{"id":433601,"date":"2026-01-27T22:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433601\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T22:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:49:07","slug":"rays-cam-booser-agree-to-minor-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433601\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays, Cam Booser Agree To Minor League Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Rays have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/booseca01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cam Booser<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/rays\/roster\/transactions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">per the team transaction log at MLB.com<\/a>. He\u2019s a client of Northwest Sports Management. The log doesn\u2019t specify as much, but MLBTR has confirmed that Booser will be in major league camp with the Rays as a non-roster invitee.<\/p>\n<p>Booser, 33, spent the 2025 campaign with the White Sox organization, tossing 31 innings in the majors and another 14 2\/3 frames in Triple-A. That was his second season with big league work, adding onto the 42 2\/3 frames he logged with Boston in 2024. In 73 2\/3 innings between the BoSox and ChiSox, Booser carries a 4.28 earned run average, a 23.9% strikeout rate and a 10.7% walk rate. He\u2019s an extreme fly-ball pitcher, inducing grounders at just a 31% clip.<\/p>\n<p>Booser sits 95.5 mph with his four-seamer and complements the pitch with a cutter averaging 88 mph and a slider that sits 81.7 mph. His solid strikeout rate is supported by a 13% swinging-strike rate in the majors, and his 89.5 mph average exit velocity, 10.4% barrel rate and 38.9% hard-hit rate are all at or close to the league average among relievers. Booser has never struggled to miss bats much in the minors, but command troubles have been present throughout his professional career.<\/p>\n<p>After trading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/montgma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mason Montgomery<\/a> in the three-team swap that sent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lowebr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brandon Lowe<\/a> to Pittsburgh and brought <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/meltoja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jacob Melton<\/a> from Houston to Tampa Bay, the Rays\u2019 only lefty in the bullpen is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cleavga01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Garrett Cleavinger<\/a>. They don\u2019t have any left-handed relievers on the 40-man roster in the minors, though any of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rockjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Joe Rock<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/seymoia01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ian Seymour<\/a> or DFA pickup <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/waldike01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-27_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ken Waldichuk<\/a> could conceivably work out in relief if the team prefers to explore a role change. All three are on the 40-man roster.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays haven\u2019t been especially active in bringing players aboard on non-roster deals with invitations to spring training, so at the moment Booser is one of the more experienced NRIs who\u2019ll be in camp with Tampa Bay. That can always change in the weeks ahead, of course, but barring the addition of another lefty or two, the hard-throwing Booser probably has a chance to force his way into the Opening Day picture with a big spring showing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Cam Booser, per the team transaction&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[99767,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-433601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-cam-booser","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}