At long last Kevin Kiermaier, who was placed on the disabled list with a hip fracture back on June 9, has been activated and will appear in the lineup Friday night. Since the injury the Rays have gone 29-32, as fans waited restlessly for the return of the Outlaw.
In an interview this afternoon with MLB Network Radio, Rays manager Kevin Cash broke the news before anything was made official.
So it’s official, Kiermaier is back for #Rays as expected https://t.co/rKZP50heSQ
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) August 18, 2017
In order to make room on the 25-man roster, Mallex Smith has been optioned back to Triple-A Durham … although he will be back soon enough with September call-ups just around the corner. Since the Rays had room on the 40-man roster, they only needed to make a 25-man move.
Kiermaier slashed .258 BA/.329 OBP/.408 SLG/.737 overall, largely due to a poor month of April. However, he began to get toasty in May, then red-hot in June when he posted a .364 BA/.364 OBP/.591 SLG/.955 OPS/.227 ISO/.368 BABIP/.401 wOBA over 22 plate appearances leading up to his injury.
The addition of Kiermaier to the lineup not only shores things up defensively, but also could prove to be the sparkmarker Tampa Bay needs to make a postseason run.