Your 2009 Tampa Bay Rays Opening Day Roster

by Tommy Rancel on Apr 5, 2009 4:02 PM EDT

The 2009 Tampa Bay Rays Opening Day Roster is official.

The Rays offically announced the Jason Hammel/Aneury Rodriguez trade and placed the following players on the disabled list: RHP Chad Bradford (right elbow surgery, retroactive to March 27); RHP Jason Isringhausen (right elbow surgery, retroactive to March 31); OF Fernando Perez (left wrist surgery, retroactive to March 27); and OF B.J. Upton (left shoulder surgery, retroactive to March 27).

In addition to the DL'd players, the Rays also officially reassigned the following players to minor league camp: C Michel Hernandez, INF Adam Kennedy, INF Ray Olmedo, INF Chris Richard, OF Ray Sadler and OF Jon Weber.

This brings us to the final 25 players who will step on the field in Fenway Park tomorrow (hopefully) and begin defending the American League crown. Here is the breakdown:

Pitchers (12): RH Grant Balfour, RH Lance Cormier, RH Matt Garza, LH J.P. Howell, LH Scott Kazmir, RH Joe Nelson, RH Jeff Niemann, RH Troy Percival, RH James Shields, LH Brian Shouse, RH Andy Sonnanstine, RH Dan Wheeler

Catchers (2): Dioner Navarro, Shawn Riggans

Infielders (6):Willy Aybar, Jason Bartlett, Akinori Iwamura, Evan Longoria, Carlos Peña, Ben Zobrist

Outfielders (5):Pat Burrell, Carl Crawford, Gabe Gross, Matt Joyce, Gabe Kapler

Good luck boys.

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When Beej comes back I say we still keep 12 pitchers....

IMO, one of the Gabes will be traded or DFA’d. We probably wouldn’t get any trade value in Kapler, but even if someone would want Gross for his defensive skills, we still wouldn’t get much for him. The bigger question is how long does Izzy stay down? And who does he replace when he’s ready? Cormier is my guess. And kudos to DRO for getting more than I thought they would for Hammel.

by TheUltimateBucFan on Apr 5, 2009 4:15 PM EDT reply actions

Maybe the Mets will want a worthwhile player and release Sheffield by then.

by R.J. Anderson on Apr 5, 2009 4:49 PM EDT up reply actions

You know Omar better than that.

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Apr 5, 2009 7:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Or

Couldn’t they just demote someone to make room for Upton (Joyce, Zobrist?).

Would they actually make room just to add Izzy? I’d guess he gets the call only if Percival is already in need of a trip to the DL.

The front office got a reasonable return for Hammel, but I’m actually a little surprised there wasn’t more interest. Surely the Astros (Mike Hampton, Russ Ortiz?) or Royals (Sidney Ponson, Horacio Ramirez?) or Nationals could have put him to good use.

Today, we are all Honkballers.

by RATW on Apr 5, 2009 4:50 PM EDT up reply actions