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A Below Average Rays Fan Blog

Blake Snell: 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner

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Blake Snell pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays in Arlington Texas.

On Wednesday, Tampa Bay Rays All-Star left-hander Blake Snell became the first Ray since David Price (2012) to win the AL Cy Young Award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced.

Snell received 17 of the 30 first-place votes, with the other votes going to Astros ace Justin Verlander. While his 180-2/3 innings pitched were the fewest for a Cy Young Award winning starting pitcher in a full season, the left-hander edged out Verlander on the weighted ballot system, with 169 total points vs. Verlander’s 154. Corey Kluber finished a distant third, followed by Chris Sale, Gerrit Cole, Trevor Bauer, Blake Treinen, Edwin Diaz, and Luis Severino.

You can read the full breakdown here.

Snell broke out with a dominant 2018 campaign, solidifying himself as the Rays ace. The southpaw pitched to an impressive 1.89 ERA/2.95 FIP with an 11.0 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 across 31 starts. No pitcher in either league tallied more than his 21 victories. Even though Snell’s innings total trailed Verlander’s by 33.4, his in-game dominance proved to be enough for him to take home baseballs most prestigious pitching award.

Ashley MacLennan (DRaysBay) noted the historical significance of Snell’s breakout season:

No AL pitcher has matched Snell’s combination of wins and ERA since Ron Guidry (25 wins, 1.74 ERA) of the New York Yankees in 1978. Since the advent of the designated hitter in 1973, Snell was only the third AL pitcher to record at least 20 wins and a sub-2.00 ERA, along with Guidry in 1978 and Roger Clemens (21 wins, 1.93 ERA) of the Boston Red Sox in 1990.

Congratulations are in order to Snellzilla CyZilla!

 

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Kevin Cash comes in third for MOTY, Blake Snell wins Spahn Award, stadium update

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Rays skipper Kevin Cash came in third in AL Manager of the Year voting on Tuesday. (Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Times)

Rays manager Kevin Cash placed third for the AL Manager of the Year Award, announced Tuesday night, behind winner Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics, and second-place finisher Alex Cora of the World Series champion Boston Red Sox. The Athletics, who utilized many of the same tactics as Tampa Bay, were perhaps the only team that shocked more people this season than the Rays.

Cash, the only one of the six contenders to not make the playoffs, made a good case for himself after leading the Rays to 90 wins, a 10-game improvement over 2017. He received five first-place votes, six second-place votes and 14 third-place votes for a total of 57 points in the balloting.

Tampa Bay’s skipper was humbled by those he found himself in the company of, despite where he placed.

There’s no doubt, Cash said. I was up there with the World Series champion manager in Alex Cora and Bob Melvin was winning it for his third time. Very special, honored and humbled to be considered with those two. And also the representatives from the National League teams.

Like Cash, Melvin did more than expected with what he was given, taking a team that won 75 games in 2017 and entering the 2018 campaign with the majors’ lowest payroll. And when he faced a spate of injuries that decimated his starting rotation, Melvin was forced to use of 15 different starters, winning 97 games overall and earning the second AL Wildcard spot.

I’ve always admired him from afar, said Cash. I think there’s a fair correlation between the Rays and the A’s, whether people want to talk about payroll, about being innovative in the game.

Melvin said there was mutual admiration this season, as Oakland “took a hard look” at how the Rays utilized the opener before trying it themselves.

I’ve got a lot of respect for him and what he’s done over the years, Melvin said. Has had to do some things without some of the resources that certainly the teams in his division have. The success that they had, just watching their dugout and the way they do things, it’s great to watch. And you can certainly see that he has the attention of the team and has full support from those guys. That’s a testament to how good he is at what he does.

Cash advocated for the use of the opener strategy and indicated, on the MLB Network, that the Rays will again utilize it in 2019.

The opener’ is going to stay for us. We witnessed the benefit of allowing for these young pitchers to come up, potentially late-inning guys, to get their feet wet in the first inning, and also for the more durable guys, it allows us to manage the game a little bit so we affect how many times they get through the order. It’s something we bought into. Our guys, I can’t give them enough credit for buying into it. We have a lot of information to suggest that it works for us, and we’re going to continue with it.

