ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays added infield depth and elite defense by bringing back rookie Taylor Walls from Triple-A Durham as the other half of their Sept. 1 roster expansion.
But there is one noticeable difference from the tail end of Walls’ first late-May to late-July stint with the big-league club.
This time, when Walls and fellow rookie Wander Franco are both in the lineup, Franco will play shortstop and Walls will man either second base (where he started Wednesday) or third. When they overlapped earlier this season (around Walls’ injured list stay), Walls played short and Franco second or third.
Manager Kevin Cash made a point to say that they still consider Walls “very much a shortstop’’ — as the 25-year-old quickly showed during his first callup that he was among the game’s best defenders — and that he will get time at short when Franco gets a day off.
But Cash also acknowledged that they didn’t want to mess with Franco, the 20-year-old who has been playing exclusively at short, and solidly, while hitting extremely well.
“Given what’s taken place here over the last month to six weeks with Wander, we haven’t, I haven’t, asked Wander to take a ground ball at third, want to just kind of keep him there,’’ Cash said. “We’ll see how it evolves over the next week or so.’’
As dazzling as Walls was defensively in his first tour, ranking fourth among all big-league shortstops in the advanced defensive runs saved metric with nine, he hit only .212 over the 39 games. He went 0-for-3 Wednesday against the Red Sox.
Though Cash said the Rays were pleased overall, Walls said he felt he needed to be better at “winning the at-bat,’’ not missing his pitch or the rare mistake, and catching up better to fastballs, which he said he worked on at Durham.
Overall, Walls said he was just happy to be back and to do whatever is asked: “I’m blessed to have another opportunity to try to come prove myself. Just here to try to help the team win in any way.’’
The other addition as rosters expanded from 26 to 28 was veteran reliever David Robertson, who worked a smooth 1-2-3 eighth, with two strikeouts “He just looked like himself,’' Cash said.
Medical matters: Choi, Wisler, Anderson
First baseman Ji-Man Choi, out since Aug. 23 with a left-hamstring strain, has been taking ground balls and running the bases, and will advance next to playing in a Florida Complex League game on Friday, and potentially activated when the Rays head to Boston next week. ... Reliever Matt Wisler is still feeling the right middle-finger inflammation that sidelined him Aug. 16 and will be shut down from all throwing for two days, Cash said, “to see if we can eliminate whatever finger irritation he’s having.’’ If so, he will throw a bullpen session Friday and to hitters on Sunday but could need a rehab appearance after that. … Right-handed reliever Nick Anderson, still rehabbing a spring elbow injury at Durham, is starting to show the progress the team was hoping for, specifically with his fastball getting on hitters more quickly.
Miscellany
• Franco homered in the third, extending his on-base streak to 32 games, which is the longest active streak in the majors and by a rookie in Rays history, and is still fifth most in major-league history among players 20 and younger.
• Infielders Xander Bogaerts and Yairo Munoz were placed on the COVID-19-related injured list before the game, pushing the total of positive tests among Red Sox players, coaches and staff to nine.
• • •
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