Rays Transaction Thread

[yankeebiscuitfan]

Date	Transactions
9-1-2011	Tampa Bay Rays recalled Brandon Guyer from Durham Bulls.
	Tampa Bay Rays activated RF Brandon Guyer.
	Tampa Bay Rays activated LF Justin Ruggiano from the 15-Day disabled list.
9-2-2011	Tampa Bay Rays activated C Jose Lobaton from the 15-Day disabled list.
	Tampa Bay Rays recalled RHP Andy Sonnanstine from Durham Bulls.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

News for the Rays can't get any bigger at the moment. The Rays have called up phenom Matt Moore.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...s_mlb&c_id=mlb

It is not clear yet wether he will be placed in the bullpen or if he gets a role as starter.

[RickD]

The Rays can taste the Wild Card at this point!

[yankeebiscuitfan]

The Rays exercised James Shields' $7.5MM option, according to Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. Shields would not have been eligible for free agency if the Rays had declined the option. Instead, Tampa Bay would have gone to arbitration with Shields and he would have obtained a salary in excess of $7.5MM.

Picking up Shields' option was an easy decision, even for the low-payroll Rays. The right-hander posted a 2.82 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 249 1/3 innings in 2011, leading the league with 11 complete games and four shutouts. He would have extremely high trade value, though Rays executive VP of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has said he wants to preserve Tampa Bay's pitching depth.

It has been rumoured that the Marlins will try to trade for James Shields. He won't come cheap, that's for sure.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

The Rays exercised Kyle Farnsworth's 2012 option while declining Kelly Shoppach's, according to the Tampa Tribune (on Twitter).*Farnsworth obtains a $3.3MM salary instead of a $650K buyout and Shoppach obtains a $300K buyout instead of a $3.2MM salary.

Farnsworth posted a 2.18 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 57 2/3 innings out of the bullpen in 2011. Shoppach, 31, hit just .176/.268/.339 in 253 plate appearances, but he led the league by preventing 41% of stolen base attempts. The Rays will look to get more offense from behind the plate in 2012.

I wonder who will behind the plate next season.

[RickD]

Both of these moves make total sense for the Rays.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

The Tampa Bay Rays have traded catcher John Jaso to Seattle for relief pitcher Josh Lueke, a player to be named or cash considerations.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

A day after Tampa Bay traded John Jaso to the Mariners, they signed veteran catcher Jose Molina to a 1.5 million USD contract.

The Rays opted to not exercise a $3.2 million club option to retain Kelly Shoppach, thus leaving Jose Lobaton and Robinson Chirinos as the main candidates for the job.

To me this is a sign that they wait another year for Stephen Vogt to be called up. (wishful thinking?)

[RickD]

Not a bad transaction for the Rays.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

The Tampa Bay Rays have signed prospect Matt Moore to a five year deal. 14 MM is guaranteed, but the deal could be worth about 39 MM.
There are club options for the 2016, 2017 and 2018 season.

Eventhough it is not a huge amount, it will give Moore some financial security. Sure it is a gamble that Tampa Bay is taking here, since he hasn't pitched a full season in the Majors yet.