Now we await the results of the 2018 Cy Young Award, which will be revealed Wednesday at 6:00 PM. In the interim, however, Blake Snell was named the 2018 Warren Spahn Award winner as the best left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball.

Named after the Hall of Famer Spahn, the award has been given annually to the best southpaw in baseball since 1998.

Blake posted some impressive stats in 2018, said Greg Spahn, son of the late Warren Spahn. This award is special to our family as it not only honors the sport’s best left-handed pitcher but my dad as well. It’s also a wonderful way to celebrate his career and the game of baseball.

Stadium update

With 48 days left until the clock runs out on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) which allowed the Rays to search for a new regional stadium site, you would imagine that an announcement of progress would be imminent. Yet according to investigative journalist Noah Pransky (WTSP), Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill is telling commissioners not to expect any news on a deal until at least January.

Go ahead and cancel all the sports facility briefings for the remainder of the year, Michelle Sekouri, executive assistant to county administrator Mike Merrill, wrote to all commissioner’s offices last Friday. Mike is not anticipating having anything to share until January or after.

Meanwhile, St. Petersburg officials told Pransky that the team has not approached them about extending the deadline.

The St. Petersburg city council granted the team the opportunity to explore stadium sites in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, despite a lease at Tropicana Field which runs through 2027. In February, Stu Sternberg announced that a 14-acre parcel of land in Ybor City is the team’s preferred site, yet the door was never fully closed on Pinellas County, which has much more money to contribute the construction of a new stadium.

According to Pransky, financing for the proposed $892-million facility has not been easy to come by, with Hillsborough County taxpayers already paying off three other stadiums. Hillsborough voters also recently voted in favor of a pair of tax referendums that will help support the critically underfunded Hillsborough County School System, as well as mass transportation improvements. Stadium proponents (in Ybor City) have been hopeful that a public/private partnership would bridge the gap between the estimated cost of the project, and the limited portion of the bill the team indicated it would fund itself ($150-million).

As Pransky writes, it’s highly improbable that a deal of this magnitude will be completed by New Year’s Eve, if at all.

It’s possible the Rays could work out a stadium deal almost exclusively with private developers and still meet their obligation to give St. Petersburg a definitive answer about their future by Dec. 31. But privately-funded major league stadiums are almost non-existent in modern-day America, and unheard of in a market like Tampa, that lacks both significant corporate activity and disposable income.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, who offered the team a new stadium at the Tropicana Field site, remains willing to work with the team.

While they still have time to get some questions answered in Hillsborough, I stand ready to work with the Rays on securing their future in St. Petersburg, said Kriseman.

The team most recently shocked the local sports business world with the announcement of the October purchase of the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

The Rowdies play at and control the rights to, Al Lang Stadium on St. Petersburg’s waterfront, the former future site of the Rays. However, the team maintains the purchase had “nothing to do with short-term or immediate plans they have for baseball,” rather it was simply investing in the community.

…And so the soap opera continues.

Rays agree to minor league deal with OF Jake Smolinski

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Outfielder Jake Smolinski signed a minor league deal with the Rays on Wednesday. (Photo Credit: Unknown)

The Tampa Bay Rays agreed to a minor league deal with free-agent outfielder Jake Smolinski on Wednesday. Smolinski will likely receive an invitation to big league camp come Spring Training.

Smolinski was outrighted off the 40-man roster last month and elected free agency. The outfielder’s 2018 campaign was cut short by a blood clot in his left calf, hitting just .128 AB/.171 OBP/.205 SLG/.376 OPS across 41 plate appearances, resulting in a mid-May demotion to Triple-A Nashville. Smolinski, however, bounced back and posted a terrific .278 BA/.372 OBP/.548 SLG/.920 OPS line with the Sounds. Be that as it may, he is a career .227 BA/.287 OBP/.357 SLG/.644 OPS hitter in the big leagues. The right-handed hitter has handled southpaws well throughout his Major League career, slashing .282 BA/.351 OBP/.473 SLG/.824 OPS in 276 plate appearances against left-handers, with 11 home runs and 36 RBI.

