Rays vs Blue Jays Rosters Set
The Tampa Bay Rays announced their 28-man roster for their upcoming best-of-three Wild Card series with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The roster includes a return from the injured list of Yandy Diaz, Ji-Man Choi, as well as the surprising addition of left-handed pitcher Shane McClanahan who will be making his big league debut in the postseason.
Diaz and Choi are both returning from hamstrings injuries and have been diligent in their rehab to make it back for the postseason.
The right handed hitting Diaz played in 34 games and was batting .307/.428/.386 when he hurt the hamstring in New York against the Yankees on August 31st.
The left handed hitting Choi played in 42 games and was batting .230/.331/.410 when he hurt his hamstring against the Boston Red Sox on September 12th while running the bases.
McClanahan, 23, was the 31st pick of the first round of the 2018 draft out of the University of South Florida. Heading into the 2020 campaign he was rated as the 83rd best prospect Baseball America and the 71st top prospect by Baseball Prospectus. The MLB pipeline rated him as the 99th best prospect and the 6th best prospect on the Rays Top 30 list.
McClanahan was 11-6 with a 3.36 ERA spanning three levels (A, A+, and AA) in 2020. He was impressive in spring training and in the summer camp.
While the 100-mph heater McClanahan flashed in college likely represents his peak velocity, the athletic southpaw does throw very hard consistently. He’ll sit at 95-98 mph early in starts, operating in the upper bands of that velocity range before losing a bit of steam deeper in games. The pitch plays up due to its late life and it helps McClanahan gets whiffs in the zone, though his overall fastball command requires more refinement. A hard slider with sharp biting action gives McClanahan a second big league-caliber swing-and-miss pitch and scouts believe his changeup will be at least average once fully developed.
To make room on the 40-man roster for McClanahan, the Rays designated for assignment left-hander Sean Gilmartin.
To make room for Choi, Diaz, and McClanahan on the 28-man roster the Rays removed Josh Fleming, Ryan Sherriff, and Kevan Smith. All three remain eligible to rejoin the Rays in later series should the team advance.
The Rays Roster:
