{"id":639082,"date":"2026-03-23T15:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/639082\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:29:11","slug":"gavin-lux-to-begin-season-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/639082\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Lux To Begin Season On Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rays will be without Gavin Lux<\/a> to begin the season. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times<\/a> reports that Lux will begin the season on the 10-day injured list due to a right shoulder impingement. Richie Palacios<\/a> had been optioned a few days ago but will now make the Opening Day roster in place of Lux.<\/p>\n

Lux didn\u2019t get to have much of a spring training. He was delayed by some oblique soreness earlier on and then his right shoulder became \u201ccranky\u201d in recent days, in the words of manager Kevin Cash<\/a>, per Topkin<\/a>. Around those issues, he got into just seven Grapefruit League contests and hit .190\/.190\/.238.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the shoulder is still bugging him or the Rays want Lux to spend more time getting into a groove on a rehab assignment, as opposed to playing at the big league level. Whatever the reasoning, the Rays are starting the season with both of their planned middle infielders on the shelf. Shortstop Taylor Walls<\/a> has a right oblique issue and will miss the first three or four weeks of the season.<\/p>\n

The Rays acquired Lux in the offseason and had planned on him being their everyday second baseman. With the Reds last year, he put up roughly league average offense while bouncing around the diamond, spending time at second base, third base and left field. The Rays opened second base when they traded Brandon Lowe<\/a> to the Pirates. They acquired Lux and expressed confidence that the best path forward for him was to be planted at the keystone, as opposed to moving around to different spots.<\/p>\n

That plan will now be on pause for the time being. At this point, there\u2019s nothing to indicate this is a major issue. Opening Day IL stints can be backdated by three days, so it\u2019s possible Lux only misses a week to start the season.<\/p>\n

The middle infield feels like a weak spot for the Rays. Walls was going to be the shortstop, despite the fact that he hasn\u2019t hit in his career. His injury has seemingly opened the door for Carson Williams<\/a> to get some reps at short. Williams has notable skills but massive strikeout issues. There\u2019s also some playing time open at second base now, with guys like Palacios, Ben Williamson<\/a> and Ryan Vilade<\/a> in the mix there. Jadher Areinamo<\/a> is on the 40-man but hasn\u2019t yet played at the Triple-A level, so the Rays presumably want to keep him on optional assignment.<\/p>\n

Until Lux and\/or Walls come back, that appears to be the middle infield group. With other teams making their final roster decisions ahead of Opening Day, some players will become available by being released, opting out of their contracts or getting put on waivers. Even before these injuries, the Rays felt like they needed a bit more middle infield depth. They acquired guys like Tsung-Che Cheng<\/a> and Brett Wisely<\/a> during the offseason but couldn\u2019t hold them. It wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see them adding a guy or two in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays will be without Gavin Lux to begin the season. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,730,4,11781],"class_list":{"0":"post-639082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-gavin-lux","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-richie-palacios"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}