Tampa Bay Rays spring training - Rays make first round of cuts

As the Tampa Bay Rays were taking on the Boston Red Sox during their 20th game of the spring, the team announced their first wave of cuts, which included the release of veteran Dana Eveland.

Among those to be optioned to minor league camp were top prospects Willy Adames and Jose De Leon, the latter of whom will be joining Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.

The Rays also optioned Jake Faria, Taylor Gurrieri, Chih-Wei Hu, Ryne Stanek, and Hunter Wood. All seven of these players were added to the team’s 40-man roster over the past few months.

The club also reassigned six players who were in camp as non-roster invites, including Ryan Brett who is back with the team following Tommy John Surgery in 2016.

Entering play today, the Rays had 55 players listed on their spring roster. They have now trimmed that down to 42. We are just under three weeks until the regular season begins and by the that time, the roster will have been brought down to 25.

During the coming days, the battles for each position in camp will become more intense as we see and learn more about the players competing for the Opening Day roster.

The complete list of those reassigned/optioned/released.