 42 of 62 pitches for strikes (68% strike rate). His final tuneup suggests he will pitch out of the starting rotation, which Cash later confirmed.