Rays Notes: Worrying About Longo, Keppinger, Farnsworth, Roster Moves, Draft Signings

We talked earlier today about the bunch of Rays rehabbing in the minor leagues. Unfortunately, at the forefront of that is the news about Evan Longoria, who left the game after just one at-bat after experiencing discomfort in the hamstring that he tore on April 31st and has sidelined him since. This tweet from the TB Times’ Joe Smith sent a shock through Rays fans everywhere.

Longoria is going to rejoin the Rays to continue his rehab as the trainers and doctors try to figure out what went wrong. Hopefully this only sets him back a couple of days and he’ll be back soon.

A couple of other rehabbing big leaguers, Jeff Keppinger and Kyle Farnsworth, made rehab appearances without anything going wrong, as I discussed earlier. Keppinger went 2 for 4, and Farnsworth had quite an outing, not in terms of performance but in terms of just how statistically strange his performance was. Please check that out.

The Rays have 24 men on their roster and will have to make a move after sending down reliever Brandon Gomes after Sunday’s game, who made appearances on Friday and Saturday, allowing 1 run in 3 innings but that run was the deciding run in the 15th inning of Saturday’s (into Sunday) Marathon. Keppinger may be a player who the Rays will consider for that spot, but they were likely call up another reliever. Two names to throw out are Dane De La Rosa, who has already made a big league appearance this season, and Bryan Augenstein, who has allowed just 1 earned run with a 26-2 strikeout to walk ratio in 20 innings at Triple-A. Reid Brignac could also be an option after his hot streak at Triple-A.

And we close with a couple more draft signings: 26th round RHP Jason Wilson and 33rd round RHP Luke Goodgion. I discussed both pitchers as interesting upside plays late in the draft thanks to their electric arsenals. For scouting reports on every Rays 2012 Draft Pick, please check out our Rays 2012 Draft Profiles page here at RCG.