{"id":453918,"date":"2026-02-04T19:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453918\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T19:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:27:08","slug":"rays-acquire-promising-rookie-infielder-in-3-team-trade-dfa-left-handed-reliever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453918\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays acquire promising rookie infielder in 3-team trade, DFA left-handed reliever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5i\">No, the Rays weren&#8217;t involved in the headliner of this 3-team deal as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/brendan-donovan-mariners-trade?msockid=37e1402df1796d541f515614f0c16cc5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brendan Donovan<\/a>&#8216;s move to the Mariners stole the show. However, this acquisition for the Rays was sneaky and could easily be a big part of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>Rays acquire rookie infielder Ben Williamson in 3-team deal with the Mariners and Cardinals<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">The Cardinals got the bulk of the load in this trade as the Rays sent them talented minor league outfielder Colton Ledbetter and the Mariners gave away a couple top prospects of their own to claim 2025 All-Star Brendan Donovan. Seattle also let a talented, young infielder go to make room for Donovan&#8217;s services. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5r\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/rays-reportedly-acquire-inf-ben-224312795.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Williamson<\/a> completed his rookie season last year and performed pretty well for a 2023 draft pick. The 6&#8217;0 infielder primarily plays third base as he appeared at that position in 85 contests a season ago, but the Rays may test his versatility as <a href=\"https:\/\/rayscoloredglasses.com\/junior-caminero-finally-earns-high-degree-of-respect-in-latest-mlb-com-article-01kg7pchff9y\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Junior Caminero<\/a> holds down the fort at the hot corner.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">The 25-year-old Williamson&#8217;s bat is what caught the Rays&#8217; eyes. He has hit everywhere he&#8217;s been, particularly in the minors where the Virginia native a .291\/.377\/.415 slash line with 64 extra-base hits in three seasons. Doubles are his favorite form of offense as he hit 48 in the Seattle farm system and 13 at the big-league level.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">Williamson had two separate MLB stints last season as he bounced between Triple-A Tacoma and T-Mobile Park. In just under 300 plate appearances, the former second round pick hit a respectable .254 with 32 RBIs and the Rays believe he&#8217;s just scratching the surface with his offensive potential.<\/p>\n<p>Rays DFA LHP Ken Waldichuk to make room for Williamson on the 40-man roster<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">Unfortunately, when additions are made, subtractions must also take place (at least most of the time). The subtraction in this case was recently acquired left-handed reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/rayscoloredglasses.com\/rays-acquire-2-dfa-d-braves-add-them-to-40-man-roster-01kf1916q7z7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ken Waldichuk<\/a>. This was an interesting decision and begs the question: Will the Rays pursue another left-handed relief pitcher at this point in the offseason? We sure hope so as <a href=\"https:\/\/rayscoloredglasses.com\/2-rays-relievers-set-to-join-team-usa-in-world-baseball-classic-01kfb87sdnk3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Garrett Cleavinger<\/a> and Joe Rock are currently the only two lefties out of the bullpen. Regardless, a move needed to be made, and we wish Waldichuk all the best as seeks another contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No, the Rays weren&#8217;t involved in the headliner of this 3-team deal as Brendan Donovan&#8216;s move to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-453918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453918","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=453918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}