Tampa Bay Rays Acquire Michael Martinez, Place Brad Miller on the DL

The Tampa Bay Rays have a very limited 40-man roster currently with only a couple of position player options available. So, when Brad Miller strained his abdominal on Monday, the team waited as long as possible to see if he would recuperate, but alas, the Rays have placed him on the 10-day DL.

In his place, they looked outside the organization for middle-infield help and they found it by acquiring Michael Martinez from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations. The Rays have pushed Xavier Cedeno on the 60-day DL to clear a 40-man spot.

Martinez is a part-time major league veteran of seven seasons, having played a total of 282 games from 2011 to 2017, putting up a total of -2.7 fWAR over that time. The majority of his experience has come with the Phillies, but he has also spent some time with the Boston Red Sox and of course the Indians.

Brad Miller’s offensive explosion in 2016 hasn’t fully carried over thus far in 2017, however, he is among the league leaders in walks, getting a free pass just over 18% of the time. Overall this year, Miller is hitting .205/.350/.318 with 2 HR over 39 games.

Daniel Robertson will likely take the starting second base duties in Miller’s absence with Martinez now serving as the backup infielder.