Diego Castillo throwing during Spring Training (Photo Credit: Kim Klement/USA Today Sports)

The Tampa Bay Rays further whittled down the spring roster this weekend, either optioning or reassigning 14-players to minor league camp between Saturday and Sunday. They also released one. The Spring Training roster now sits at 46.

On Saturday, infielders Jake Cronenworth and Nick Solak were reassigned to minor league camp.

Then prior to (and during) the matinee with the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, the team optioned eight players to minor league camp — right-handers Diego Castillo, Jose Mujica, Jamie Schultz and Hunter Wood; infielders Christian Arroyo, Willy Adames and Jake Bauers; and outfielder Justin Williams — and reassigned four: right-hander Ryan Weber, outfielder Joe McCarthy, and catcher Brett Sullivan.

In a somewhat surprising move, southpaw Dan Runzler, who was acquired from Pittsburgh in the deal for Corey Dickerson, was released.

Rays manager Kevin Cash, citing the need to thin out the herd to give regulars more repetitions, said cut down days are not easy. He highlighted the work of the hard throwing Castillo, the organization’s Minor League Reliever of the Year in 2017.

We view him as a special pitcher, Cash said. He’s going to help us here soon at the big league level. I still think with his experiences in Triple-A he’ll benefit from going down there and finding that consistency. The way he attacked the strike zone in the spring was amazing and the ability to land a slider at any time was impressive.

Castillo allowed just one hit, did not walk a batter, and fanned five across five games this spring. He did not allow an earned run.

Schultz appeared in just 13-games last season with Triple-A Durham before a right groin injury thwarted his campaign. He made three appearances each with the Gulf Coast League Rays and the Class-A Charlotte Stone Crabs after a lengthy rehab. Consequently, Schultz entered Spring Training a bit behind.

Schutlz’s Spring Training, we assured him there was no judgement whatsoever, Cash said. He basically had a year off last year and it was a good thing it was a year off that was not arm injury related. It’s going to take some time for him to get back. I saw him in his bullpens and his live BP where he was managing himself. I thought the last time he threw out here he tried to amp it up a little bit more and it just wasn’t coming out yet. That’s OK. This is going to allow him to get into a little more controlled setting in the minor leagues and get off to a good start.

Schultz appeared in two spring games, allowing four runs, on three hits and three walks across 1-2/3 innings. He struck out one.

You can hear all of Cash’s comments via the SoundCloud player below (courtesy of Rays Radio).

 

As for Adames, who is expected to accrue big league service time at some point in 2018, even though his versatility was tested this spring — the Rays tried him at second base — he was not in consideration for a position change.

He has to be a shortstop for us, Cash told Bill Chastain (MLB.com). Willy’s made some tremendous strides from this time year to where he is now, consistency, catching the ball, but he did play a handful of games at second base. … But we view Willy as a Major League shortstop, and want him to get as good as he can be at that position.

And while he envisioned himself breaking camp along side shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, Adames conceded that there is an adjustment to being on the other side of the infield.

Last year, I did it, it was kind of hard in the beginning, Adames said. You got to move your feet in the opposite way. It took me like three games to feel good. But I made that adjustment practicing, during BP, taking a lot of ground balls.

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