Rays sign former Red Sox pitching prospect, Nationals catcher to minor league deals

The Rays added another starting pitching option to bolster their depth in that department, this time via a minor league free agent.

Connor Seabold was once regarded as a decent, back-end type starting pitching prospect for the Red Sox before making his debut with Boston in 2021.

He bounced back and forth between Triple-A and the majors in 2022 before ending up spending a full season with the Rockies, where Coors Field did an absolute number on his production.

In that 2023 season in Colorado, he threw 87 innings and ended up with a 5.75 FIP in the brutal pitching environment.

After such an experience, Seabold ended up with the Samsung Lions in the KBO, throwing 160 innings with a sub-3.50 ERA.

He's hoping to be able to return to the majors and capitalize on some of that success.

While he was with the Rockies in 2023, where he had his most innings thrown in the majors at the age of 27, he struggled in most areas except limiting walks, which he was able to do at a decent rate of 6.9%.

The good news for the Rays is that there does seem to be something to work with in Seabold, as he posted a decent 109 Stuff+ mark with his curveball despite only throwing it 2% of the time with the Rockies.

His changeup and slider, the 2 offspeed options he depended on the most that year, rated out as fairly average, with his changeup having quite a bit of run and his slider coming in at 97 on the Stuff+ scale.

The solution for him would be to decrease his fastball usage by quite a bit, as the pitch came in at 89 MPH on average in 2023 and was one of the worst four-seamers in baseball that year by run value.

Unfortunately, Seabold faces a bit of an uphill battle for major league innings, with the Rays having a full starting rotation (and then some) as well as a fairly fleshed-out bullpen.

Rays sign catcher Tres Barrera to a minor league deal

In seemingly a tandem move, the Rays also acquired 30-year old catcher Tres Barrera. The Texas native spent the 2024 season in the Mexican League and was able to put up some respectable statistics. He slashed .258/.333/.421 with six home runs in 50 games. Those numbers would definitely play in the big leagues over that span of time, especially for his position.

However, his limited MLB time hasn't warranted the same results as he's accumulated only 33 hits in four major league seasons. Nonetheless, the success in Mexico could at least give him the opportunity to be a solid depth option in the Rays farm system. It'll be interesting to watch both of these players in spring training as they try to restore their careers.