Rays Place Kevin Kiermaier, Manuel Margot on IL, Call Up Jonathan Aranda, Luke Raley
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – As expected, Tampa Bay outfielders Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot were placed on the injured list on Tuesday after leaving Monday night's game with injuries.
Margot, the team's leading hitter with a .302 average, injured his knee while colliding with the wall in an attempt catch a ball in the ninth inning of Monday night's game with the New York Yankees. He's been placed on the 10-day injured list, but his time away from the team is expected to be much longer than that. He had an MRI on Tuesday, plus other tests.
Margot was on the IL earlier this year with a hamstring issue, missing 10 days in mid-May. He has three home runs and 27 RBIs, and he's third on the team in RBIs behind only Ji-Man Choi (34) and Randy Arozarena (31).
Kiermaier was placed on the IL with left hip inflammation. He missed two-plus games last week with tightness in his calf and Achilles area, but he said Tuesday that it had nothing to do with this hip issue, which has been bothering him for a while but finally got bad enough to require a cortisone shot on Tuesday.
"It's just something that I've been dealing with for quite some time now and I've been playing through it,'' Kiermaier said. "I got a (cortisone) injection and hopefully it will start to calm down. A lot of wear and tear over the years, and it really started to catch up with me this year.
"It's just a weird thing. I've been playing hard for many years years, playing on the turf, and I've got some issues in there. Hopefully it will respond well to this shot, and see what I can do.''
Kiermaier, who is hitting .229 with a team-high seven home runs and 17 RBIs, said he was hopeful that his stay on the injured list won't last beyond the 10 days, but it's far too early to tell until he sees how his hip reacts to the shot. He had the same shot in spring training, he said, and started to feel better after about a week.
"The body's just taken a lot of bumps and bruises,'' said Kiermaier, who turned 32 years old in April and has played in 936 games — including the postseason — with the Rays since 2014. "My hips have taken a beating, especially the left one with the thousands and thousands of swings I've taken over the years trying to work on my craft and be better. You've just got to roll with punches.
"After my at-bat last night, I knew I wasn't capable of being out there. I'll let the medicine do its thing and get back out there.''
Margot's time on the injured list will be far longer. He was placed on the 10-day injured list, but that's just a formality. He had an MRI on Tuesday, according to Rays manager Kevin Cash, and will have more imaging later in the day. There is no final answer quite yet, but it's not encouraging either way. He won't be back any time soon this season, and could be out for the year. We should know more in the next day or two.
"He's still getting some imaging, but we're still anticipating that he's going to be out for a while,'' Cash said.
The Rays brought up infielder Jonathan Aranda and outfielder Luke Raley to replace them on the roster. Both were hitting well in Triple-A Durham. Aranda hit .310 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in 63 games, and leads the International League with 75 hits.
Raley hit .299 with seven homers and 25 RBIs in just 24 games in Durham. He will be making his Rays debut, but he did spend some time in the majors a year ago with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.