ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After undergoing hip surgery last October, Rays shortstop Taylor Walls is back with the Tampa Bay Rays after he was reinstated Friday afternoon. The shortstop has played his entire MLB career with the Rays after being drafted by the organization in 2017.
In nearly 300 career games, he has 17 home runs and 84 RBI. However, the team is mostly pleased to bring back his defensive prowess.
"Defensively, he's a game changer. He's going to make everybody around him better," manager Kevin Cash said before the Rays took on the Baltimore Orioles to begin this weekend's four-game series.
"I think there's definitely more in the tank, but I feel like I have a lot to offer right now, and every day I'm going to do better to put a better product out there," Walls said.
The Rays designated outfielder Harold Ramirez for assignment to make room for Walls on the roster. This move immediately removed Ramirez from Tampa Bay's 40-man roster and he can either be traded or placed on outright or unconditional release waivers within seven days.
Ramirez was one of the Rays' leaders in batting average with .268. However, 40 of his 44 hits were singles. He only hit one home run and recorded just 13 RBI.
"Harold's such a good player and he did so many good things for us, but it came down to what did we feel was best for our roster moving forward," Cash said.
The recent returns of Walls, Brandon Lowe, Josh Lowe and Zach Eflin have the Tampa Bay roster looking more like the one front office staff members envisioned going into Spring Training. Now, the hope is for the team to start producing more positive results.
The Rays came into Friday winning five of its last seven games, including a three-game winning streak. However, they are 17-18 inside Tropicana Field. The Rays haven't had a losing record at home since the 2016 season.
"There's time to turn it around....we got to get back to doing that, finding ways to win at a higher clip," Cash said.
Including Friday night's game, the Rays will play the next seven games at home. They are 31-32 this season and in fourth place in the AL East.