After a flurry of moves by the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, the team is starting to take shape, and how the 40-man roster will look in 2026 is becoming clearer.
Even though the offseason has just started, the Rays have already been a very active team. Tampa Bay made a bunch of moves on Tuesday night to begin to get the framework of their roster in place. This is a team that is hoping to bounce back from a bad second half of the season, and they have a strong core of talent in place to accomplish that.
However, even though the Rays had a positive run differential in 2025, they finished eight games under .500 in the very challenging American League East. The division isn’t going to be getting any easier, and Tampa Bay is going to have to make some improvements if they want to be a contender.
With a couple of positions of need, it will be interesting to see how the Rays look to allocate their assets across a few different areas. One position that has been talked about as a place where they could use some help is at catcher. However, with options usually limited, they could look to an internal option to help improve.
Dominic Keegan Could Be the Answer at Catcher
George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA TODAY NETWORK
Currently, the plan seems to be for Tampa Bay to use a combination of Hunter Feduccia and Nick Fortes behind the plate. Both of those players got opportunities to start in 2025, but the results weren’t great. Due to the struggles of these two, especially on offense, it is easy to understand why catcher feels like a position they should be looking to improve.
However, if they are going to seek external options, there aren’t going to be many to choose from in free agency. With that being said, the trade market will also likely be limited. It is hard to acquire a good catcher, with teams usually not allowing them to leave.
If the team is unable to get help from the outside, they will have to look from within. Recently, catcher Dominic Keegan was moved to the 40-man roster, which could be an indication that he is going to be in the mix.
Keegan is an excellent offensive catcher and has been working hard to improve defensively. It’s fair to say that he could get a shot to make the Opening Day roster with a strong spring, and he could end up being precisely what the team needs at the position.
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