{"id":17141,"date":"2025-07-23T04:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/17141\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T04:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:30:08","slug":"rays-notes-caballero-diaz-mcclanahan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/17141\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Notes: Caballero, Diaz, McClanahan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rays utilityman Jos\u00e9 Caballero<\/a> has gotten trade attention from some other clubs, reports<\/a> Francys Romero. The versatile infielder is operating as a backup behind Tampa Bay\u2019s typical starting infield of\u00a0Jonathan Aranda<\/a>, Brandon Lowe<\/a>,\u00a0Junior Caminero<\/a> and\u00a0Ha-Seong Kim<\/a>. Lowe went on the injured list this morning with ankle tendinitis, so Caballero drew into tonight\u2019s lineup at second base.\u00a0Taylor Walls<\/a> will probably get the bulk of the playing time in place of Lowe, yet he was needed at shortstop today because Kim is day-to-day with lower back discomfort.<\/p>\n

Caballero, 28 next month, has a light bat but provides value on defense and as a baserunner. He led the American League with 44 stolen bases last season, though he was also caught an MLB-high 16 times. Caballero is 32-39 as a basestealer this year. FanGraphs has graded him as an above-average overall baserunner in each of his three big league seasons. Caballero has also rated as a plus defender at each of second base, third base and shortstop.<\/p>\n

The secondary skills have made Caballero an above replacement level performer in each of his three seasons. He has never provided much at the plate, however. The righty hitter owns a .218\/.315\/.310 slash with two home runs and an elevated 30.3% strikeout rate in 251 plate appearances this year. Caballero has never reached double digits in home runs nor hit above .230 in a season. He\u2019ll qualify for arbitration for the first time this offseason as a Super Two player.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay wouldn\u2019t get a huge return for Caballero. It nevertheless stands to reason they\u2019d be open to offers, as he\u2019s arguably a bit superfluous with Walls also on the roster. Whether to trade designated hitter\/corner infielder\u00a0Yandy D\u00edaz<\/a> is a much bigger question for the front office.<\/p>\n

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic<\/a> suggested last week that the Rays are likely to hold D\u00edaz, who is signed for another year and a half on a deal that also includes a 2027 club option. Romero hears similarly, posting<\/a> that they intend to keep D\u00edaz as they compete for a playoff spot. The Rays are half a game behind the Red Sox for the AL\u2019s last Wild Card spot. D\u00edaz has popped 16 homers with a robust .293\/.352\/.474 batting line this year.<\/p>\n

Even as they\u2019re in position to add before next week\u2019s deadline, the Rays could hear teams out on their rotation depth.\u00a0Drew Rasmussen<\/a> and\u00a0Ryan Pepiot<\/a> make for a strong top two. It seems unlikely that they\u2019d move\u00a0Shane Baz<\/a>. USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale has reported that the Rays could consider offers on\u00a0Taj Bradley<\/a>, while\u00a0Zack Littell<\/a> is a potential trade candidate as an impending free agent. Dealing a starter would open a rotation spot for hard-throwing Joe Boyle<\/a>, who is currently operating in a multi-inning relief capacity.<\/p>\n

The Rays still await a return from ace Shane McClanahan<\/a>. The two-time All-Star has not pitched in an MLB game since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. He sustained a triceps nerve injury during Spring Training that cost him the first half. McClanahan had a setback last month and has now hit another speed bump \u2014 albeit one that seems fairly minor.<\/p>\n

According to the MLB.com injury tracker<\/a>, his minor league rehab assignment has been halted after he felt biceps soreness in his most recent appearance. Manager Kevin Cash told team reporter Ryan Bass<\/a> that the biceps discomfort is unrelated to the triceps problem. Cash suggested McClanahan could resume a throwing program within a few days, but he won\u2019t take the ball for his previously scheduled rehab start at Triple-A Durham on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rays utilityman Jos\u00e9 Caballero has gotten trade attention from some other clubs, reports Francys Romero. The versatile infielder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,14925,462,14253,82,14926],"class_list":{"0":"post-17141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-jose-caballero","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-shane-mcclanahan","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-yandy-diaz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}