Most of you are familiar with Thursday’s big news by now. If not, allow me to quickly sum things up: right handed closer Grant Balfour is once again a Ray! Balfour signed a two-year, $12MM contract — $3MM less than the Orioles offered. Allow me to be presumptuous for a moment. Since most of you are already familiar with the acquisition, I decided to do something other than the typical summary. Behold, a summary of today’s big event in the form of a series of tweets.
Tag Archives: Rays Hot-Stove Acquisitions
Hot-Stove: On the Winter Development Camp, Recent Acquisitions, Arbitration, and Improved Offensive Output
Wednesday marked the start of the annual Rays Winter Development Camp at the Trop. Amid the football configuration and a banquet setup, prospects like Cole Figueroa and Nick Ciuffo took the field with the likes of Matt Joyce, collectively working out a month (give or take) ahead of Spring Training. We got a sneak-peek of the renovations at the Trop, thanks to Marc Topkin who tweeted a photo Wednesday afternoon.
Hot-Stove: Rays Officially Sign Jayson Nix, Josh Sale Reinstated, Etc
I made mention the Rays were close to inking a deal with Jayson Nix. Tampa Bay made it official Friday, signing Nix to a minor league contract for the 2014 season, including an invite to Spring Training, with the Rays. Throughout his career, Nix has played second and third base, shortstop, and even the corner outfield positions. Suffice it to say, his versatility will be beneficial to the Rays if he makes the team. Nix slashed .236 BA/.308 OBP/.311 SLG/.619 OPS/.279 wOBA/70 wRC+ in 87 games last season, with three home runs, 32 runs and 42 RBI in 303 plate appearances — slightly above his career norms. What he lacks at the plate, he makes up for in the middle infield. Known for his range and glove work, Nix could fill Kelly Johnson’s vacated role as utility infielder, alongside Sean Rodriguez — among other things.
Hot-Stove: Rays DFA Jerry Sands, Sign Four Players to Minor League Contracts
I wrote the other day of the acquisition of LHPR Pedro Figueroa from the Oakland Athletics. In that piece, I speculated over who the Rays might designate in order to make room for Figueroa on the 40-man roster. It turns out the recently acquired 1B/OF Jerry Sands became the DFA candidate of choice. Sands could still be an asset to the Rays if no one claims him by January 17th.
Hot-Stove: More on the Hanigan-Bell Trade
I wrote earlier about the Ryan Hanigan, Heath Bell three-way trade which sent Rays Single-A pitcher, Justin Choate, to the Diamondbacks. I’d like to delve a bit closer into Hanigan and Bell.