As it stands, Tampa Bay boasts a 40-man roster that includes outfielders Tommy Pham, Kevin Kiermaier and Austin Meadows, as well as utility options like Brandon Lowe and Daniel Robertson. Smolinski will vie for a bench role in Spring Training, competing against the recently acquired outfielder Guillermo Heredia for a right-handed hitting outfield spot on the 2019 roster. If he doesn’t break camp with the team, it is foreseeable that Smolinski would head to Triple-A Durham as depth in case of injury.

Rays complete Mike Zunino deal

On Thursday, the Rays completed the five-player deal which netted catcher Mike Zunino and outfielder Guillermo Heredia and sent Mallex Smith to Seattle. We wrote about the deal yesterday.

Rays trade Mallex Smith to Seattle for Mike Zunino and Guillermo Heredia

The Rays also acquired minor league southpaw Michael Plassmeyer, yet lost outfielder Jake Fraley, in the trade

Steve Adams (MLB Trade Rumors) wrote about Plassmeyer, saying:

Plassmeyer, 22, was the Mariners’ fourth-round pick just five months ago in the 2018 draft, which aligns with Dipoto’s willingness to deal from his most recent draft classes. He traded catcher David Banuelos, his 2017 fifth-rounder, to the Twins last December and also flipped 2017 fourth-rounder Seth Elledge to the Cardinals this past summer. Plassmeyer, Mizzou product, posted a ridiculous 44-to-4 K/BB ratio through 24 innings in Short-Season Class-A ball this summer.

Jeff Sullivan (FanGraphs) broke down the trade, calling it a win for the Rays:

You can see an argument favoring either side of this, but I find the Rays’ to be more convincing.

Rays trade Mallex Smith to Seattle for Mike Zunino and Guillermo Heredia

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Mike Zunino, the Rays new starting catcher. Photo Credit: Unknown)

The Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners made the first significant trade of the 2018-19 offseason, sending outfielder Mallex Smith to the Pacific Northwest in exchange for catcher Mike Zunino and outfielder Guillermo Heredia. Tampa Bay could also include an additional lower-level prospect in the agreement, writes Ryan Divish (Seattle Times). The deal is pending medical reviews, so nothing is official just yet.

Zunino, 27, is projected by MLB Trade Rumors to earn $4.2-Million through arbitration this winter and is under team control until 2020, while Smith is not yet arbitration-eligible after narrowly avoiding Super-Two status, and is controlled through 2022.

The deal marks the second time in the past two seasons that Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto has acquired Smith, although his original tenure with the Mariners was measured in hours. Dipoto traded for Smith from the Braves in a deal that sent Luiz Gohara to Atlanta. Yet Smith was promptly flipped to Tampa Bay in order to acquire Drew Smyly. Unfortunately for Seattle, Smyly injured his arm in Spring Training 2017, an injury that ultimately required Tommy John surgery before he ever threw a pitch in Seattle.

Zunino brings about pole to pole power and premium defensive skills, yet, he pairs those highly vaunted attributes with a blemished 34.2% career strikeout rate and questionable on-base skills. He’s coming off a disappointing 2018 campaign in which he slashed .201 BA/.251 OBP/.406 SLG/.657 OPS, albeit with 20 homers. Yet he is just a season removed from a .251 BA/.339 OBP/.509 SLG/.848 OPS campaign with a career-high 25 homers. Over the last three seasons, Zunino has performed to a combined .223 BA/.300 OBP/.462 SLG/.762 OPS line with 57 homers across 1032 plate appearances.

As Steve Adams (MLB Trade Rumors) notes, Zunino’s average and OBP might not jump out, but when adjusting for the Mariners’ pitcher-friendly home park, that level of production rates at about seven percent better than the league-average hitter and nearly 20 percent better than that of a league-average catcher (by measure of OPS and wRC+).

Defensively, Zunino is a strong throwing/framing catcher with more power than just about any catcher in the game, Wilson Ramos precluded. He threw out a career-high 35% of would-be base stealers last season, and he continually ranks among the league leaders in terms of pitch framing — boasting an 8.5 oStr% (tied for 14th behind John Ryan Murphy) and 27 +Calls according to Stat Corner.

