Follow Tampa Bay Rays baseball from spring training to the World Series with Marc Topkin, Joe Smith and the St. Petersburg Times sports staff. From Evan Longoria to B.J. Upton and Scott Kazmir, we're your source for Tampa Bay Rays coverage.
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The player to be named later in the Kelly Shoppach trade with Cleveland apparently won't be named until Monday.When the teams made the trade Dec. 1, the Indians said the player "must be selected on or before Dec....
We have turned The Heater blog comments off this evening while we prepare to update our commenting functionality....
Just before 4 p.m. Thursday, Joe Maddon searched the kitchen at the Salvation Army for something to stir his still-too-thick, not-yet-hot-enough tub of spaghetti sauce. Someone handed him a small plastic ladle. Not strong enough, he said...
UPDATE, 2:40: The Chicago Tribune reports the Mariners will pay the Cubs $9 million in the deal, so the Cubs net $6 million in payroll savings by swapping Bradley's $22 million deal over the next two years for Silva's $25 million contract over the same span. UPDATE...
UPDATE, 1:33: The Rays release that they've signed Shealy and INF Joe Dillon, who was with them last year, to minor-league contracts with invitations to spring training...
The Rays completed their coaching staff by hiring Stan Boroski, a longtime coach and scout with Houston, as the assistant to pitching coach Jim Hickey. Boroski takes the job held by Brian Anderson, who will concetrate on the TV analyst role, working 50 games...
The Rays minor-league coaching staff assignments are coming out, and the first to hit the send button were the Class A Charlotte Stone Crabs...
Long-time hitting coach Steve Henderson, let go by the Rays after the season, was hired as the Phillies minor-league outfield/baserunning instructor.Another former Rays coach, Chuck Hernandez, was hired as the pitching coach for the Phillies Gulf Coast League team...
Life in the AL East is never easy, and it may be getting tougher for the Rays if reports that the Red Sox are close to adding RHP John Lackey prove true.Lackey is considered the top free agent pitcher on the market, and adds depth to a Boston rotation that was already pretty good...
The Rays are the featured team tonight on the MLB Network Hot Stove show at 6 p.m., with replays at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. If you want to re-live some of it, MLBN analysts will "go back through the Rays' 2009 season and discuss the team's hitting, defense, starting pitching and bullpen.''
UPDATE, 5:03: All eight have ties to the organization. Three - 1B Chris Richard, RHP Jeff Bennett and RHP Winston Abreu - played in the majors for the Rays last season....
Former Rays 2B Akinori Iwamura took out a full-page ad in Sunday's Times thanking Tampa Bay fans, specifically "for the kindness you have shown me." Iwamura was traded to the Pirates after the season as the Rays decided to not pick up his $4.85-million option....
The Rays crossed another potential arbitration case off their list, agreeing to terms Sunday with RHP Grant Balfour on a 1-year, $2.05-million deal.
UPDATE, 5:27: Choate has agreed to a one-year deal for $700,000, with a $25,000 bonus if he works in 80 games. No word still from the Rays, or the reps, on the other guys. "Obviously I had more success here that I probably had anywhere else in my career,'' Choate said...
Manager Joe Maddon is visiting his hometown of Hazleton, Pa., and dealing with temperatures in the teens. But he was warmed by the addition of closer Rafael Soriano to his bullpen:"We were very fortunate Soriano was available and that we were able to match up with Atlanta...
