As expected, the Rays placed Troy Percival on the DL today. Juan Salas has been recalled to take his spot on the roster.

All Salas has done this year at Durham is: 44.2 IP / 32 H / 11 BB / 53 K / 2.62 ERA / 2 HRa.  As long as he doesn’t walk everyone he sees in the bigs, he’ll be a great addition to the bullpen.

Also - I saw a lot people saying the Rays should call up David Price to take Percival’s spot. You all (and you know who you are) are insane.

The Rays have decided to designate Al Reyes for assignment in order to make room for recently-acquired Chad Bradford, who is expected to join the team later today.

This is the only move the team really could make at this point, as everyone else in the pen was pitching better. The only real other option - Jason Hammel - is valuable for his ability to go a lot of innings at a time.  No word yet on if Reyes with accept an assignment to Durham, but you have to think that some team will want to claim him. Even so, it doesn’t sound like he plans on accepting an assignment to the Bulls should it be offered.

Any thoughts on where he might land? Mets? Tigers? Rangers?

According to various sources, including ESPN, the Rays have acquired right-handed groundball specialist Chad Bradford from the Orioles for a player to be named later.

Bradford is lethal against right-handed bats and gets a ton of groundballs. He’s an immediate improvement over either Al Reyes or Jason Hammel (though I assume it’s Reyes who will get bumped in his place).

The Heater…

The Rays have recalled INF Ben Zobrist from Triple-A Durham, and optioned OF Jonny Gomes.

With SS Jason Bartlett out with a bruised right index finger and LF Carl Crawford hampered by a nagging left hamstring, the switch-hitting Zobrist offers an option at short, and he can also play in the outfield.

Gomes, who platooned in RF and also served as designated hitter at times against lefthanded pitchers, hit .182 in 69 games with the Rays this season.

This will be Zobrist’s fourth stint with the Rays this season; he’s hit .230 with five homers and eight RBI in 23 games in Tampa Bay this season.

In Monday’s game, Willy Aybar made his big league debut at shortstop, and was bothered by cramps in his right leg; he said he was fine after the game, but manager Joe Maddon admitted that it was not an “optimal” situation.

It’s about time. Gomes was KILLING the team and had virtually no utility at all. At least Zobrist can be used in a number of different spots. When does Rocco get the call?

The Rays are now officially buyers, at least according to Bill Chastain, who is reporting that Jason Bay is headed to the Rays for Reid Brignac and Jeff Niemann. Waiting for confirmation.

UPDATE, 3:49 PM: Still no official word. Sources say that it is being held up by the Rays’ insistence to keep one of the two players in the deal. I don’t think Andrew Friedman would hold up this amazing deal over one of those two players, but we’ll see.

Could he be holding his cards close while trying to find a match for Eric Hinske, Cliff Floyd, or Jonny Gomes, all of whom become expendible in the deal?

UPDATE, 4:22 PM: Should have known better than to trust Bill Chastain. This thing looks dead.

UPDATE, 4:34 PM: Manny Ramirez to Los Angeles Dodgers, Jason Bay to the Red Sox says Heyman at SI.

TORONTO—The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports today that the Pirates are “deep into trade talks” with the Rays and “other parties” about Jason Bay.If the Rays could get Bay without giving up an elite prospect, as seems to be the expectation based on this note, you’d think they’d jump all over that. The guy was a big disappointment last season, but he’s a major league hitter and certainly could help this team.

Later in the story, Dejan Kovacevic mentions lefty reliever John Grabow as the player he believes is most likely to be traded. If the Rays really are serious about Bay, perhaps they would go for Grabow as well, considering they’re understood to be seeking lefty bullpen help at the moment—hence the links to Will Ohman, Arthur Rhodes, etc.

Reports abound that Gary Glover is soon to be designated for assignment.

Gary Glover accompanied the Rays on the first leg of this trip, but he was not on the team charter to Toronto this afternoon, flying home to Tampa instead.

Considering Joe Maddon acknowledged before today’s game that Glover is ready to come off the 15-day disabled list, his departure probably means he will be designated for assignment by tomorrow.

The party is at my place!

Of course, the Rays have a few hours to make up some new injury for Percy or Reyes to keep this ridiculous quasi-injury carousel thing going.

Cross Xavier Nady and Casey Blake off of the list of potential bats the Rays might try to bring in.

