The Rays are set to promote top prospect Jake Bauers from Triple-A Durham, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). The first baseman/outfielder will join the team for his MLB debut on Thursday.
Bauers, 22, entered the season to quite a bit of Top 100 prospect fanfare, ranking 43rd at Fangraphs, 45th at Baseball America and 68th at MLB.com. (He’s since risen to 42 at BA and 55 at MLB.com.)
Bauers is not yet hitting for a great deal of power but is off to a fine start in Durham, slashing .279/.357/.426 with five homers, 14 doubles and 10 steals (in 16 attempts). He’s drawn a walk in 10.4 percent of his 222 trips to the dish and has whiffed at a 21.2 percent clip. Defensively, Bauers has spent the bulk of his time in the field at first base, his primary position in the minors, but has logged 47 innings in the outfield corners as well (35 in left field and a dozen in right field).
Originally a seventh-round pick of the Padres back in 2013, Bauers went from San Diego to Tampa Bay in the three-team blockbuster that saw Wil Myers land with the Padres, sent Trea Turner to the Nationals and landed the since-traded Steven Souza Jr. in a Rays uniform. While that three-team deal features plenty of name value now, the Nats look to have come out quite a bit ahead thanks to the success of Turner (and righty Joe Ross, who’s currently mending from Tommy John surgery). Bauers, though, will now look to help the Rays recoup some value in his first taste of the Major Leagues.
C.J. Cron has hit quite well as the Rays’ primary first baseman, but Tampa Bay has received modest production from its outfield. With Kevin Kiermaier on the shelf and Denard Span traded to the Mariners, the Rays have been utilizing Mallex Smith, Carlos Gomez, Johnny Field and Rob Refsnyder in the outfield of late.
It stands to reason that the left-handed hitting Bauers could join that mix. Scouting reports on him indicate that while he’s a better defensive first baseman than outfielder, he’s slimmed down in recent years and can handle the outfield grass (or turf, as it were) adequately while chipping in with an above-average hit tool and average or better power at the plate.
The timing of Bauers’ promotion is such that he won’t be eligible for free agency until at least the end of the 2024 season, though his early-June debut figures to leave him on the bubble for Super Two arbitration status down the line.
There’s no exact cutoff date for that nebulous distinction, as it’s dependent on the service time of the other players in Bauers’ service class, but it seems likely that he’ll fall just shy of qualifying. There are only 116 days remaining in the season from the point at which Bauers will be formally promoted, and the lowest that the Super Two cutoff has fallen in recent seasons has been two years, 122 days of MLB service time.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
ray_derek
Yeah!
bobtillman
Well, the good thing is that he’s been young for his classifications throughout his career…..the not-so-good is that he’s been decidedly “meh” throughout that career. I’ve watched my share of Durham games, and the one thing that’s missed is that he’s really horrible in LF….needs to stay at 1B, where he can channel his inner James Loney, which is who he comps to.
Amazed they’re skirting the Super-2, taking a risk that the deadline falls low this year. I wonder if they found a taker for Miller, who, if they eat part of his ridiculous 4M payout, is a reasonable add-on for a good team; got some pop, defensively versatile.
clarkkent
Methinks it is DFA Carlos Gomez, nice glove I guess but not much else. They can get same (albeit better BA) from Bauers at a fraction of the cost and didn’t they win 8in a row without CarGo? To your point (and good call, too) they did showcase Miller at 2B today (odd) ahead of Robertson and Wendle (moved him to SS when they could have used Arroyo who for some reason isn’t playing at all other than PHing). I wonder what wheels are turning as they have consistently stated these kids are not coming up to sit on the bench – and that is where Arroyo spends his time and has played SS.
Caseys.Partner
“The slugging first baseman/outfielder ”
Bauers is slugging .426 and his minor league career slugging is .414
I don’t get why he’s rated so highly. Seems to lack the power for 1B and he’s no on-base machine either.
geejohnny
He’s always been younger than his teammates. He’s actually ranked a few spots above Austin Meadows. High ceiling.
Ray lopez
Yeah? Aren’t you the guy that thinks Rupp is the best player in baseball
geejohnny
??? Me? Ahh…no….that wouldn’t be me. Not a Philly or a Rupp fan.
therealryan
If this time next year, Phillie #3 overall draft pick Alec Bohm has a .268/.365/.416/.781 slash line in AAA would you be impressed or question why people would rate him as a top 50 prospect? I ask because those are Bauers’ AAA stats as a 21/22 year old over the past 2 seasons and Bohm was just drafted as a 21 year old.