Rays reliever J.P. Feyereisen is dealing with renewed shoulder discomfort, manager Kevin Cash announced (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). It’s now “highly unlikely” he’ll make it back to the mound in 2022, per Cash. Feyereisen has been out since early June with what was initially termed a shoulder impingement.
It’s a tough blow to the Tampa Bay bullpen. Feyereisen was quietly one of the most effective relievers in the game early in the season. He only allowed one unearned run in 24 1/3 innings through June 2, the only pitcher in the majors to work 20+ frames without allowing an earned run. He certainly wouldn’t have sustained that pace over a full season, but the right-hander struck out a very strong 29.1% of opponents while posting an excellent 5.8% walk rate. He generated swinging strikes on 16.3% of his total offerings, a top 30 mark leaguewide (minimum 20 innings).
Feyereisen has been brilliant for more than a calendar year. The Rays acquired him from the Brewers in the May 2021 deal that sent Willy Adames to Milwaukee and also brought back Drew Rasmussen (a trade with which both clubs must be thrilled in retrospect). Since first donning a Rays uniform, Feyereisen has worked to a sparkling 1.48 ERA across 61 innings.
That quality showing seems likely to make him a core piece of Cash’s relief corps over the coming seasons. Feyereisen entered the season with one year and 108 days of MLB service time. He’s collected service time while on the injured list and will hit a full season, bringing him to 2.108 years this offseason. That seems likely to fall a bit shy of the Super Two cutoff for early arbitration eligibility — that date changes annually, but last year’s cutoff was set at 2.116 years, for reference. In that case, he’d make around the league minimum salary next season. Even if the Super Two cutoff is low enough that Feyereisen qualifies, he’ll still be plenty affordable in arbitration and is controllable through 2026.
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