{"id":802172,"date":"2026-09-11T08:40:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T08:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/802172\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T08:40:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T08:40:05","slug":"rays-tried-to-claim-luis-robert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/802172\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Tried To Claim Luis Robert"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rays were among at least four teams that placed a claim for\u00a0Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> when the Mets waived him in late August, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a>. Kevin Acee of The San Diego-Union Tribune previously reported that San Diego placed a claim<\/a> as well. Robert ended up with the Orioles, while the identity of the fourth team is unclear \u2014 though it must have been a team that had a better record than Baltimore as of August 31.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay had the best record in the American League and the second-best record in MLB (behind Milwaukee). They accordingly were only ahead of the Brewers in waiver priority. Robert never made it to Tampa Bay, but the Rays wouldn\u2019t have known that when they filed the claim.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ultimately a footnote but demonstrates some willingness to spend on the part of first-year owner Patrick Zalupski and the front office. Robert had just under $3MM in remaining salary for the 2026 season. He\u2019s also guaranteed a $2MM buyout on a $20MM club option. The Rays were willing to commit nearly $5MM to add him for the final few weeks of the regular season and the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Baltimore instead came away with Robert to aid what they hoped to be a playoff push. It hasn\u2019t worked. Robert went 2-11 with one home run in three games before suffering a left hamstring issue that sent him to the injured list. It\u2019s unclear if he\u2019ll return this year. The O\u2019s theoretically could put him back on waivers, but Robert wouldn\u2019t be eligible for postseason play with another team and would almost certainly go unclaimed now.<\/p>\n

The Orioles were one game back in the AL Wild Card race at the time of the claim. They\u2019ve gone 2-7 since then and dropped three games behind the Guardians for the last playoff spot. Toronto and Texas are one and two games back, respectively, so the O\u2019s need to jump three teams. Six of their final 15 games are against the Blue Jays. They need a 10-5 finish to get to .500 and probably need 11 or 12 wins the rest of the way to get to October.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay has no such concern. They\u2019re playoff locks and could become the first team to clinch if they beat Houston tomorrow. The Rays are trying to maintain a 3.5 game edge on the Yankees for a division title and the #1 seed in the AL.<\/p>\n

Cedric Mullins<\/a> has been Tampa Bay\u2019s starting center fielder all season. He\u2019s playing well defensively and has 19 stolen bases, but he\u2019s hitting .204\/.287\/.345 across 472 plate appearances.\u00a0Jonny DeLuca<\/a> and\u00a0Ryan Vilade<\/a> are righty complements to an all left-handed hitting starting outfield of Mullins, Chandler Simpson<\/a> and\u00a0Victor Mesa Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mullins and Robert are both likely to be bought out and hit free agency this offseason. The Rays could find themselves back in the center field market if they want to keep Simpson in left. Center field prospect Jacob Melton<\/a>, acquired from the Astros in the three-team\u00a0Brandon Lowe<\/a> trade, has had an injury-plagued season in Triple-A but could compete for the job next spring. Daulton Varsho<\/a> and Trent Grisham<\/a> are other impending free agents at the position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays were among at least four teams that placed a claim for\u00a0Luis Robert Jr. when the Mets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,369,4],"class_list":["post-802172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-luis-robert","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117251514274816489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802172","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=802172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}