The acquisition could push Michael Perez from a starting role to a backup job, although Perez was impressive in his brief Major League promotion last season — hitting .284 BA/.304 OBP/.392 SLG/.696 OPS with a homer and five doubles, while also throwing out 29% of would-be base stealers (17 total). In all likelihood, Zunino and Perez, who has received good defensive ratings throughout his minor league career, will battle it out for the starting position in Spring Training. Whatever the case, the platoon gives Tampa Bay a couple of solid defenders behind the plate.

Heredia, 28, is similar to Smith in that he’s a speedy outfielder (ranking 55/55 in speed according to FanGraphs), with minimal power, who is capable of handling all three outfield positions. He, however, has amassed poor defensive ratings in centerfield (-9 DRS in 2018), though he grades out above-average in the outfield corners. He hit .236 BA/.318 OBP/.342 SLG/.660 OPS with the Mariners across 337 plate appearances last season.

Heredia is not likely to get the bulk of the reps in the outfield, which should feature Tommy Pham, Kevin Kiermaier and Austin Meadows as starters. He, however, could give the Rays a nice bench option, or depth at Triple-A since he has multiple minor league options remaining.

Rays promote Matt Quatraro; claim Oliver Drake and outright Sucre and Nuno among others

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The Tampa Bay Rays Rays promoted Matt Quatraro to bench coach following the loss of former bench coach Charlie Montoyo. (Photo Credit: MLB.com)

The Tampa Bay Rays Rays promoted Matt Quatraro to bench coach following the loss of former bench coach Charlie Montoyo. Quatraro had been the Rays’ third-base coach on manager Kevin Cash’s staff.

According to the team’s press release:

Quatraro, 44, becomes the 10th bench coach in club history, following Frank Howard (1998-99), Bill Russell (2000), Hal McRae (’01), Billy Hatcher (’01-02), John McLaren (’03-05), Bill Evers (’06-07), Dave Martinez (’08-14), Tom Foley (’15-17) and Charlie Montoyo (’18).

Montoyo was recently named manager for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The 2019 season will be Quatraro’s 24th in professional baseball and 16th in a coaching capacity. Last season, Quatraro returned to the Rays’ organization after spending the previous four seasons (2014-17) as an assistant hitting coach for the Indians.

Prior to joining Cleveland, Quatraro was Tampa Bay’s Minor League hitting coordinator from 2010-13. He also spent four seasons as a Minor League manager in the Rays’ organization, going 196-228 (.462) with Class A Bowling Green (’09), Class A Advanced Columbus (’08) and Class A Short-Season Hudson Valley (’06-07).

Quatraro’s coaching career began midway through the 2004 season, as a catching instructor and coach with Hudson Valley.

An eighth-round selection by the Rays in the 1996 Draft, Quatraro played seven seasons in the system as a catcher, first baseman and outfielder, reaching Triple-A Durham in 2002. He became the first player in organization history to hit for the cycle on July 6, 1997, against Class A Hickory.

Over 415 career Minor League games, Quatraro hit .286/.343/.416 (415-for-1,451) with 23 home runs and 202 RBIs.

The Rays also made a handful of roster moves, claiming right-hander Oliver Drake off waivers from Minnesota, and outrighting catchers Jesus Sucre and Adam Moore, as well as hurlers Andrew Kittredge and Vidal Nuno off the 40-man roster. Right-handers Jose De Leon, Wilmer Font, and Jose Mujica, as well as infielder Daniel Robertson, have all been reinstated from the 60-day DL. The Rays’ 40-man now stands at 37 players.

Drake, 31, hasn’t had much success in his brief big league career, however, there are reasons to believe he could succeed in the near future. The right-hander has been rather unlucky over the past couple of seasons, having been staked to a .353 BABIP, albeit with an exceptional 47% swinging strike percentage. Drake worked to a 2.21 ERA with an impressive 3.3 K/BB ratio and a 50% ground-ball rate across 20-1/3 innings with the Twins — the only team with which he found real success.

