{"id":720844,"date":"2026-06-08T19:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/720844\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T19:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T19:51:15","slug":"rays-make-veteran-outfield-addition-ahead-of-red-sox-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/720844\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Make Veteran Outfield Addition Ahead of Red Sox Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> are calling up a much-needed right-handed hitting reinforcement for their lineup.<\/p>\n

The Rays are reportedly calling up veteran outfielder Austin Slater<\/a> ahead of their series against the Boston Red Sox<\/a>, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.<\/p>\n

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The Rays signed Slater to a minor league contract on May 27 after the New York Mets<\/a> designated him for assignment.<\/p>\n

In his limited opportunities with Triple-A Durham, Slater has performed extremely well. In 28 plate appearances, he is hitting .348\/.464\/.696 with one home run, five doubles, and a 195 wRC+.<\/p>\n

The timing of Slater’s promotion comes as the Rays prepare to face several left-handed starters over the next week. That stretch begins tonight against Connelly Early<\/a> and continues tomorrow against Payton Tolle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The corresponding move for Slater’s promotion is unknown at this time. However, prized outfielder Chandler Simpson<\/a> has missed the last two games with a thumb injury. Tampa Bay<\/a> will also need to make a 40-man roster move to clear space for Slater.<\/p>\n

This will be Slater’s third organization this season after spending time with the Miami Marlins<\/a> and Mets.<\/p>\n

In his limited opportunities with those clubs, Slater struggled. In 43 at-bats, he hit .209\/.286\/.233 with a .519 OPS and just one extra-base hit.<\/p>\n

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However, Slater has never really been an everyday player. Instead, he has built a reputation for hitting left-handed pitching. For his career, Slater is batting .263 against southpaws with a .772 OPS and a 115 wRC+.<\/p>\n

Slater has bounced around since spending seven seasons with the San Francisco Giants<\/a>. In fact, when he makes his Rays debut, it will be the eighth organization he has played for over the last three seasons.<\/p>\n

For a Tampa Bay team that doesn’t have many offensive stars outside of Junior Caminero<\/a>, Yandy D\u00edaz<\/a>, and Jonathan Aranda<\/a>, Slater fits the Rays’ mold. He’s another player who has bounced around before finding an opportunity in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

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The Rays hope Slater can provide some much-needed stability to an offense that has cooled off in recent weeks. Entering Monday, Tampa Bay is tied with the New York Yankees<\/a> atop the American League East.<\/p>\n

After riding a hot stretch to begin the season, the Rays are just 5-10 over their last 15 games. They’ll look to get back on track tonight against the Red Sox, with Slater expected to join the club.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Rays are calling up a much-needed right-handed hitting reinforcement for their lineup. The Rays are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[4155,5,141,48,2542,457,36543,307,4682,14552,58,4,61,62,3973,89,2543,66,2550,68,1966,3348],"class_list":["post-720844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-austin-slater","tag-baseball","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-chandler-simpson","tag-connelly-early","tag-jonathan-aranda","tag-junior-caminero","tag-marc-topkin","tag-miami-marlins","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-payton-tolle","tag-red-sox","tag-redsox","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-the-rays","tag-yandy-diaz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116716233289766953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720844","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=720844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}