The Yankees overpaid to bring Xavier Nady into their fold, while Blake is packing his bags and heading to the Dodgers. Personally, I always thought Blake was the more intriguing option because of his lower cost and greater positional flexibility, but I’m glad that the Rays weren’t forced into giving up more than was necessary to acquire either of them. My biggest worry during this whole “Hey, the Rays are actually contenders!” thing we’ve got going on was that the Rays would completely break from plan and give up some valuable pieces for the future in exchange for a short-term offensive fix.

In fact, to that point, I think BP’s Christina Kahrl said it best:

If there’s a team that can afford to be smug and stand pat, it’s the Rays. They already have the shot, and they’ve already “won” in terms of what this means for the franchise’s place within the industry, let alone in the hearts and minds of the ticket-buying public. If I wanted to be over the top, I’d say they already own the future. Why share by dealing any of their good stuff, when they’re probably already good enough?

If the Rays ARE going to make a deal for a bat, who is still out there?

• Ty Wigginton -I THINK I’m the only one who has mentioned this as even a possibility, which probably doesn’t make it much of a “rumor” as it is a hope that I have. Personally, I don’t think the Astros are buying (despite the Randy Wolf deal, which I think was more of a way to get him to try and sign an extension with Houston), and Ty Wigginton is the kind of spare part that they could deal for at least some kind of value. He fits a need of ours in a very measurable way, as he has been a better-than-average bat against left-handed pitching. Moreover, he provides unique positional flexibility as a first, second, and third baseman. Since his main utility would be as the DH against left-handed pitching, he’s a definite upgrade over - for instance - Willy Aybar.
• Randy Winn - Probably not worth what the Giants will want for him; career OPS+ of 101 and even splits against righties and lefties and a lack of power don’t really make him a fit for what the Rays need.
• Barry Bonds - Not gonna happen, no matter how good he would make the offense.
• Mark Teixeira - Again, not gonna happen, though slightly more probable than Bonds.
• Matt Holliday - Word is that the Rox are not going to trade him, and even if they were, it would take a package starting with David Price. No thanks for a guy who turns into Jhonny Peralta when he’s hitting away from home.
• Jason Bay - Price tag too high? Pirates not trading him? There always seem to be stories about why he’s NOT going somewhere, rather than where he’s going to go. I suspect Pittsburgh will hang on to him, and we wouldn’t be willing to give up what they want anyways.

Are there any other bats out there that YOU are interested in picking up? What do you think those bats would cost, and would the Rays be willing to pull the trigger?

I was planning on writing a blurb yesterday that speculated just this, but never got around to it. Either way, though, the Rays have decided to push Scott Kazmir’s first second-half start back to at least Sunday after he had to pitch in the All-Star Game. Not really a big deal, though, unless you really feel strongly that Shields and Kaz should go back-to-back.

As you’ve all heard by now, the Reid Brignac era is starting - kind of - thanks to the injury suffered by Jason Bartlett that landed him on the 15-day disabled list. (MLB.com)

From the analytical point of view, I’m not sure that it’s time to call Brignac up yet, but frankly, I don’t care. The fan in me is wicked excited to see what the kid can do at the big league level. It’ll almost be like looking into a crystal ball and seeing what the left-side of the infield is going to look like every day in a couple of years.

Tbe most important thing that Brignac needs to do is play good defense, because we’ve gotten very spoiled with Jason Bartlett manning the 6-hole. If Brignac can even come close to matching Bartlett’s glove, then he should be okay. Offensively, Bartlett has been mostly a non-factor (save for his high number of steals), and you would expect Brignac to perform any worse with the bat. Plus, the Rays have Benny Zobrist available to step in if Brignac totally falls on his face and needs to go back to the farm.

What this also does is give the Rays a chance to showcase Brignac to potential trade suitors over the coming weeks. If he plays well, it could greatly enhance his trade value (and as the Rays have Bartlett-Zobrist already and have recently selected Mr. Beckham in the draft), shortstop is a position of at least moderate depth in the organization. If a deal for a big-time bat in right field or a good starting pitcher comes around and Brignac is the piece that the other team wants, you can at least begin to talk about it. You don’t just give him away, of course, but at the very least you can listen to it.

Like I said, though, as a fan, I’m just excited to see the Cajun Cannon make his big league debut and see what he’s capable of doing. We’ve been hearing about him for so long; now all of that talk becomes reality.