Tampa Bay Rays activate Christian Bethancourt, option Rene Pinto
The Tampa Bay Rays have made a couple of roster moves prior to their series opener against the Boston Red Sox.
First, they have activated C/1B Christian Bethancourt and have optioned C Rene Pinto to Triple-A Durham. The Rays have also optioned RHP Phoenix Sanders and have promoted RHP Luke Bard.
The Rays acquired Bethancourt over the weekend from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for a couple of minor leaguers. Bethancourt is known for hitting the ball hard and is among an elite group of players in baseball for doing so. Thus far in 2022, Bethancourt is hitting .249/.298/.385 with 4 HR over 182 plate appearances.
Christian Bethancourt could be a sneaky good bench bat/backup C & 1B deadline addition. It’s his first year back in MLB since 2017 and he is crushing the ball. 90th+ percentile in Barrel rate, Max EV & avg EV. Rays are second to last in team barrel rate this year pic.twitter.com/St7kHOsNpP
— Rays Metrics (@RaysMetrics) July 8, 2022
Although Bethancourt has been activated for tonight’s game, he is not in the starting lineup.
Pinto made his MLB debut earlier this year and has filled in for the Rays with Mike Zunino being down for most of the season due to injury. Over 17 games, Pinto is hitting .204/.218/.315 with 2 HR across 55 plate appearances.
Luke Bard is back for another stint with the Rays. The right-handed pitcher has appeared in four games thus far for Tampa Bay, allowing two hits over six innings pitched, yielding zero runs.