{"id":101255,"date":"2025-05-30T16:43:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=101255"},"modified":"2025-05-30T16:43:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:43:34","slug":"rays-option-chandler-simpson-reinstate-jake-mangum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/30\/rays-option-chandler-simpson-reinstate-jake-mangum\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Option Chandler Simpson to Triple-A, Reinstate Jake Mangum from IL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, that was a little bit of a buzzkill. The Tampa Bay Rays optioned <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/25\/rays-chandler-simpson-provides-hitting-plus-speed\/\" target=\"_self\">Chandler Simpson<\/a> to Triple-A Durham and also reinstated outfielder Jake Mangum from the 10-day IL after a five-week absence due to a left groin strain. Simpson became a household name because of the speed he displayed on numerous occasions in the last month. He performed well in a small sample, but as a player with options, the club was poised to send him back down once the roster got healthier.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Rays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Rays<\/a> news:<\/p>\n<p>OF Jake Mangum (left groin strain) reinstated from 10-day IL and OF Chandler Simpson optioned to Triple-A Durham.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TBTimes_Rays\/status\/1928482783430574402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Rays Send Down Chandler Simpson, Activate Jake Mangum<\/h2>\n<h3>This Move Felt Inevitable<\/h3>\n<p>Simpson&#8217;s initial appearance with the Rays was largely a result of the outfield becoming a medical unit. Jake Mangum started off on a heater but succumbed to injury. Mangum almost singularly carried the offense in that first month of the season, hitting .338\/.384\/.397 in 21 games. Mangum will now re-assume his customary spot in left field while the elite defender Kameron Misner will continue patrolling center field on a near-regular basis. Christopher Morel is still on hand as a right-handed hitting outfielder, but his offense needs to improve. Jonny DeLuca suffered a right shoulder strain and may be hitting a more significant setback during his rehab.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/20\/a-healthy-josh-lowe-is-vital-for-tampa-bay-rays\/\" target=\"_self\">Josh Lowe<\/a> is playing great and seems firmly entrenched in right field.<\/p>\n<h3>Simpson Made A Decent Impression<\/h3>\n<p>Simpson posted a .285\/.315\/.317 in 35 games. While that\u2019s only six weeks, Simpson&#8217;s time with the Rays played out exactly as everyone could have expected. He didn&#8217;t hit a home run, played poor defense, stole plenty of bases, and produced a few highlight plays of his own. In fact, his legs directly contributed to a run scored for the Rays in Houston. This move won&#8217;t sink the Rays, who are playing well behind a solid pitching staff and powerful lineup. Having said that, it feels like we have not seen the last of the Georgia native.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Rays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Rays<\/a> news:<\/p>\n<p>OF Jake Mangum (left groin strain) reinstated from 10-day IL and OF Chandler Simpson optioned to Triple-A Durham.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TBTimes_Rays\/status\/1928482783430574402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Simpson currently leads MLB in stolen bases since his initial call-up on April 19. He is third in baseball with 19 thefts this season, marginally behind Luis Robert Jr. and Bobby Witt Jr.<\/p>\n<p>Simpson still posted a decent batting average and his hit tool seems real. He may not be able to slam the ball when he makes contact, but he doesn&#8217;t strike out and puts the ball in play. His strikeout rate is top 4% in MLB. The Rays can use those skills from every member of their roster as they continue to string solid baseball together.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, that was a little bit of a buzzkill. The Tampa Bay Rays optioned Chandler Simpson to Triple-A Durham and also reinstated outfielder Jake Mangum from the 10-day IL after a five-week absence due to a left groin strain. Simpson became a household name because of the speed he displayed on numerous occasions in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5546,"featured_media":101272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1071,35],"tags":[2583,28945,6192,3943,28550,3367,2679,6391],"class_list":["post-101255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rays","category-mlb","category-news","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-chandler-simpson","tag-christopher-morel","tag-jake-mangum","tag-jonny-deluca","tag-josh-lowe","tag-kameron-misner","tag-luis-robert-jr"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5546"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101255"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101273,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101255\/revisions\/101273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}