Former top prospect non-tendered by Rockies could fit well in Rays infield

With the Rays' uncertain stadium situation, combined with their usual "frugal" approach to free agency, they might have to delve even further into the bargain bins than usual to fill out their roster depth.

That's where recently non-tendered middle infielder, Brendan Rodgers enters the conversation.

Once considered a top prospect in the Rockies' minor league system, the now 28-year-old hasn't lived up to expectations.

Rodgers has struggled to put it together at the plate on a consistent basis, but in 2022 the Lake Mary High School product managed to post a 94 wRC+ with some encouraging quality of contact metrics, with a 45.9% hard-hit rate and a 90 MPH average exit velocity for the season.

He might not ever replicate that, as he's fallen to 78 and 88 marks in wRC+ over the past couple of seasons with matching subpar under-the-hood numbers to boot.

Where he could really earn his pay is as a lefty-hitting specialist, with peaks of 144 and 141 wRC+ marks against southpaws in '21 and '22, and a 117 mark this past season.

Brandon Lowe is (for now) still on the Rays roster, and they could certainly use Rodgers to offset Lowe's struggles both against lefties and to stay healthy.

A big concern with Rodgers (as with any former Rockies position player) is how much the Coors effect boosted his numbers. Even though wRC+ is park-adjusted, it's difficult for many teams to buy into any type of production from Colorado hitters due to the severe nature of their home park's scoring environment.

This concern may be overblown, but there are a few years where Rodgers' production on the road took a steep drop versus when at home, specifically the last couple of seasons.

But despite his ceiling as an average hitter overall, his main calling card so far has been his ability to provide above-average defense at second base, something he showed in droves in that 2022 season but hasn't been able to recreate.

After a 3 Outs Above Average mark for that year he's decreased in the past 2 years, falling to a rough -3 this past year in that category.

With Rodgers' arm strength continuing to rank near the bottom of the majors according to Baseball Savant, the days of him being considered a shortstop are behind him, which limits his ceiling a good bit, but the idea of him being a depth infield option who could be an emergency shortstop isn't super far-fetched or out of left field.

He played short quite a bit coming up and has racked up over 200 innings at the position in the majors over his 6-year career.

With the Rays not having a whole lot of options other than their internal guys, Rodgers would be a fine minor league contract addition as an emergency option in case of under performance or injury from guys they project as regulars.

The limited minor league roster spots may make this a bit more difficult than it has been in years past, but the Rays may determine his upside is worth the risk.