Drake also saw MLB action with four other teams in 2018 (Blue Jays, Angels, Indians, Brewers), and he’s seen time with six Major League clubs over the past two seasons. Drake is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to break camp with Tampa Bay (or another club) next spring or else be exposed to waivers yet again.

Sucre, 30, appeared in 73 games with the Rays this past season, although he hit just .209 BA/.247 OBP/.253 SLG/.500 OPS across 198 plate appearances. Having accrued more than three years of Major League service time, Sucre has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Moore, 34, went 4-18 in eight games with Tampa Bay. He’s seen big league action in parts of nine seasons, slashing a lite .199 BA/.239 OBP/.312 SLG/.551 OPS in 312 plate appearances.

Kittredge, 28, came to the Rays in November of 2016 in the deal that sent Richie Shaffer and Taylor Motter to the Seattle Mariners. With Tampa Bay, the right-hander suffered mightily, getting torched for 33 earned runs across 38-1/3 innings.

Nuno, 31, was quite effective in his brief time with the Rays, allowing just six earned runs in 33 innings (across 17 appearances) while performing toa 1.64 ERA.

The loss of Sucre signals that the Rays could be in the market for a right-handed hitting catcher, with Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) suggesting that the team could pursue Wilson Ramos or Robinson Chirinos — both of whom are familiar to the Rays. The Rangers surprisingly cut ties with Chirinos, 34, on Friday. He was a quality offensive backstop as a Ranger, posting a .768 OPS in 1,546 plate appearances with the club.

Rays seeking pop in the offseason

Per Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) the Rays’ main offseason objective is to acquire a right-handed power hitter, to join Tommy Pham in the middle of the order, with presence and pop. Topkin named Nelson Cruz, Andrew McCutchen, and Josh Donaldson as free agents who would qualify, adding that it appears the team will move on without righty-swinging first baseman C.J. Cron, who belted 30 home runs in 2018.

Even though Cron performed well in 2018, and will be affordable next season (MLB Trade Rumors contributor Matt Swartz projects a $5.2-million salary), the Rays could trade the first baseman prior to the November 30 non-tender deadline, as the team is seeking a more “feared” and consistent hitter.

Speaking of who the Rays may be seeking in the offseason, MLB Trade Rumors released its annual top 50 free agents and their contract predictions.

Among the players listed, hurler Lance Lynn has been predicted to sign with Tampa Bay this offseason, projecting a two year, $16-million deal.

As Tim Dierkes (MLB Trade Rumors) writes:

Like Moustakas, Lynn was one of the free agents who got body-slammed by the 2017-18 market freeze.  MLBTR projected a four-year, $56MM deal for Lynn coming off a solid season for the Cardinals, yet the righty fell to the Twins in March on a one-year, $12MM deal.  He struggled in 20 starts for Minnesota, as his already-high walk rate got out of hand.  The Twins sent him to the Yankees at the trade deadline.  Lynn wound up making nine starts for New York, with a 4.60 ERA but a 2.17 FIP, 3.03 xFIP, 10.0 K/9, and 2.5 BB/9.  Despite the small sample, those peripherals are intriguing and should land Lynn a rotation job — if not a two-year deal — somewhere.

Noteworthiness

— Just your daily reminder that the clock is tick-tick-ticking down to the inevitable January 1 deadline in which Stu Sternberg has to inform the city of St. Petersburg whether he will be opting out of the Tropicana Field lease early. If you’re counting down, as of Monday, Hillsborough County — which is tapped out and cannot adequately fund crucial infrastructure improvements, much less a stadium — has just 57 days to come up with to come up with, at minimum, $300-million in stadium funding before the proposed $892-million stadium turns back into a pumpkin.

I think we have some work to do in terms of getting a financing plan together that will get that stadium built. But I remain confident if anybody can get it done in Tampa Bay, it’s Stu (Sternberg). Nobody is working harder at it, said MLB Commisioner Rob Manfred.

“Some work to do” — Ya think?

Honestly, staying at Tropicana Field and developing the land around it is looking like a better business move as the clock continues to tick down. Then again, there is a piece of property that is readily available, by way of a referendum, if it comes down to it…