Rays acquire OF Dylan Carlson
The Rays sent Shawn Armstrong to St. Louis to complete the deal
The Tampa Bay Rays have acquired outfielder Dylan Carlson from the St Louis Cardinals in exhange for right-handed pitcher Shawn Armstrong.
Via the Rays official press release:
Carlson, 25, hit .198/.275/.240 (24-for-121) with five doubles, 11 RBI, 12 walks and 12 runs scored over 59 games for the Cardinals this season. He began the year on the 10-day injured list (left AC sprain) before being reinstated on May 5. The Elk Grove, California native has appeared in 447 games in his major league career, batting .239 with 81 doubles, 10 triples, 34 home runs and 161 RBI. In 2021, he finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting and was named to Baseball America’s All-Rookie Team after setting Cardinals franchise records for a rookie switch-hitter in hits (144), extra-base hits (53), total bases (237), doubles (31), RBI (65) and walks (57).
In 2019, Carlson was named Texas League MVP and Cardinals Minor League Player of the Year after hitting .292 (143-for-489) with 62 extra-base hits, 60 RBI, 58 walks, 95 runs scored and 20 stolen bases over 126 games between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis. He was selected by St. Louis in the first round (No. 33 overall) of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of Elk Grove (Calif.) High School. Baseball America rated him as the Cardinals No. 1 prospect in both 2019 and 2020. He reached as high as No. 9 on the publication’s top 100 prospects list.
Carlson went through his first round of arbitration this past offseason and is making $2.35M in 2024; he also still has all of his remaining options and is under contract through the 2026 season.
Shawn Armstrong heads to St. Louis after spending the past several seasons with the Rays, dating back to 2021. There was small tenure with the Marlins in 2022, but Armstrong returned to Tampa Bay later on that season. Since returning to the Rays in 2022, Armstrong has compiled a 3.40 ERA | 3.18 FIP with a 25.2 K% & 6.7 BB% over 153 2⁄3 innings pitched. Thus far in 2024, Armstrong has registered a 5.40 ERA | 3.76 FIP with a 23.4 K% & 8.9 BB% over 46 2⁄3 innings pitched.