The Tampa Bay Rays had a strange trade deadline. They both bought and sold, without doing much of either.
In a flurry of trades with the Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, division rival New York Yankees and regular trade partner Miami Marlins, the Rays moved some veterans and got back some prospects, as usual. But they also moved some prospects and got back some veterans.
All told, they received Griffin Jax, Adrian Houser, Hunter Feduccia, Everson Pereira, Nick Fortes, Brian Van Belle and Jadher Areinamo in exchange for Zack Littell, Taj Bradley, Danny Jansen, Jose Caballero, Curtis Mead, Matthew Etzel, Paul Gervase, Ben Rortvedt, Ben Peoples and Duncan Davitt, while keeping Brandon Lowe and Pete Fairbanks. And it is anybody’s guess as to whether these moves will make them better or worse.Â
Need For More Offense
Concurrent with the news of the deadline day trades, though, was a series of weird occurrences on the field.
In the same game that Caballero suffered the ignominy of being traded to the very same team he was at that moment playing against, and having to walk from one dugout to the other, the Rays also had some freakishly bad luck. Each of Chandler Simpson, Jonathan Aranda and Yandy Diaz left the game in the first five innings through three different and unrelated injuries.
If Aranda and Diaz are to miss any extended period of time, then playing time will open up at the first base and designated hitter positions. None of the incoming players are suited to fit such a role, and Mead’s departure bumps everyone else on the fringes of the Rays’ batting line-up one spot. Even if Aranda and Diaz do not miss any time, there still exists the need for some power in a line-up that peaked more than a month ago, and which will be missing the slugging and eye at the plate of Jansen.
With this in mind, it is probably time for the Rays to call up Triple A slugger extraordinaire, Bob Seymour.
The Rays’ Latest Slugging Prospect
Despite having the name of a 1940s greengrocer, Seymour is in fact a 26-year-old sinistral first baseman and designated hitter out of Wake Forest, who has risen all the way from being the 401st overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft to being on the cusp of the bigs through his sheer volume of extra-base hits.
Unfortunately, Seymour cannot catch. And truth be told, he is not a defensive prospect anywhere. A first baseman by default due to his left-handedness, Seymour is not a strong defender, which is not something the Rays much go for. Mead and the similar Austin Shenton were in large part moved because they lacked a proper defensive position, and in addition to the superior Diaz and Aranda having the designated hitter and first base roles locked up for now, prospects in the pipeline such as Xavier Isaac and Tre Morgan are earmarked for the future. Even with all the deals of this week, Seymour remains largely blocked.
What Seymour can do, though, is hit the ball. Regularly. Repeatedly. And often, very far. His career .881 OPS across the Rays’ minor league system comes with him at every level he reaches, and in 151 games at the AAA level across the last calendar year, it has risen to .904. With the Durham Bulls, Seymour has hit .266 with a .332 on-base percentage in 151 contests, hitting 45 home runs and 27 doubles in 556 at-bats, and on exit velocities approaching warp nine. That is about as much as a power player knocking on the door of the majors can do to prove his case.
Seymour’s path to regular time with the Rays for the future is largely blocked, but for the now, there might be a slither of an opportunity. Given that the team has openly stated it has not given up on the season and is looking for something to turn it around, perhaps they need look no further than internally. It took Aranda a few go-arounds before he put it all together; perhaps it is best to get Seymour’s first audition started as early as possible.
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