Rays pitcher Alex Cobb is targeting a late July return from Tommy John surgery, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Cobb went under the knife in mid-May of last season. This reported time table puts him on a typical 14 to 15 month pace. Cobb last pitched in 2014 when he posted a 2.87 ERA with 8.06 K/9, 2.54 BB/9 and a 56 percent ground ball rate.
- Waiver claim Chase Whitley is on a similar return schedule to Cobb. Whitley’s surgery came a few days after Cobb so it’s possible he won’t be ready until early August. While Cobb has a borderline ace ceiling, Whitley has performed more like a swingman. In 95 career innings, he has a 5.02 ERA with 7.20 K/9 and 2.18 BB/9. Interestingly, his peripherals suggest the potential for a sub-4.00 ERA.
- While they recover, the rotation is a little thin if injuries strike. The team is already relying upon Matt Moore and Drew Smyly – both of whom have missed significant time in recent seasons. Matt Andriese is one of the main depth options with top prospect Blake Snell knocking on the door.
- Topkin also runs through the position battles at other positions. Outfield is a spot to watch for our readers. The club is particularly deep. Trade acquisition Corey Dickerson is expected to be the primary designated hitter with Desmond Jennings in left, Kevin Kiermaier in center, Steven Souza in right, and Brandon Guyer in a reserve role. Injuries or a trade opportunity could quickly mutate the plans.
- The Rays problems are of the “good” variety, Topkin writes in a separate piece. Most of the roster is crowded with the exception of the bullpen where options can emerge unexpectedly. With their depth, future transactions in the outfield and at first base are possible. The team has been shopping James Loney for awhile now. He’s owed $8MM for this season.
Roster is laughable? If Moore and Smyly stay health Rays will likely have one of, if not the best, rotations in the AL. Rays offense will also be significantly improved.
More importantly, losing Friedman for LA is the best thing that could’ve possibly happened to the Rays, clown…
We have one of the best pitching rotations in the Al and we improved a ton on offense what roster are you looking at?
The Rays are like a lot of teams a few players have big years they will be tough!
moore and smyly? if ifs and buts were candy and nuts everyday would be Christmas. i like the manager. tampa not even close to best rotation. smyly i could give a pass to, moore? come on.
please tell me who has a better rotation then the rays in the Al then lol
Astros, Indians, White Sox Possibly the Red Sox in some peoples minds too. I think most would agree Astros and Indians are better , might have more arguments with White Sox and Red Sox but they are both right with the Rays.
other then sale whitesoxs dont have a pitcher that could be an ace on another team, red soxs only have price ,and the indians rotation is close to the rays rotation wise.
Quintanna is pretty good just as good as any Rays pitcher not named Archer, Bucholz was also better than every Rays pitcher not named Archer, he may have been better if he pitched the entire year. The White Sox and Red Sox are more subjective but they are not far from the Rays.
It really comes down to how high or low you are on Rodon/Rodriguez for the two teams, People think the Rays rotation is improving with pitchers returning from injury but are any of the pitchers going to be as good as Karns was it is not like he was a slob.
Hmm…Let’s not forget Archer, Odo, and the up and coming beast Snell (and Honeywell/TG could also play a big role in Sept).
Let’s not forget Rays had one of the top 3 rotations last year in the AL without Cobb, (Moore and Smyly – for 2/3rds of the season)…and Moore and Smyly are both health going into ST and Cobb will be back in July.
Everybody’s a GM. They do actually play the games for a reason. This will be a fun AL east. Anybody can win it if the right few players step up.
Friedman had them in a pretty bad spot and bailed. He gets way too much credit for the success in Tampa.
Why is everyone forgetting about the Tigers rotation??? We have Verlander, Zimmerman, Sanchez, Norris/Farmer/Green, But last AND LEAST mike pelfrey. Looks better than the Yankees/Astros/rays rotation. Not to mention NONE of these players are coming off of surgery
yes the tigers rotation could be very good however sanchez needs to have a rebound season, farmer needs to improve a lot, norris can be good when he has good control, green needs to improve, verlander who is no longer an ace can still be a good pitcher, and zimmermann is a very good pitcher.
Make a deal with the Cubs please. Lets trade Kiermaier for Soler straight up. Adds power for our lineup and Dickerson can slide into LF. Souza and Guyer are platoon OFs who hit for low averages and OBP. Kiermaier too even though I would miss his defense. Lineup would be stacked if we could pull it off!
Lol
Real balanced team that will win their division. Yanks to old, Red Sox have no pitching, Orioles lost to much key players for 2 years in a row, blue Jays are not that good.
Friedman was bad GM, he left sliverman a big mess to clean up and has done a great job so far
i stand corrected. tampa bay does have a good group of players. still not completely sold on the starters. if you throw snell in there it looks better. i do like smyly jake archer and ramirez. they are a good staff no doubt.
I’d say the way the Rays are managed are more impressive than the pitching talent its self, Rays were the lowest in batters faced by SP per game in AL at 22.7 that was fewer than the Royals at 23..5.
the starters we pulled out early were starters that were going to pass their career high in innings
Nope had nothing to do with it, they were routinely pulled before the 3rd time through the order it was very much part of the Rays strategy, to not let batters see the pitcher a 3rd time.
They also averaged 87 pitches a game fewest in AL had nothing to do with limits was pure strategy.
That’s correct, and quite similar to what the Royals did as well. In fact, Rays starters actually threw more innings last year….
we only had two pitchers that would pitch deep in to games archer and odorizzi the rest of our starters were either coming back from a big injury or they were inexperienced
I’m real curious if they’ll deploy that kind of strategy again this year.
The originator of this thread knows nothing. The Rats won 80 games last year with 3 superb starting pitchers out for most or all of the year, plus having a major part if the bullpen injured. If those starting pitchers had been healthy, the Rays would have made the playoffs, most likely. The roster is significantly improved. IMO, if the Rays can avoid so many injuries, they have a good shot to win 90 games, especially with the batting upgrades. My main concern is the bullpen. Not pulling the trigger for either Clippard or Hunter was a shame….
They’ll have great momentum going into the season knowing they’ll be pitching in front of 6000 people a night (except when the Red Sox or Yankees are in town)