This trio bolsters the Rays’ bullpen depth

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BOSTON -- They took the mound one after the other on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park, Robert Stephenson for two outs, then Jake Diekman for four outs and Shawn Armstrong for the final two innings. Three pitchers, 12 outs, no hits, four strikeouts and three walks.

Aside from years of experience and a history of throwing hard, what do those three relievers have in common? They weren’t in the Rays’ bullpen at this time last month.

Diekman signed as a free agent after the White Sox released him in early May. Tampa Bay traded for Stephenson on Friday. And Armstrong came off the 60-day injured list on Saturday. The Rays’ hope is those three veterans will help further solidify a bullpen that surprisingly ranked among the Majors’ worst in a handful of important statistics last month.

“We’ve been as active as we can be trying to solidify the bullpen group and kind of thicken it up a little bit,” GM Peter Bendix said Monday afternoon. “It’s hard to make trades this time of year. It’s hard to make trades, really, before the Trade Deadline.”

But the Rays swung a deal with the Pirates on Friday, giving up shortstop prospect Alika Williams to acquire Stephenson. Williams wasn’t ranked on Tampa Bay’s Top 30 list, per MLB Pipeline, and he was caught between shortstops Wander Franco and Taylor Walls in the Majors and touted prospects like Carson Williams in the low Minors. But Williams is still a former first-round Draft pick who was among the best defensive players in the entire system.

That the Rays were willing to part with a prospect like him in early June speaks to how much they like Stephenson and the extent to which they wanted to bolster their bullpen. The trade caught Stephenson by surprise, but he was happy to land with the Rays.

“I'm excited to be here, obviously. What's not to be excited about, being [on] the best team in baseball, right?” he said. “Over the last handful of years, what they've done with pitchers, it's pretty incredible. So, definitely excited to be here and work with these guys.”

Stephenson already does a lot of things the Rays like. He leans heavily on his slider, a big-time swing-and-miss pitch that generated a 44.4% whiff rate last season. He throws hard, with his fastball averaging 96.8 mph. And he also throws a splitter, which makes him an option against left-handed hitters as well.

“We’re excited to have him. We like what he's done. We're not asking him to change anything,” manager Kevin Cash said. “And he's going to be pitching in big situations for us.”

Sure enough, Stephenson made his Rays debut on Saturday night with one out in the sixth inning, with a runner on first base and a one-run lead. The runner stole second and advanced to third on an error, but the right-handed Stephenson struck out Triston Casas and retired Pablo Reyes to get out of the inning unscathed.

The three recent additions may not displace Pete Fairbanks or Jason Adam, but they’ve added effective depth to the group. And there could be more bullpen help on the way, too. Andrew Kittredge, an All-Star two years ago who’s working his way back from Tommy John surgery, is likely to join the bullpen at some point after the All-Star break. The front office will presumably stay active in trade conversations, too.

“In order to try to take care of our relievers, take care of our pitchers, we also need a deep group. We use guys in different roles, but we rely on each guy for important outs,” Bendix said. “We need one through eight in our bullpen to be able to get big outs for us.”

Armstrong was proof of that last season. He wasn’t one of their top high-leverage arms, but he handled every role from three-inning appearances as an opener to three-out saves in tight games, all while recording a 3.60 ERA with 61 strikeouts over 55 innings in 43 outings.

After being sidelined since Spring Training by an unspecified neck injury, Armstrong looked good in his season debut. The right-hander struck out three and walked one and got through the final two innings of Sunday’s game on only 27 pitches.

“The medical staff was amazing, and they got me back healthy,” Armstrong said. “And I'm in a good place now, feel really good.”