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Rays sign former Red Sox infielder to minor league deal

Jamie Westbrook had a cameo with the Red Sox last season and now latches on with the Rays hoping to fight his way to their major league roster.
ByCarter Brantley|
Westbrook unfortunately didn't do much with his brief major league time last season, but the Rays bring him to Spring Training with a chance to prove that he deserves to be a depth piece in their system.
Westbrook unfortunately didn't do much with his brief major league time last season, but the Rays bring him to Spring Training with a chance to prove that he deserves to be a depth piece in their system. | Winslow Townson/GettyImages

No, not Russell, but Jamie Westbrook has been signed to a minor league deal with the Rays.

The former Red Sox second baseman (for 21 games in 2024) agreed to take his chances with the Rays to make his way back to the majors.

Last season, he made his major league debut at the age of 29, which is a very rare feat for a minor league veteran who's bounced between the Diamondbacks, Brewers, Tigers, Yankees, Red Sox, and now the Rays systems.

He was drafted out of high school by the Diamondbacks in the 5th round of the 2013 draft as a local Arizona native.

Westbrook managed to hit at an above average clip at every level of the minors from 2017 until he was called up last season in every organization he played for (except for a slight dip to a 97 wRC+ with Detroit's AAA team in 2022).

He posted a solid 2024 with the Red Sox' AAA team, managing a .277/.369/.450 slash line while playing second base.

His under-the-hood metrics suggest that much of that production stemmed from a solid ability to put bat on ball, with whiff and k-rates that ranked top 20% at the AAA level.

Unfortunately that didn't lead to much major-league success, with Westbrook striking out nearly 30% of the time in the bigs and a .313 xwOBA, not suggesting that he was getting unlucky with the pitches he did manage to put in play.

He provided average defense at second base and 34th percentile sprint speed to go with a -0.8 baserunning runs rate.

That all added up to a -0.2 WAR; in other words, basically a perfect replacement player.

Jamie Westbrook
Westbrook wasn't exactly killing it defensively at second with the Red Sox, but he also wasn't actively costing them, as he was perfectly average at the spot. | Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/GettyImages

But hey, crazy things can happen with the Rays, and unlikely heroes emerge from everywhere, even in the form of a 5'7 almost 30-year-old second baseman.

The Rays infield is pretty crowded at the moment with the talented Australian infielder Curtis Mead still on the fence with making the Opening Day roster. It would take a miracle for Westbrook to break camp with the big league club as he's in currently in line with USF product Coco Montes. However, the long-time minor leaguer will be able to continue improving his craft at the Triple-A level.

Nonetheless, we love a good baseball story, so let's hope he can somehow make a difference on the Rays roster in 2025.

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