Tuesday might have felt a little surreal to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Gabe Gross. Shortly after scoring the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning in Tuesdays Brewers victory over the St. Louis Cardinals he learned he had been traded. The Rays acquired Gross from the Brewers Tuesday, in exchange for minor-league pitcher Josh Butler. "It's a little bit out of the blue," Gross said. "I do my best not to try to figure this game out, as far as trades and things like that. We've got a lot of quality baseball players and, furthermore, a lot of quality outfielders. Obviously, something had to give." The left-handed hitting outfielder was batting .209 with 2 RBIs on the season for the Brewers and became expendable when Tony Gwynn Jr. was activated from the disabled list. The Rays have not made public what move they will make when Gross arrives, but he will need to be added to the 25-man roster. The most likely move will be to option OF Justin Ruggiano to Triple A Durham, but OF Nathan Haynes could also be designated for assignment.
Dan Johnson the 1B/DH claimed off waivers Friday when the Oakland A’s designated him for assignment officially arrived and was available to play Tuesday night. In order to clear space on the 40-man roster the Rays Triple A pitcher Calvin Medlock was designated for assignment and Pitcher Jeff Niemann was optioned back to Durham Sunday to make room on the 25-man active roster. Manager Joe Maddon has stated that Johnson’s playing time will depend on the health of 1B Carlos Pena for the foreseeable time.
Catcher Dioner Navarro was activated from the 15-day DL and Mike DeFelice was officially designated for assignment on Tuesday. Navarro was in the starting lineup on Tuesday night going 3-4 and driving in 2 runs in the Rays 6-4 win over the Blue Jays.
The Rays improved their all-time record at Disney’s Wide World of Sports to 4-0 Tuesday night defeating Toronto 6-4. 1B Eric Hinske hit his 5th homer of the year, drove in 2 runs and nearly hit for the cycle, coming just a single short of the feat. James Shields improved to 2-1 on the allowing just two earned runs in seven innings. The Rays continue their series with Toronto in Orlando today-Thursday
JUSTIN LEWIS
ARE THEY READY FOR THE LONG HAUL? The positive energy oozing from Tropicana Field these days can only be described as unprecedented. The Rays’ are a franchise record five games over the .500 mark. They are alone in second place in the AL East (1.5 games behind Boston) , not to mention they have the third best record in all of the AL...
Rays Add New Pieces Tuesday might have felt a little surreal to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Gabe Gross. Shortly after scoring the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning in Tuesdays Brewers victory over the St. Louis Cardinals he learned he had been traded...
Rays Add Another Name To The List Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza, Dioner Navarro, Cliff Floyd and now Al Reyes. All were supposed to be key cogs for the Ray’s ascent from perennial cellar-dwellers to playoff contender. Now the team would just like them to get healthy...
Rays Making More Moves The team formerly known as the Devil Rays, who made waves by moving outfielder Delmon Young to the Twins in exchange for starting pitcher Matt Garza and new starting shortstop Jason Bartlett, dip into the free agency pool by signing reliever Troy...
Mission 2012 In less than one month the team formerly known as the Devil Rays has literally remade it’s self. They have changed their name they are known, for at least a few years anyways, as the Tampa Bay Rays. They’ve overhauled their color scheme, now blue and yellow...
