Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Snell and Morton back-to-back

The Tampa Bay Rays will have one of the best 1-2 punches in the league this season in the form of reigning American League Cy Young winner, Blake Snell, and the man who closed out Game 7 of the 2017 World Series, Charlie Morton.

Snell made his spring training debut on Thursday, while Morton will make his debut on Friday. Having these two studs go back-to-back in the rotation is something I could get very used to, while the rest of baseball is going to be very flustered by.

Last season, the two combined to go 36-8 with a 2.49 ERA and 11.0 rWAR. Their ERA+ is a bit more difficult to combine, but it was somewhere in the realm of 175 — long story short: they dominated.

Snell picked up right where he left off on Thursday (see below), while Morton will likely toss an inning (maybe toss) against the Orioles on Friday. Get hype.

Rays Media

• The Rays won a tightly-contested, low-scoring affair on Thursday, collecting their one run when Lucius Fox (who is hitting .833 this spring) singled in Austin Meadows (who is slashing .500/.500/1.333 this spring). Eight different Rays pitchers combined for the two-hit shutout.
• One of those pitchers—the first one—was Mr. Cy Young, who offered the following after the game:

• Your daily Rays Radio selection:

Rays News and Links

• Rays prospect Sanchez has more than bat - MLB.com
• Rays Top 50 Prospects: No. 7 Brandon Lowe - Wander Rays
• ‘Comfortable’ Castillo ready for any role - MLB.com
• Getting to Know — Andrew Velaszquez - Rays Radio Blog
• Blake Snell’s spring debut: 16 pitches, two strikeouts and plenty of ‘nasty’ - The Athletic (paywall)
• Table for Two: Previewing the 2019 Tampa Bay Rays - Baseball Prospectus (paywall)
• Why you won’t find Blake Snell’s Cy Young award at his house - Tampa Bay Times (paywall)
• Rays Journal: Why Charlie Morton will have all the feels in his Friday debut - Tampa Bay Times (paywall)