DENVER — Right-hander Tyler Wells struck out four batters across two scoreless innings in his Tampa Bay Rays debut, stranding runners on the corners in a 4-0 win at Coors Field just two days after being traded from the Baltimore Orioles for pitching prospect Michael Forret.
“Kind of in the fire right there, two guys on in a three-run ballgame,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Threw a bunch of strikes. Nasty stuff.”
The 6-foot-8, 270-pound Wells compiled a 2.67 ERA and 0.96 WHIP with 53 strikeouts and only 13 walks in 54 innings over 43 appearances for Baltimore before the deal. He entered the sixth inning with runners on the corners and ended the threat with a strikeout, then punched out three more in the seventh.
The trade caught Wells off guard. He and his wife, Melissa, had invited teammate Trevor Rogers and his wife to their Baltimore home to wait out the deadline together, expecting Rogers — a pending free agent — to be the one moved. Then Wells’ agent called, followed five minutes later by Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias delivering the news.
“I think that’s just the chaos of the game that just builds resilience,” Wells said. “The fact that the Rays had the belief in me to be able to come here and kind of bolster the back end of the bullpen or wherever the role may end up being, I think that that’s super encouraging to me.”
Wells walked into a Tampa Bay clubhouse full of familiar faces. Closer Bryan Baker and center fielder Cedric Mullins were longtime Orioles teammates. Former Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde now works in the Rays’ front office. Wells knew Casey Legumina, Cam Booser and Griffin Jax from their time in the Minnesota Twins’ minor league system. And after six seasons competing against Tampa Bay in the American League East, he greeted Yandy Díaz and Junior Caminero with relief: “I’m glad that I don’t have to face you guys anymore.”
“Being on this side of things is really nice,” Wells added. “I know that the Rays have messed me up in the past.”
Rogers, still in Baltimore, offered a straightforward assessment: “I loved ‘Wellsy’ and he’s a good friend of mine. But he went to a team that’s in first place and he’s going to help them.”
Wells caps a busy deadline stretch for the Rays, who also acquired starter Freddy Peralta and catcher Liam Hicks. Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said the club valued Wells’ AL East experience, his success as a reliever and the different look his five-pitch mix provides alongside a bullpen already featuring Baker, setup man Kevin Kelly, left-hander Garrett Cleavinger, Booser and Legumina.
“It just helps the whole group play up,” Neander said, “and I think that was just something we circled.”
Wells’ wife and young daughter remain in Baltimore preparing to relocate south for the rest of the season as the first-place Rays push toward October.