Marc Lancaster of the Tampa Tribune reports on his blog this afternoon that the Rays have made their first round of cuts this spring, and 10 players were a part of it. Dismissing the reassignments of the injured Shinji Mori and Doug Waechter last week, this was the first real significant cut down.

Roster Cut Downs

Sent to AAA Durham

RHP Jeff Niemann

RHP Mitch Talbot

Sent to ML Camp

C Josh Arhart

SS Reid Brignac

3B Evan Longoria

RHP Tony Peguero

OF Jason Grabowski

RHP Steve Andrade

RHP Andy Sonnanstine

OF Fernando Perez

The player jettisoned after a meeting of the Rays' brass last night include mostly prospects in just for the experience and to give the front office a quick look at them against major league competition. Falling under this heading are top pitching prospects Mitch Talbot and Jeff Niemann, both optioned to Triple A Durham where they will likely start the season, as well as Andy Sonnanstine, Fernando Perez, Reid Brignac, and Evan Longoria, who were all re-assigned to minor league camp. Other cut downs included Josh Arhart, Tony Peguero, Jason Grabowski, and Steve Andrade.

Dismissed quickly were Peguero and Andrade, minor league veterans in camp as non-roster invitees. Both had struggled this spring, with Andrade having given up five runs in 4.2 innings of work, while Peguero had given up three runs in 2.2 innings. Arhart and Grabowski were long shots to make the roster anyways, but they didn't get much of an opportunity to prove otherwise, getting a combined three at bats this spring, at bats that did not result in a hit.

While Talbot and Niemann were placed directly on the roster of AAA Durham, the rest will go back into the general pool of players at minor league camp and will be assigned to a specific minor league team at a later day. All of the others except for Andy Sonnanstine are expected to start the year out in Montgomery. Minor League Spring Training has begun at the Naimoli Complex, with intrasquad games taking place today and tomorrow and the first game against another team coming this Friday against the Phillies. I will post a complete Minor League ST schedule later this week.

Sources
First Round of Roster Cuts Takes Out 10 [Tampa Tribune]