Rays Pitcher and Catcher Workouts Day 5: News and Notes
It’s the last day of pitcher/catcher workouts in Port Charlotte before full team workouts begin on Tuesday. The formal arrival of Collin McHugh and Chaz Roe was most notable on Monday. We will have a separate blog post about what it means for the pitching staff and the depth currently built up.
No-Brainer:
Roe returning to Tampa Bay was an easy decision once he became fully healthy.
“This is one of the best organizations I’ve been with hands down,” Roe said in a media Zoom call. “There’s a lot of good people here from the staff down to the players so the decision was easy to come back for sure.”
Roe hurt his elbow in August and then rested and rehabbed throughout the playoffs. As happy as he was for his teammates and the organization, it was tough to watch from home in Kentucky.
“It was tough to watch not being there for sure, especially being with this group of guys and the way they went about their business and not being there to support them or help them out,” Roe said.
If Charlie’s says he’s OK …
Kevin Cash says Charlie Morton spoke glowingly about the type of person McHugh is before he signed with Tampa Bay.
“(He) raved about him as a person and said really nice things,” said Cash. “And if you’re getting compliments from a guy like Charlie you’re in a pretty good spot.”
McHugh says the compliments were similar from Morton and others about the Rays.
“The glowing remarks that people have to say about this team and this organization, this city, it speaks volumes about what this team has been able to do,” McHugh said. “And obviously the success that they’ve had in the last few years, last year obviously they were incredibly fun to watch.”
Francisco’s Focus
Catcher Francisco Mejia, traded to the Rays in the off-season, was a bit surprised about the trade from San Diego at first. But he’s excited about the opportunity in Tampa Bay.
“I’ve had a lot of opportunities,” said the 25-year-old Mejia through team translator Manny Navarro. “Now it’s time to capitalize and taken advantage of these opportunities and I’m going to be here to work.”
Mejia says he has watched a lot of video on the pitching staff, and went through the World Series games, and his focus will be on helping the team as much as he can defensively while having patient at-bats. Mejia says he went through a trying season in 2020, losing his father, but is excited about the new beginning with the Rays.
“I have goals that I want to be able to achieve and continue on and become a good player,” said Mejia, whose father introduced him to baseball. “It’s a goal of mine to continue to become as good as I can for him.”
Cash says third base coach Rodney Linares has seen plenty of Mejia in winter ball and believes he can be a big help.
“We know this, two years ago he was basically the best catching prospect in baseball,” said Cash. (Linares) said you don’t see many arms like his as far as arm strength behind the plate.”
Meadows Muscles Up:
After a challenging 2020 where he battled through injuries and COVID, Cash says that Austin Meadows “looks awesome” physically upon his arrival in camp.
“Really proud of Austin for working really hard this offseason, said Cash. “You can see that.”
Cash says Meadows wasn’t the only person who impressed among the position players.
“Looking at all the guys, they all look in really good shape,” Cash said. “They hit on the fields and they looked to be in mid-season form that first round of batting practice.”
Twelve Six:
McHugh who said he came close to joining the Rays last year before signing with Boston, says he picked Tampa Bay because of proximity to his home in Atlanta, but also because the Rays get the most out of their pitchers.
McHugh, who was on some of the successful Astros teams, has also had success off the field with his “Twelve Six” podcast. McHugh says quarantine made it a little bit harder, but he hopes to pick it up again at some point. When asked who he might want to interview on the Rays, he chose Chris Archer.
“He’s got one of the best personalities in baseball I think and he’s got a really good story at this point, and full circle especially, being able to come back here,” McHugh said.
