Tampa Bay Rays: Seven acquisitions since trade with Cardinals

The Tampa Bay Rays have certainly had a busy off-season. They traded a star player and added several key pieces for the 2020 run. We provide a quick rundown of seven players they’ve signed since the big trade with the Cardinals.

The Tampa Bay Rays have had a busy off-season between 2019 and 2020.

It started with sending Tommy Pham to San Diego for Hunter Renfroe and prospect Xavier Edwards.

They followed that up with signing Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, the Japanese slugging superstar to a two-year deal.

Then they dipped into their vast minor league pitching depth to acquire two impact bats from the right side. They added more offense than they lost and gave the signal to the fans that they were in it to win it in 2020.

In addition to the trades and acquisitions, the Rays said good-bye to Jesus Aguilar, Guillermo Heredia, and Matt Duffy.

Since the trade with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Rays have also made several (less headline worth) acquisitions in preparation for spring training and the minor league seasons.

The following players have been signed to minor league contracts by the Tampa Bay Rays since the 01/09/2019 trade of Matthew Liberatore for Jose Martinez and Randy Arozarena.

• RHP Angel German
• RHP Aaron Slegers – invite to spring training
• OF Ryan LaMarre – invite to spring training
• LHP D.J. Snelten – invite to spring training
• C Kevan Smith – invite to spring training
• C Chris Herrmann – invite to spring training
• 1B Conrad Gregor

In addition to the minor league contracts, in response to the trade of Matthew Liberatore for Randy Arozarena and Jose Martinez, the Tampa Bay Rays opened up a spot on the 40-man roster by trading Austin Pruitt to his hometown of Houston for RHP Peyton Battenfield and OF Cal Stevenson.