Rays trim roster by telling Uwasawa, 5 others they won’t make team

PORT CHARLOTTE — Though Friday’s game was rained out, the Rays continued to progress toward setting their 26-man opening day roster.

Six players in camp on minor-league contracts were told they won’t make the major-league team to start the season, including Japanese right-hander Naoyuki Uwasawa.

The other five are catchers Rob Brantly and Francisco Mejia, outfielder Jake Mangum and right-handed relievers Joe Record and Burch Smith.

Three of the players, including Uwasawa, have assignment clauses that allow them to seek a big-league job elsewhere, with the Rays either having to put them on their roster or let them go if they do. The others are Brantly and Smith.

Manager Kevin Cash said the Rays would like to keep all six in the organization to provide depth that is likely to be needed.

“Some of them have some outs in their contracts that they have to work through their agent, but we definitely like all of them to stay in (Triple-A) Durham and feel like they could help us throughout the course of the season,” he said.

Final roster decisions are not expected until next week, with the 26-man list due at noon on Thursday, four hours before the season opener versus Toronto.

The Rays, having lost four players to spring injuries, are deciding on the final starter and bullpen spots (likely two from the group of Tyler Alexander, Kevin Kelly and Jacob Waguespack) and a second catcher.

The decisions on Brantly and Mejia would seem to make Alex Jackson likely to be added to the roster as the backup to catcher Rene Pinto.

Though Jackson, 28, has appeared to be the leading candidate all spring, the 2014 first-round pick by Seattle has caught only 55 games in the big leagues. So it is possible the Rays could seek a more experienced option this weekend as other teams make their cuts.

Similarly, the Rays could look outside for a proven bat as a replacement for lefty-swinging first baseman/DH Jonathan Aranda, who broke his right ring finger and will miss four to six weeks.

Among experienced options who became free agents on Friday were Eduardo Escobar; Mike Ford, who spent part of 2021 at Durham; and Dominic Smith.

The Rays also have an in-house option in Austin Shenton, who had been optioned to the minors on March 11, and will take another look at him over the next few days. Shenton is slated to play first base in the Port Charlotte exhibition Saturday.

Shenton, 26, was added to the 40-man roster in November after a tremendous season split between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham, hitting .304 with 29 homers, 99 RBIs and a 1.007 OPS in 134 games.

Starter Jake Odorizzi, the 33-year-old veteran of 11 seasons, had the right on Friday to opt out of the minor-league contract he signed March 15.

But given he has yet to throw in a game, he is expected to stay with the Rays to continue his buildup at least into next week. Whether he would go to Triple-A Durham or seek an opportunity elsewhere is unclear.

Uwasawa was a three-time All-Star in Japan with Nippon, but signed a minor-league deal with the Rays because he wanted to work with their pitching coach, Kyle Snyder, and the staff he had heard so much good about.

After a rough start to the spring in which he dealt with several adjustments to the major-league game, including the ball, pitch clock, between-innings timer and five-day schedule, Uwasawa has pitched better, including in a minor-league game on Thursday. In four major-league spring games, he is 0-1, 13.03.

“He made a nice adjustment after his first two outings; we anticipated there would be some challenges,” Cash said. “He really got the split going. (Thursday’s) outing everybody was encouraged by. (Baseball operations president Erik Neander) was on the back fields and said that there was just a lot of separation (between his pitches).

“He did some splits that dropped that looked like curveballs. So that pitch is a pitch that I know him and Kyle worked hard on, maybe altering the grip a little bit, and it seems to have taken off.”

The Rays went into Friday with 45 players on the camp roster.

They look to have nine opening the season on the major-league injured list (Aranda, Shane Baz, Taj Bradley, Jonny DeLuca, Josh Lowe, Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs, Taylor Walls) and another (Yu Chang) on the Durham IL. Plus Wander Franco (who is expected to be moved off the 40-man roster to the restricted or administrative leave list).

Taking off the six who were told they won’t make the team, they would have 28 left, including Odorizzi, Erasmo Ramirez (who declined to use his March 20 out clause and is headed to Durham) and Jackson.

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