• Christian Arroyo was one of 10 players cut from the Spring roster on Saturday. (Photo Credit: The Ray Tank https://raytank.mlblogs.com)

Prior to Saturday’s contest against the Orioles, the Tampa Bay Rays made their first cuts of the Spring, reducing their roster by 10. The Rays optioned five players to the Minor League camp and reassigned five others. The Rays now have 57 players left in camp.

The Rays’ Spring roster now includes 31 pitchers, five catchers, 14 infielders and seven outfielders.

The five players optioned were infielder Christian Arroyo, who would be among the candidates to take Matt Duffy’s place on the active roster if he is not ready to start the season; hurlers Ian Gibaut and Brent Honeywell; and outfielders Joe McCarthy and Jesus Sanchez. It should be noted that Gibaut, Honeywell, and McCarthy are all coming back from injury.

Rays manager Kevin Cash spoke of Arroyo in superlatives, saying:

Given what he went through last year with his injury, it’s time to get him down (to Triple-A) and get him some consistent reps. Christian handled the conversation really, really well. We still think highly of him.

— Kevin Cash

Honeywell is eyeing a late May return to active duty, and could make an impact on the big-league roster as early as June.

Five players were reassigned to the minors: infielder Lucius Fox, reliever Matt Krook, pitcher Dalton Moats, catcher David Rodriguez, and reliever Curtis Taylor. All of whom were invited to big-league camp

The New What Next

After a wild 17-15 contest against Baltimore, the Rays are back in action at home where they will face the Boston Red Sox on Sunday. Casey Sadler will get the start for Tampa Bay. Ryan Yarbrough — who missed time with groin tightness — Jose Alvarado, Diego Castillo, Emilio Pagan and Ryne Stanek also are expected to pitch.

Rays 3/10/19 Starting Lineup

  1. Meadows LF
  2. Zunino DH
  3. Choi 1B
  4. Garcia RF
  5. Wendle 2B
  6. Diaz 3B
  7. Robertson SS
  8. Perez C
  9. Heredia CF
  10. Sadler RHP

Noteworthiness

— Brandon Lowe continued his strong Spring campaign on Saturday, going 2-for-3, including a mammoth 448-foot home run off Dylan Bundy in the second inning.

The homer matched the distance of the one hit by Nate Lowe during the February 27 game against the Red Sox.

That was the first thing I asked when I got into the dugout. I found (Nate) and I asked who’s went further. He laughed and of course said his, so I had to believe him.

— Brandon Lowe

Lowe is now hitting .462 with two home runs this Spring.

— Keon Wong also went yard, hitting one of seven total homers on Saturday.

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