Four Tampa Bay Rays prospects do not have to be concerned with being exposed to the Rule 5 Draft coming up in December, as pitchers Tommy Romero and Calvin Faucher, infielder Jonathan Aranda, and catcher/infielder Ford Proctor have been selected to the 40-man roster.
Romero is currently 18th on MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 prospects in the Rays organization. He went 8-2 with a 2.61 ERA in 23 appearances between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham. The 23-year-old was acquired by Tampa Bay on May 25, 2018 from Seattle in the trade that sent outfielder Denard Span and reliever Alex Colome to the Mariners.
Proctor, taken by the Rays in the third round of the 2018 draft, played in 97 games with Montgomery in 2021, finishing with a .244/.381/.419 slash line with 12 home runs and 47 RBI. He is listed as the #30 prospect on the list.
Faucher was acquired this past July from the Minnesota Twins in the deal that also brought designated hitter Nelson Cruz to Tampa Bay. The 25-year-old finished the season with Triple-A Durham posting no record and a 1.77 in 11 appearances.
Aranda, who was signed as an internationa free agent in 2018, came into his own at the plate this year, compiling a slash line of .330/.418/.543 with 14 homers and 65 RBI in 100 games split between High-A Bowling Green and Double-A Montgomery.
The four prospects take the four open spots on the 40-man roster created in the trades of infielder Mike Brosseau, pitchers Louis Head and Brent Honeywell Jr., and the release of pitcher Dietrich Enns to play in Asia.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
