Rays Open 40-Man Spot, Trade Luplow
Tampa Bay opened up a 40-man spot on Friday, trading OF/1B Jordan Luplow to the Arizona Diamondbacks for minor league infielder Ronny Simon. Luplow was one of 16 players that the Rays had to decide whether to tender by Tuesday’s 8 p.m. deadline.
The 28-year-old Luplow came to the Rays on July 31st this season when he was acquired with reliever DJ Johnson for Peyton Battenfield. Playing primarily against left-handed pitching, Luplow hit four homers and had a .796 OPS over 72 plate appearances. Luplow’s biggest moment came in game two of the ALDS, when he hit a first inning grand slam against the Red Sox.
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The decision to trade Luplow doesn’t necessarily mean the Rays were going to non-tender him. MLB Trade Rumors estimated that Luplow would have received approximately 1.5 million dollars this year, a reasonable figure for a short-side platoon. It’s more likely that Tampa Bay felt from conversations with other clubs and free agents that they could acquire someone this off-season that would upgrade the roster spot.
In addition, the Rays like the player they received in the 21-year-old Simon. Simon, hit .245 with a .783 OPS last year to go along with 23 2B, 17 HR, 63 RBI and 19 SB in 97 games. Simon split time between Low-A Visalia and High-A Hillsboro last season, his first action since 2019 due to the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season.
Simon is a career .263 hitter (.816 OPS) with 41 doubles, 12 triples, 20 homers, 96 RBI and 38 steals over three minor league seasons and 176 games in the Diamondbacks and Cubs systems. The switch-hitter was signed by the Cubs as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in July 2018 and traded to the Diamondbacks as the player to be named to complete the August 2020 trade for LHP Andrew Chafin.
