Rays Roster Moves: Willy Adames optioned to Triple-A Durham

The Tampa Bay Rays optioned 22 year-old INF Willy Adames to Triple-A Durham on Wednesday following their 4-2 win against the Detroit Tigers.

Adames has played intermittently for Tampa Bay this season due to the log jam in the middle infield. The consistency he has shown at the Minor League level has yet to translate to the big leagues, with Adames struggling to a .226 BA/.275 OBP/.357 SLG/.632 OPS line, with three home runs and an alarming 36.3% strikeout rate over 95 plate appearances. He is still regarded as a highly-rated prospect, and he’ll spend some time getting regular at-bats in Durham.

It was a really hard decision,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. We thought about it and, in fairness to Willy, when we called him up, we thought we were going to be able to do a better job of creating a lane. We’ve got a lot of good infielders here right now playing. We needed pitching, which also went into it, obviously, with the two bullpen days back to back.

Ultimately, it was more about Willy, in fairness. We want him to be a shortstop. He’s got to get some reps down there and get some more consistency. But we anticipate he’s going to go do his thing. He was positive with the message, and get him right back up here.

The Rays corresponded by recalling THP Chih-Wei Hu, who will make his second big league stint for Tampa Bay this season. Hu made one appearance, allowing three runs in 2-2/3 innings against the Rangers on April 16, before being demoted. He has performed to a 4.66 ERA in 16 appearances (14 starts) for Triple-A Durham.