Tampa Bay Rays: Nate Lowe, Brendan McKay left off 30-man roster

ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 21: Nate Lowe #35 of the Tampa Bay Rays gets a water cooler bath after a 2-run walk-off against the Boston Red Sox in the eleventh inning of a baseball game at Tropicana Field on September 21, 2019 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 21: Nate Lowe #35 of the Tampa Bay Rays gets a water cooler bath after a 2-run walk-off against the Boston Red Sox in the eleventh inning of a baseball game at Tropicana Field on September 21, 2019 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) /
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The Tampa Bay Rays announced their 30-man roster for Opening Day. Here are a couple of noteworthy names that were left off.

The Tampa Bay Rays have set their 30-man roster with the start of the season set for tomorrow night against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The roster does have a few surprises on it. Mike Brosseau managed to beat out Daniel Robertson as a utility player off the bench.

After the Rays placed left-handed reliever Colin Poche on the 45-day IL with a torn UCL, they added Ryan Thompson to the active roster.

Tampa will roll with 16 pitchers and 14 hitters for the first two weeks of the season, until the roster size reduces to 28 men.

Tampa Bay Rays – 30-Man Roster

Starting Pitchers

  1. Charlie Morton
  2. Ryan Yarbrough
  3. Tyler Glasnow
  4. Blake Snell
  5. Yonny Chirinos

Relief Pitchers

  1. Nick Anderson
  2. Diego Castillo
  3. Jose Alvarado
  4. Oliver Drake
  5. Trevor Richards
  6. Chaz Roe
  7. Ryan Thompson
  8. Jalen Beeks
  9. Anthony Banda
  10. Pete Fairbanks
  11. Aaron Loup
  12. Andrew Kittredge

Catchers

  1. Mike Zunino
  2. Michael Perez
  3. Kevan Smith

Infielders

  1. Ji-Man Choi
  2. Jose Martinez
  3. Brandon Lowe
  4. Joey Wendle
  5. Willy Adames
  6. Mike Brosseau
  7. Yandy Diaz

Outfielders

  1. Kevin Kiermaier
  2. Hunter Renfroe
  3. Yoshitomo Tsutsugo
  4. Manuel Margot

Conspicuously absent from the list are names like slugger Nate Lowe and top prospect Brendan McKay. The Rays have a comfortable amount of left-handed bats and unsurprisingly, they have opted to go with more pitchers in a shortened season.

Brendan McKay‘s predicament is a little more curious. He has been absent from summer camp but there has been no word of a positive COVID-19 test. Instead of being sent to the injured list, he has been assigned to the alternate training site.

The team hasn’t provided any information on McKay’s status.

Next. Time to worry about Blake Snell?. dark

Austin Meadows still has no clear timetable for a return from his bout with COVID-19 and Randy Arozarena was assigned to the alternate training site and then transferred to the injured list.