ExA’s prospect Wendle boosting Rays’ prospects
The A’s and Rays are a lot alike, priding themselves on doing a lot with a little.
Both teams have small payrolls and antiquated ballparks, but both tend to regularly find themselves in the postseason, the A’s six times in nine years and the Rays six times in 13 years.
The biggest difference, of course, is the Rays have reached the World Series twice in that span, a fact not lost on Joey Wendle, who drove in three runs Wednesday night to help Tampa Bay beat the Dodgers 64 in Game 2 to even the World Series at a game apiece.
Wendle, who was traded from Oakland to the Rays before the 2018 season and has been their No. 1 third baseman in the postseason, hit a tworun, twoout double and sacrifice fly.
“Thankfully, the Rays found a spot for me and thought there was a need for me,” Wendle said. “I’m thankful for
the opportunity and for that move that was made.”
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Wendle was 18 when his hometown Phillies beat the Rays in the 2008 World Series, and he says now, “I remember that vividly. That was fun being a Phillies fan back then, although looking back now, I probably would’ve rather had the Rays win that series.”
Wendle, who played tremendous defense in the ALCS to help eliminate the Astros in seven games, is a typical Ray. He’s versatile and doesn’t have much name recognition, although that’s changing now that he’s excelling on baseball’s biggest stage.
Predominantly a second baseman in his A’s days, Wendle now is a super utilityman. This season, he started 18 games at third, 18 at second and nine at shortstop and batted .286 ( second highest average on the team) with a .342 onbase percentage and .435 slugging percentage.
On Wednesday, Wendle took a moment to reflect on why he thought the A’s let him go in a trade to the Rays for a minorleague catcher, Jonah Heim, who debuted in the majors this year.
“I don’t know if it was necessarily that they completely gave up on me other than where they were as an organization,” Wendle said. “They had a young prospect ( Franklin Barreto) who was looking very promising at second base behind me. They had an older player in Jed Lowrie ahead of me. I think it was just more of what their roster needed.”
Lowrie’s last year with the A’s was 2018, and Barreto remained an A’s prospect until he was dealt Aug. 29 to the Angels for Tommy La Stella.
Like the A’s, the Rays can’t outspend teams or afford many mistakes with their drafts and transactions. They’re forced to be creative and unconventional to get an edge, whether it’s with building rosters, drawing up lineups or deploying pitchers.
Wendle has witnessed it firsthand with both teams.
“There are definitely some similarities in terms of how they find value in players that maybe other organizations don’t see,” Wendle said. “I think there are some differences, too, from top to bottom. Not to say one is better than the other, but there are differences in just the atmosphere and relationships and things that are a little bit different for me.
“But I’m still close with a lot of people in the Oakland organization, and there are a lot of good people there who do things the right way as well.”
Wendle doubled to rightcenter off Dustin May in the fourth inning, putting the Rays ahead 30, and his sixthinning sacrifice fly made it 62. Brandon Lowe homered twice and knocked in Tampa Bay’s other three runs.
“We know May has a 100mph power sinker, so I was trying to be ready for that,” Wendle said. “That helped me be on time for his cutter. It was the second one I saw in a row, and he left it out over the plate a little bit.”
The World Series is at the Rangers’ new facility in Arlington,
Texas, and the Rays are playing in front of fans for the first time this season, a bit more than 11,000 per game.
No fans were permitted at the ALCS in San Diego, and now Wendle and his teammates have the luxury of looking into the crowd and seeing family and friends amid the fan cutouts, though he said Dodgers fans outnumber Rays fans, which he said he uses as motivation.
“It was fun just to hear real reaction from real people,” Wendle said, “whether it was good or bad, for us or against us. I thought it was kind of refreshing to have fans in the stands.”