The Return of Longoria: Doom for Felipe Lopez?

They, whoever they are, say Evan Longoria is coming back to play April 29th. And while this is fabulous for us Rays fans (including those who have him on their fantasy team, aka me) it brings up a few questions in terms of the lineup.

Sean Rodriguez seems to have cemented himself as a platoon infielder who will get a lot of time at third when Longoria needs a rest and second base.

The flexibility of Ben Zobrist allows Rodriguez this opportunity and though Rodriguez's batting average hasn't been up to snuff lately (but who on the Rays has exactly hit the ball consistently yet, to be honest, besides Sam Fuld and Matt Joyce), he's been delivering a mixture of power at-bats, hitting three triples, two doubles, and a homer in this young season.

With a roster space set to be given up by someone upon Longoria's return, and a solid depth chart at short, second, third, and at DH, the return of Longoria offers Felipe Lopez little hope. Yes, Casey Kotchman could easily go down as well, but Lopez finds himself beat out at every position and thus, possibly, out of an everyday job.

But the bigger question, thus, is: so? While the Rays certainly upgrade at third with Longoria back, is Lopez worth losing or does he deserve an every-day roster spot or platoon role? 

So far in this young season, Lopez has been the third basemen of choice, starting at the position nine times and playing there a total of 12 times, to fill in for Longoria and he has been delivering as much as a strike-out happy, low percentage baseball team like the Rays needs. 

Lopez isn't getting on base much (.292 OBP, only two walks compared to 10 Ks) but he's fourth on the team in batting average at .261 (team average .231), has hit three doubles and two homers, driving in five, and, for a guy who has led the league in errors before, has only committed one error (whereas more entrenched players, like Reid Brignac, have committed more). The fact that he can bat left and right also makes him a tactical value for the tactically sound Joe Maddon.

It's easy to look at Lopez's career and see inconsistency. He's a former All-Star and Silver Slugger but has also played on no less then eight teams, has, as previously mentioned, led the league in errors, and only hits a career .266. But with those mediocre to bad stats/happenings, comes a guy who, early in his career (on the Reds), hit double figure home runs in multiple years, and, later in his career, was in the top 5 in hits and singles while managing to be in the top 10 in batting average.

His one problem, especially on a team like the Rays where so many players can play so many positions AND certain positions, like third, are practically owned by one person, would be flexibility. 

Lopez has played a majority of his career at short stop (627 games, 577 started) and was an All-Star at that position. However, Brignac and the ever-changing Zobrist have that locked up. Lopez has also played second base (327 games, 300 started), where Rodriguez is likely to be entrenched, and Zobrist/Brignac come next in depth, and, obviously, third base (167 games, 144 started, including the nine starts this year), which is, of course, flat-out owned by Longoria.

And just because Lopez has played OF, DH, and 1B (all under 20 appearances) and even pitched a game, he doesn't necessarily belong at those positions. So, will he have a place when Longoria comes back on the 25-man active roster or will we not be seeing Lopez again until another injury/September?

Tampa Bay Rays roster

Tampa Bay Rays stats