Wade Davis placed on the DL, Sonnanstine Sent Down

Just a few transactions to analyze before the All-Star break comes up tomorrow.

Wade Davis was placed on the disabled list with a forearm strain. If there was a perfect time for one of your back-end of the rotation starters to miss some time, it’s now. The Rays technically wouldn’t need him until the week after the All-Star Game. He won’t be eligible to come off the DL by then, so I imagine Alex Cobb will make an appearance before being sent back down. Brandon Gomes was brought up to add another man to the bullpen.

After today’s game, the Rays sent down Andy Sonnanstine and recalled Brandon Guyer. Guyer appeared in one game earlier this year and homered in his first big league at bat. Then he was sent back down. This gives the Rays another corner outfielder and more importantly, he bats right-handed. Tomorrow, against C.C. Sabathia, the Rays will stack the lineup with right-handers. Maybe both Justin Ruggiano and Guyer will start. The other option would be to put Ben Zobrist in right field and use Sean Rodriguez at second base. This will probably be another one game appearance for Guyer.

Sonnanstine has barely gotten any work lately which is a testament to how deep Rays’ starters have been going into the games. Also, Joe Maddon just doesn’t think that Sonnanstine can do anything but provide mop-up duty. We’ll see what becomes of Sonny down at Triple-A. He’s an easy guy to root for, but of course only when he is getting major league hitters out.