To Address Bullpen Shortfall, The Tampa Bay Rays Should Deal From Their Infield Excess

At the time of writing, the MLB-leading Tampa Bay Rays have the ninth-worst bullpen ERA in the majors at 4.32. A month ago, however, it was third-best. The trend is heading the wrong way, quickly, and loudly.

Given their 40-18 start to the season, near-enough everything has gone right for the Rays. As recently as the start of this month, it was (quite rightly) being written that the Rays were the best at everything, including pitching.

However, a series of bullpen wobbles, including the unfortunately-impressive feat of recording two blown saves and a loss in one night in a loss to the New York Mets, has seen some late-inning fragility exposed on what has become a regular basis. No longer is there the security of knowing that, when the highly-potent offence pours in its customary six or seven runs, the bullpen will preserve it.

As with everything Rays, injuries are a big part of why. Despite their knack for finagling the roster to fill innings, there exists a big difference between filling some mid-season innings and finding arms for the key ones. High-leverage reliever Andrew Kittredge is out for the season, Garrett Cleavinger looks likely to join him, solid middle-inning guy Shawn Armstrong has yet to play this season, and closer Pete Fairbanks is on and off the 15-day disabled list with myriad ailments.

More importantly, though, none of the returning arms from the previous season are having as good of a season as last. Fairbanks – when he is able to play – is not the dominant force that he was in 2022, and while he remains a premium arm in the pen, set-up guy Jason Adam has been less of a sure thing than before as well. Jalen Beeks has been used in every role but not had consistency over his fastball in any of them, Colin Poche’s 2.46 ERA flatters some highly uncertain outings, and Ryan Thompson got knocked back to the minors.

Over the offseason, while they brought back almost entirely the same hitting line-up as in 2022, the Rays did let some established arms go. J.T. Chargois, Brooks Raley and (the admittedly injured) J.P. Feyereisen were all traded away, Ryan Yarbrough was non-tendered, Nick Anderson walked (and restarted his career), Matt Wisler was cut just before the playoffs, and Yonny Chirinos was – in a rather unexplained why – optioned to the minors. That is a lot of bullpen turnover, and perhaps it was too much.

Pitching coach Kyle Snyder is magnanimous trying to shoulder the burden of the problem, yet perhaps there would not be such a problem had so many of the solid veterans not left at once. Combined with former star prospect Luis Patino stalling at Triple-A Durham and the aforementioned annual procession of inning-fillers not producing any stand-out replacements yet, there have been too many late-game signings of Calvin Faucher and Javy Guerra types to envisage true contender status from the team with the best record in the majors.

It follows logically, then, that the Rays will want to be making some trades between now and the deadline. It further follows logically that to fill the need, they should deal from any excess. And as constructed at this time, the Rays have a plethora of quality infielders.

On big league roster, the talent is apparent. Brandon Lowe still has not got his strike zone back in anything more than fits and starts, yet Wander Franco is one of the game’s best young players, and Yandy Diaz is one of the game’s best hitters. Isaac Paredes is doing a solid Troy Glaus impression at the hot corner, Taylor Walls has turned into Ben Zobrist as the super utility player, and Luke Raley is enjoying a break-out campaign at first.

That unit is not the excess. That unit is key to the World Series aspirations. The excess comes from Durham. Down there, forgotten 40-man roster players Vidal Brujan (any potential role for whom has been thoroughly subsumed by Walls) and Jonathan Aranda (a Major League hitter with no defensive position) are paired with excellent prospects, ones who, given the strength of the major league club’s infield, might find their best value to the Rays lies in trade anyway.

First baseman Kyle Manzardo (.889 OPS) is regularly having majors-ready at-bats, full of plate discipline and line drives, all while aged only 22. Singles-hitting shortstop Osleivis Basabe is even younger, and is on course (.320 batting average) for his second consecutive season of hitting at least .300. Fast-rising Australian prospect Curtis Mead has seen his quick ascent to the 40-man roster curtailed by injury thus far this season, but was on a Manzardo-esque trajectory prior to that, and because of the logjam ahead of him even at the AAA level, fellow 40-man roster spot recipient Greg Jones is having to be reworked into a centre fielder.

They will not all work out. But the Rays have had a looming infield excess for a while, one that already cost them Miles Mastrobuoni, Brett Wisley and Xavier Edwards this past offseason, all the victims of the roster spot crunch. And, considering that five other players in the top 14 spots on on their best prospects list further down the farm system not even mentioned above are also infielders, it is certainly a luxury they can parse down to fill some need.

Given their own infield prospect depth, it will be difficult for the Rays to put together a prospect package that will tempt the Cincinnati Reds to give up their quality closer, Alexis Diaz. But given their bullpen weakness that will handicap what is otherwise a competitive team if not addressed, such a deal is exactly what the Rays should be looking to complete over the next two months.