With Ryan Pepiot on IL, Taj Bradley ready to join Rays’ rotation
ST. PETERSBURG — Ryan Pepiot really wanted to stay in the Rays rotation, but team officials decided to take a cautious approach and put him on the 15-day injured list due to a left leg bruise.
Doing so cleared a spot for Taj Bradley to be activated off the injured list and make his season debut on Friday against the Yankees, having been sidelined since a mid-spring pectoral muscle strain.
“I’m really excited,” Bradley said. “The time that I took off felt forever when I was there, but looking back it was only two months. And within those two months, I found out some stuff that I could work on being away from the game that I was worried about correcting during the season. So it just give me that time to really just fix some things.”
The Rays have high hopes for Bradley, the 23-year-old who had an up-and-down rookie season last year, going 5-8 with a 5.59 ERA over 23 games (21 starts), striking out 129 in 104⅔ innings. He made two rehab starts for Triple-A Durham after recovering from the strain, allowing one run, two hits and three walks over 11 innings while striking out 15.
“I’ve heard his stuff has been very, very good,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He’s throwing the ball over the plate. He’s controlling the running game. He’s got a lot of confidence with all of his pitches right now, because he knows he’s going to need to mix against the Yankees on Friday.”
He was welcomed back to the dugout with a prank, as teammates secretly affixed a paper cup to his cap.
Pepiot, 26, was forced from Sunday’s game after being struck on the left calf and lower leg by a line drive clocked at 107.5 mph off the bat. With both an X-ray and a more detailed CT scan confirming there was no fracture, he was hoping intense and extensive treatment from the training staff would help him recover quickly enough to pitch this weekend.
But soreness in the calf and bone persisted, and there was also the matter of the colorful bruise and imprints of the seams from the ball on his leg. “There’s pretty much a full seam on the calf and then part of it on my shin,” Pepiot said.
With concern over the impact of Pepiot landing on the leg 90-100 times if he started, and the potential for blowing out the bullpen if he had to leave early in the game, Cash said the Rays opted for what they felt was “a smart thing to do.”
Pepiot was frustrated but understanding.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “I didn’t have very good acrobatics trying to get out of the way of it. Tried everything we could to make it happen, but I don’t want to leave the team in a bad position.”
With the IL backdated to Monday, Pepiot could return as soon as May 21. And he knows it could have been worse.
“I’m lucky,” he said. “If it hit an inch over, I’d be in a cast right now.”
Rehab report
Closer Pete Fairbanks, who threw a two-hit inning Tuesday in his first rehab outing for Triple-A Durham, will pitch again Thursday and be re-evaluated for a return. He is out with a nerve-related condition. ... Second baseman Brandon Lowe hit a grand slam Wednesday in a 1-for-2, two-walk second game. ... Jonathan Aranda was 1-for-2 with two walks in his ninth rehab game.
Miscellany
Jose Siri started in centerfield and went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, after sitting out the previous two games in what now seems a job share with Jonny DeLuca. ... Isaac Paredes extended his home-game on-base streak to 19 games with a fourth-inning double. .... The St. Petersburg City Council on Thursday will hold the first of two lengthy workshops on the Historic Gas Plant District plan, focusing first on the redevelopment project then in two weeks on the Rays stadium. A vote is expected in June.
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