{"id":414551,"date":"2026-01-17T04:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T04:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/414551\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T04:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T04:10:07","slug":"rays-to-use-gavin-lux-exclusively-at-second-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/414551\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays To Use Gavin Lux Exclusively At Second Base"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rays swapped Josh Lowe<\/a> for\u00a0Gavin Lux<\/a> as part of last night\u2019s three-team trade<\/a>. President of baseball operations Erik Neander discussed the move with Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times<\/a> after it was finalized this morning.<\/p>\n

Neander indicated the Rays were likely to narrow Lux\u2019s defensive focus to his traditional second base position. The former top prospect worked in a utility role with Cincinnati last year, only starting 16 games at the keystone. He spent the majority of his defensive work in left field and started more games at designated hitter than any individual position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our opinion, second base is his best position, and he plays it at his best when the entirety of his time is focused there,\u201d Neander told Topkin. \u201cThe way things played out in Cincinnati last year, there was more opportunity in left field, more DH, more pinch-hit, a little bit of second base, but his work was not focused at second base. I think Gavin is someone that we can give him some clarity that, \u2018Hey, second base, put your work in there, build your routines there, prepare for that, and basically that only.\u2019 And I think that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to get the best out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lux has played more second base than any other position in his career. He graded as a slightly above-average gloveman by both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average between 2019-22. Lux missed the entire \u201923 season with a torn ACL. The Dodgers initially planned to move him up the defensive spectrum to shortstop when he returned. They scrapped that when he struggled with his throwing accuracy during Spring Training. Lux\u2019s arm is less of an issue on the right side of the infield, but his overall defensive grades have dipped in the last two years.<\/p>\n

The Rays apparently feel that last year\u2019s metrics are attributable to the multi-position role. Committing to Lux as an everyday second baseman would have trickle-down effects for the rest of the roster. That probably locks Taylor Walls<\/a> in at shortstop to open the season, allowing them to send\u00a0Carson Williams<\/a> back to Triple-A to work through contact concerns.<\/p>\n

Richie Palacios<\/a> had been the in-house favorite<\/a> for second base playing time after the Brandon Lowe<\/a> trade. He\u2019s most adversely impacted by the acquisition of Lux, who has a similar skillset. They\u2019re each left-handed bats whose games are built around strong on-base ability despite limited power. Palacios hit well in a tiny sample last year but was limited to 17 games by a pair of injuries \u2014 a broken right ring finger and a more significant knee sprain that cost him the bulk of the season.<\/p>\n

Palacios still has a minor league option and could head to Triple-A for another season. His best path to MLB playing time now is probably in the corner outfield. Palacios has played nearly 500 innings as a left fielder over parts of four MLB campaigns. The Rays have a wide open outfield around\u00a0Cedric Mullins<\/a>, who is likely to be the everyday center fielder.\u00a0Jake Fraley<\/a>, Jonny DeLuca<\/a>,\u00a0Chandler Simpson<\/a>,\u00a0Justyn-Henry Malloy<\/a>,\u00a0Ryan Vilade<\/a> and trade pickup Jacob Melton<\/a> will also compete for playing time.\u00a0Fraley, Palacios, Simpson and Melton are all left-handed hitters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays swapped Josh Lowe for\u00a0Gavin Lux as part of last night\u2019s three-team trade. President of baseball operations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,174258,462,63563,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-414551","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-gavin-lux","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-richie-palacios","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414551","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=414551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}