{"id":641297,"date":"2026-03-24T20:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/641297\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T20:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:32:18","slug":"rays-to-place-ryan-pepiot-on-injured-list-carson-williams-to-break-camp-at-shortstop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/641297\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays To Place Ryan Pepiot On Injured List; Carson Williams To Break Camp At Shortstop"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rays will place right-hander Ryan Pepiot<\/a> on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his right hip, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>. He\u2019s not expected to be out long. With Pepiot sidelined, fellow righty Joe Boyle<\/a> will be brought back after previously being optioned to Triple-A Durham. Boyle will begin the year in the rotation. Topkin adds that top shortstop prospect Carson Williams<\/a>, who\u2019d previously been optioned, will now open the season as the Rays\u2019 shortstop after Taylor Walls<\/a> hit the injured list<\/a>. That was the expected outcome, though the Rays were at least open to the idea of bringing in some outside help.<\/p>\n

Pepiot, 28, has been a solid mid-rotation arm for Tampa Bay for the past two seasons after coming to the Rays in the trade that sent Tyler Glasnow<\/a> to Los Angeles. He\u2019s pitched a total of 297 2\/3 innings with a 3.75 ERA, a 25.4% strikeout rate and an 8.9% walk rate. Pepiot missed time in 2024 after taking a comebacker off his leg and later developing an infection in his right knee \u2014 the two weren\u2019t related \u2014 but tossed a career-high 167 2\/3 innings in a career-high 31 starts in 2025. Since all IL stints can be backdated up to three days (if the player hasn\u2019t been in a game in those three days), Pepiot is only guaranteed to miss the first 12 days of the season.<\/p>\n

Boyle, 26, is one of the game\u2019s tallest and hardest-throwing pitchers. Listed at a massive 6\u20198\u2033 and 250 pounds, he averaged 98.5 mph on his heater last season even while working primarily as a starter. He joined the Rays as part of the return in the trade sending Jeffrey Springs<\/a> to the Athletics. In 52 innings last year, Boyle logged a 4.67 ERA, 25.7% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate. He was dominant in the minors, yielding only a 1.88 ERA in 86 Triple-A frames. This spring, Boyle turned in a solid 3.72 ERA with a huge 34% strikeout rate but a troublesome 17% walk rate. Boyle will now start the second game of the Rays\u2019 season, Topkin notes; righty Nick Martinez<\/a>, who signed a one-year deal worth $13MM this winter, will be pushed back a couple games to a minor hamstring issue.<\/p>\n

As for Williams, he\u2019ll hope to take this unexpected opportunity and run with it. There\u2019s little doubt about the former first-round pick\u2019s defensive acumen or raw power. Scouts laud him as a plus defender at shortstop, and he belted 28 home runs in 557 plate appearances between Triple-A and a brief major league debut last year. He\u2019s generally considered one of the sport\u2019s top 100 prospects, due in no small part to the relatively high floor created by his glove and plus power.<\/p>\n

The question regarding Williams is whether he\u2019ll make enough contact to emerge as an above-average starter or be more of a low-end regular or even a power-and-defense utility option. He fanned in a massive 41.5% of his 106 major league plate appearances last year. That alone wouldn\u2019t be terribly alarming for a small-sample set of plate appearances by a 22-year-old, but Williams also went down on strikes in 34% of his Triple-A plate appearances. He punched out at a 28.5% clip in Double-A in 2024 and a 31.4% clip across three levels in 2023.<\/p>\n

Williams has taken a total of 2217 professional plate appearances since being drafted 28th overall in 2021 and has struck out in 32% of them. He\u2019s highly unlikely to ever hit for a high average, but Williams has also walked in 11.4% of his professional plate appearances. If he can continue to walk in more than 10% of his plate appearances, hit for power and play defense, than a batting average in the .210 to .230 range won\u2019t necessarily be a dealbreaker. With Walls down for several weeks due to an oblique strain, Williams will get the chance to solidify himself in manager Kevin Cash<\/a>\u2018s infield.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay also finalized its bullpen, per Topkin<\/a>. Right-hander Hunter Bigge<\/a> was optioned to Triple-A, leaving lefty Ian Seymour<\/a> and righties Mason Englert<\/a>, Yoendrys G\u00f3mez<\/a>, Kevin Kelly<\/a> and Cole Sulser<\/a> to claim the final five spots behind veterans Griffin Jax<\/a>, Bryan Baker<\/a> and Garrett Cleavinger<\/a>. Righty Edwin Uceta<\/a> is already known to be starting the season on the injured list<\/a> due to shoulder troubles.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, righty Jake Woodford<\/a> triggered the upward mobility clause in his minor league deal with Tampa Bay. It\u2019s not yet clear whether he\u2019ll be added by another club or if the Rays will keep him as depth to keep on hand in Durham. Woodford had a strong spring (one run, 5-to-2 K\/BB ratio, 45.5% grounder rate in 7 1\/3 innings) and has pitched in each of the past six big league seasons. He has a 5.10 ERA inn 256 big league frames and has worked as both a starter and long reliever in his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays will place right-hander Ryan Pepiot on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,17802,7882,11623,21295,18680,12626,16408,7533,761,1956,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-641297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-carson-williams","10":"tag-cole-sulser","11":"tag-hunter-bigge","12":"tag-ian-seymour","13":"tag-jake-woodford","14":"tag-joe-boyle","15":"tag-kevin-kelly","16":"tag-mason-englert","17":"tag-nick-martinez","18":"tag-ryan-pepiot","19":"tag-yoendrys-gomez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116286059269129190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641297","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=641297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}