The rays announced that they demanded to the right Jesse Scholtens From distance from the White Sox and sent him to Triple-A Durham. Chicago appointed him for assignment yesterday. The rays also announced that catcher Matt ThaissThat was designated for assignment a few days ago, has renounced and has accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Durham. Scholtens effectively occupies the 40-person place that has recently been abandoned by Thaiss.
Scholtens, 31, made his Major League debut in 2023, but has not thrown into the big competitions since then. He underwent Tommy John operation in February 2024, so he missed that entire season. He also spent a decent part of 2025 on the wounded list. Once he was ready to get from the il, the SOX gave him for the minors.
His main record of the Major League consists of 85 innings that are thrown into a swing role a few years ago. He made 11 starts and 15 relief performances for the SOX with a 5.29 run average, 15.4% strikeout percentage, 8% running speed and 41.3% ground ball percentage.
Because those figures do not jump off the page, the rays are probably more interested in his Minor League work. From 2021 to 2023 he threw 231 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. Most of them was in the percussion-friendly Pacific Coast League, because Scholtens was in the Padres system until the end of 2022. During those three years he had an ERA of 4.58, but his strike output of 24.3% and 7.9% walking speed were both better than average.
He has not yet been able to return to that level. This year he thrown 36 minor League -Innings with an ERA of 5.25, 19.4% strikeout percentage and 7.7% running speed. But as said, he comes back from Tommy John and is perhaps still rising. Scholtens still has options and has not yet qualified for arbitration, so he will give the Rays some cheap triple-a pitching-depth for the time being. The club has a decent track record of helping pitchers who maximize their results, so maybe they can sprinkle some of their magical material on Scholtens in the coming years.
Thaiss, 30, was also obtained by the rays of the White Sox. Chicago had a bit of a pinch behind the plate and sent Thaiss to the rays for Minor League Outfielder in May Druis. Thaiss received 25 games for the rays, Back -up Danny JansenBut he only cut .225/.304/.282 for a WRC+ of 69.
Tampa recently shook their catch spot. They exchanged Jansen to the Brewers but also took over Nick Fortes And Hunter FeducciaSqueeze Thaiss from the photo. Because he no longer has any options, he was pushed out of the 40-man.
His attack has occasionally been intriguing since he draws so many walks, but he also spreads a lot and his defense behind the album has not been considered particularly well. There was enough interest in him to bounce around the competition in the past year, from the angels to the Cubs, White Sox and Ray to go in small deals, but every club refused to give him a schedule spot this week.
Thaiss has a service clock between three and five years old. This means that he has the right to reject an outright assignment, but must lose his remaining salary obligations to do this. He earns $ 1mm this year, with around $ 300k still to be paid. It is understandable that he had accepted this assignment to continue to collect the rest of that money. He will give the rays some non-grid for the time being.
If he is not added to the 40-man towards the end of the season, he has the right to choose Free Office, as is the case for all players with at least three years of service removed from a 40-man Roster during a season.
Photo thanks to David Reginek, imagn Images
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