To meet the requirements of the reserve list deadline, the Tampa Bay Rays have selected five players to their 40-man roster: infielders Osleivis Basabe, Greg Jones and Curtis Mead and right-handed pitchers Taj Bradley and Colby White. The addition of these prospects will prevent them from being selected by another organization in the Rule 5 draft.

In order to make room on the roster, the Rays executed three trades both to make room on the roster and to return value on other top Rule 5 eligible prospects. Unfortunately, those moves were not enough to make all five roster spots required, so three additional players were required to be designated for assignment, including veteran LHP Ryan Yarbrough.

The moves in total are as follows:

• Placed RHP Nick Anderson, LHP Brendan McKay, OF Roman Quinn and RHP Jimmy Yacabonis on outright waivers, declined option on OF Kevin Kiermaier.
• Traded 1B Ji-Man Choi to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for minor league RHP Jack Hartman.
• Traded INF/OF Miles Mastrobuoni to the Chicago Cubs for minor league RHP Alfredo Zárraga
• Traded RHP JT Chargois and minor league INF Xavier Edwards to the Miami Marlins for minor league RHP Marcus Johnson and minor league RHP Santiago Suarez
• Traded minor league INF Brett Wisely to the San Francisco Giants for minor league OF Tristan Peters
• Designated RHP Javy Guerra, 1B/OF Bligh Madris and LHP Ryan Yarbrough for assignment

We will have articles coming on all the trades, and you can click the link for the articles already published above.

As for the DFA’s, the most significant is Ryan Yarbrough, the face of the Opener strategy that was implemented in 2018 when he and his peer starting pitcher Yonny Chirinos were forced into the Rays rotation a year sooner than anticipated due to injury. There was much concern at the time that such usage changes would impact Yarbrough’s compensation through arbitration, but that would not come to pass.

Yarbrough was projected to a $4.2 million salary next season, which made his departure not too surprising after losing his slot in the rotation last year. The designation means the Rays may yet execute a trade for Yarbrough still over the coming days.

Guerra had opportunities with the Rays this season, totaling 17 games, but didn’t show the Rays enough to keep him on the roster. A converted infielder, his approach was too raw for the Rays approach to bullpen construction, but should land with another organization.

Madris was a late season waiver claim who went on to earn the Independent League Championship MVP honors with the Durham Bulls, but was ultimately a depth piece that was not needed at this time.

The Rays roster is full once again at 40 players.

* = Left-handed
** = Switch-handed

Pitchers

• Jason Adam
• Shawn Armstrong
• Shane Baz
• Jalen Beeks*
• Taj Bradley
• Yonny Chirinos
• Garrett Cleavinger*
• Pete Fairbanks
• Calvin Faucher
• J.P. Feyereisen
• Josh Fleming*
• Tyler Glasnow
• Andrew Kittredge
• Shane McClanahan*
• Luis Patiño
• Colin Poche*
• Brooks Raley*
• Drew Rasmussen
• Jeffrey Springs*
• Ryan Thompson
• Colby White

Catchers

• Christian Bethancourt
• Francisco Mejía**
• René Pinto

Infielders

• Jonathan Aranda*
• Osleivis Basabe
• Vidal Bruján**
• Yandy Díaz
• Wander Franco**
• Greg Jones**
• Brandon Lowe*
• Curtis Mead
• Isaac Paredes
• Taylor Walls**

Outfielders

• Randy Arozarena
• Josh Lowe*
• Manuel Margot
• Luke Raley*
• Jose Siri

Designated Hitter

• Harold Ramírez