Rays to attempt using 4-man rotation in 2018

While teams like the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels are considering using six-man rotations this season, the Tampa Bay Rays are taking a completely different approach to their starting pitching.

The Rays will attempt to use a four-man rotation throughout the 2018 season, manager Kevin Cash told reporters Wednesday morning. The plan will be to have Chris Archer, Blake Snell, Nathan Eovaldi and Jake Faria pitch in typical starter roles while every fifth day will be a "bullpen day," where multiple relief pitchers go through the order once.

"Our plan, we're not going to five," Cash said. "We're going to try to stay at four. We're going to have some bullpen days in there. We're going to try and do that for a long period of time. We're going to learn a lot in the first six weeks."

The Rays had originally planned to use a four-man rotation to begin the season when they have more days off. But Cash is now looking to keep that strategy in place for the duration of the year.

Several pitchers on the Rays' 40-man depth chart that are lined up for bullpen roles despite major league starting experience include Matt Andriese, Anthony Banda, Yonny Chirinos and Austin Pruitt. The Rays could also lean on call-ups from Triple-A more often in order to cycle in fresh arms.

"It's a reflection of who we have available," Cash said. "We feel like we have a lot of good pitchers and we want to get them all their reps and not limit somebody, not get use out of that guy that gets kind of odd man out by not being in the rotation."

The Rays lost a potential long-relief option in Jose De Leon after the promising right-hander tore his UCL and is headed to see Dr. James Andrews for a second opinion, the team announced Wednesday. De Leon is likely headed for Tommy John surgery, like Tampa Bay top prospect Brent Honeywell needed earlier this spring.

Tampa Bay also traded starter Jake Odorizzi, won started 126 games over the past four seasons, to the Minnesota Twins last month.

Also of note with regard to the Rays' rotation candidates, Eovaldi is coming back from his second Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2017, and Snell averaged roughly 5 1/3 innings per start in the majors last season.

--Field Level Media