Jan 16
Marc Topkin is reporting that the Rays have signed relief pitcher Lance Cormier to a one-year, $675K contract. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Rays designated Dewon Day for assignment, whom was just claimed off of waivers last week.
We have updated the 40-man roster projection to reflect this signing.
This move means one of two things:
- The Rays expect Troy Percival to start the season on the DL. As of right now, all spots in the bullpen are spoken for and there are no candidates for demotion. The low-man on the proverbial Totem Pole is Jason Hammel and he is out of minor league options. Or…
- The Rays are expecting one of their bullpen arms to be traded prior to opening day. The likely candidates are Chad Bradford, whom the Rays have tried to trade, Jason Hammel, who is out of minor league options or Jeff Niemann, if the Rays start the season with David Price in the rotation. If the Rays can move Bradford (or Dan Wheeler), signing Cormier would save the Rays over $2 million on the 2009 payroll.
Cormier appeared in 45 games (1 start) for the Orioles last season, posting a 4.02 ERA while striking out 46 and walking 34 in 71.2 innings.
He also posted a career-high 56.8% ground balls in 2008 which could go a long ways towards a solid season with the Rays solid infield defense. And for the last three seasons, Cormier, a right-hander, has actually been harder on lefties. In 2008, his OPS against lefties was .667, 95 points better than his mark against righties (.772).
Jan 16
[Update: 2:12pm] The Rays have signed Lance Cormier to a one-year, $675K contract. To make room on the 40-man, the Rays have designated Dewon Day, who they had just claimed on waivers last week. With the addition of Cormier, this tells us that the Rays now expect Troy Percival to start the season on the DL as all spots in the bullpen are spoken for.
[1:42pm] With the recent addition of Gabe Kapler, the Rays 2009 roster may be set. After the recent contract agreements with Gabe Gross and Grant Balfour, the payroll is also much clearer. Let’s update the 2009 40-man roster projection. We will be back later today with a look at the 25-man roster and lineup.
40-Man Roster Projection (notes and explanations on the projection can be found following the roster)…
Notes on the 40-man roster projection
- Ages are as of today.
- Shaded players are projected to be on the 40-man roster, but not on the 25-man roster.
- There are currently 40 players on the 40-man roster.
- The Rays have reached agreements with two of their arbitration-eligible players (Gabe Gross, Grant Balfour). That leaves 3 arbitration players remaining (Dioner Navarro, Jason Bartlett, Willy Aybar). Salaries for those players are educated guestimations based on contracts of similar arbitration-eligibles in the past few years. The salaries are also based on one-year deals. If any of the players sign long-term extensions, their 2009 salary could be considerably different. So far we have been within $150K on the first two deals.
- The 40-man roster now projects to have 26 players on the 25-man roster. This is due to the belief that Troy Percival will begin the season on the DL.
- Troy Percival’s 2009 salary was bumped up by $445K due to escalators in his contract for appearing in 50 games and finishing 38.
- The Rays appear to be stuck with Troy Percival and Chad Bradford. Their $7.95 million combined salaries stick out like a sore thumb. One of those cartoon thumbs after somebody smacks it with a hammer.
- As a Rule 5 draft pick, Derek Rodriguez must be on the major league roster or be offered back to his original team. We don’t see a spot for Rodriguez, but we think the Rays will work out a deal to keep Rodriguez in the organization. It would likely cost the Rays a low-level minor leaguer or cash.
- The opening day payroll now projects to be $61.7 million, but we also need to include Rocco Baldelli’s buyout ($4 million). While not technically part of the payroll, it is a cost that cannot be ignored. That brings the projected payroll up to $65.7 million.
- $61.7 million would have ranked the Rays 25th in payroll on opening day last year. The Rays opening day payroll in 2008 was $43.8 million.
- $60 million is most likely at the high-end of where the Rays want their payroll to be and may even be above the threshold. The Rays tried moving Chad Bradford but could not find any takers. Other possibles would be Carl Crawford and Gabe Gross.
- A year ago, the Rays projected to have 7 million dollar players. That number has now more than doubled to 16.
Jan 16
A couple of quick programming notes…We will be back later today for our weekly look at the 2009 roster lineup and payroll projections. After that we will be working on some changes around here. As a result, at some point this weekend, we will be offline for a few hours. Fear not. We think we know what we are doing. If not, and you never hear from us again…well, it has been a fun ride.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- The Rays avoided arbitration with Grant Balfour, agreeing on a one-year, $1.4 million deal…We had projected The Mad Australian to make $1.2 million in 2009. [Rays Report]
- Scott Kazmir and JP Howell have accepted invitations to pitch for the US team during the World Baseball Classic. Kazmir will be one of four starting pitchers and Howell is not worried about how the tournament will affect his preparation for the regular season, feeling it may actually help…Despite both players confidence, the Rays have to be concerned. Both pitchers are already dealing with a shortened off-season due to the Rays postseason run. Kazmir is coming off a season in which he battled an arm injury and never felt right with his mechanics. And Howell suffered from a tired arm down the stretch and needed to be benched for long stretches in September. [Tampa Tribune]
“I think it’s good because it may be less games, but the intensity of the games will match [the regular season] more than any spring training game could,” [Howell] said. “So that’s a positive in that it will kind of get your brain going a little bit before April 1, maybe get a little bit of that flow going.”
- Now that we know Evan Longoria will not be playing for the US in the World Baseball Classic, we have to wonder if Mexico will once again extend an invitation. Longoria made it known that he was contacted “informally” about playing for Mexico but declined the offer because his first choice was to play for the US. [St. Pete Times]
- The Padres claimed JK Ryu off of waivers feeling he is good enough to compete for a job on their 25-man roster. Ryu had been designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Gabe Kapler. [MLB Trade Rumors]
- The Examiner previews Scott Kazmir. [Examiner.com]
- The Rays gave a tour of their new Spring Training home to the media. All reserved seats for the 16 home spring training games have been sold out. [Tampa Tribune]
- Stacy Long found a video tour of the Rays new spring home. [Biscuit Crumbs]
