The Rays will be without 25-year old switch hitting outfielder Fernando Perez for at least the next three months due to a dislocated left wrist. He injured it diving for a ball in spring training. Perez played in 23 games for the Rays last season and he was 15 for 60 (.250 avg, .751 OPS) with 18 runs scored, 3 homers, 8 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Perez also played in 129 games in AAA ball last season and he was 147 for 511 (.288 avg, .754 OPS) with 86 runs scored, 5 homers, 36 RBIs and 43 stolen bases. This hurts the depth of the Rays but Perez was likely to start the 2009 season in AAA.

UPDATE: Perez will now be gone 4-5 months after his surgery to his wrist as additional ligament damage was found and corrected.

29-year old righty swinging Jason Bartlett will be the starting shortstop again in 2009 and the Rays hope he can stay healthy all year long. He played in 128 games for the Rays last season and he was 130 for 454 (.286 avg, .690 OPS) with 48 runs scored, 1 homer, 37 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. He showed slightly below average range in the field and made 16 errors in 125 games at shortstop for the Rays in 2008. Bartlett does play hard all of the time and it rubs off on his teammates at times.

27-year old switch hitting Ben Zobrist will likely be Bartlett’s backup in 2009. He played in 62 games for the Rays last season and he was 50 for 198 (.253 avg, .844 OPS) with 32 runs scored, 12 homers, 30 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. He did however make 7 errors in only 35 games at shortstop while showing poor range. Zobrist will need to play better defense if he wants to keep his job as the utility man for the Rays.

23-year old lefty swinging Reid Brignac is supposedly the shortstop of the future for the Rays but he didn’t look like it last season. Brignac played in 4 games for the Rays last season and he was 0 for 10 (.000 avg) with 1 run scored. He also looked nervous in the field making 2 errors at shortstop in only 4 games for the Rays while showing good range. Brignac also played in 97 games in AAA-ball last season in which he was 88 for 352 (.250 avg, .711 OPS) with 43 runs scored, 9 homers, 43 RBIs and 5 stolen bases.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2009 SEASON: C