Tampa Bay Rays Add Dylan Covey to Their Pitching Staff

Earlier today, the Tampa Bay Rays announced that they had come to terms with free agent right-hander, Dylan Covey. The news was made official and first reported by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Rays on Twitter.

#Rays add RHPs Dylan Covey and John Curtiss on minor league contracts with invites to camp. Also re-signed OF Johnny Davis to minor-league deal with no invite.

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) February 3, 2020

The news came almost two weeks after Covey was designated for assignment by his former team, the Chicago White Sox. Covey pitched at the big league level for the White Sox for three seasons. He was originally acquired by the organization during the 2016 Rule 5 Draft from the Oakland Athletics.

At 28 years-old, Covey is still somewhat unproven. He has yet to put together a full season of success at the big league level and is a wild card in many regards. Despite that, the Rays obviously see promise and feel as though they have the tools to turn Covey around.

Taking a Risk on a Flier

The small market Rays are notorious for taking fliers on pitchers, similar to Dylan Covey, and turning them around. As an analytically driven organization, the Rays are always looking for an edge to have on their opponents. Add to the fact that payroll is always a concern and you can start to see why these moves are necessary.

Last season, Covey posted a 7.98 ERA over 58.2 innings of work. From the surface, those are well below league average and could be considered awful numbers. However, when you dig a little deeper, there’s some promise. Covey posted the highest strikeout rate (14.7%) of his big league career last season. Meanwhile, he also posted the lowest Hard Hit Rate of those three seasons at (37.0%).

With the models the Rays have enforced in their front office, the organization will likely be able to find a way to tap into Covey’s potential. If they can, then this could be a very good under-the-radar value signing.

Dylan Covey Pitch Repertoire

One of the best qualities about Dylan Covey is that he features a pitch repertoire made up of six different pitches. According to Baseball Savant, Covey features a sinker, cutter, changeup, four-seamer fastball, curveball, and slider in his repertoire. Of those three pitches, the most common one last year was Covey’s sinker. He threw that pitch 35.5% of the time.

On the sinker pitch, Covey reached an average velocity of 94.5 miles per hour. Despite that though, Covey had a Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) of .421 and an Opponent Slugging Percentage (OSP) of .553 on that pitch. From a spin rate factor, Covey’s sinker measured 2,070 RPM.

While the sinker was Covey’s most common pitch last season, the most successful one was his changeup. The changeup, which Covey threw 18.2% of the time, resulted in a wOBA of .282 and a OSP of .333. It was also the pitch that had the highest Whiff Rate of Covey’s six pitches at 35.5%.

Dylan Covey’s Role with the Tampa Bay Rays

In the bigger picture, the verdict is still out about whether or not Covey can withstand the workload of being a big league starting pitcher. As a result, the Rays might view him as a hybrid type of pitcher. In that role, Covey would have the opportunity to make spot starts on occasion and be a valuable bullpen weapon as well.

However, the Rays are a creative organization that likes to think outside the box. Therefore, Covey might even be used in a piggyback type of situation. For example, if one of the Rays starters is scheduled to start, they might pitch a few innings. Covey would come into the game and pitch an inning or two before turning things over to the bullpen.

The Rays are very analytically driven with their pitching matchups and will make those matchups work to their favor. After all, Tampa Bay has to, given the market they are in and the payroll constraints the organization is under. It’s why the team has been able to win more than 90 games last season and the year before. That’s quite a feat for a small market team competing against some of the behemoths of the American League.

Final Thoughts

Although Dylan Covey is a fascinating pickup for the Tampa Bay Rays, there is certainly some risk with bringing him in. Despite that, that risk could very well pay off for the Rays in being like a lotto ticket.

Sometimes teams take huge risks like this that end up being moves that pay off huge dividends in the long run. Only time will tell if that ends up happening, but regardless of what happens, Covey is a fascinating pitcher based on all of the qualities mentioned above.

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