Rays Release Former Top Prospect OF Desmond Jennings

The Tampa Bay Rays have officially released former top outfield prospect Desmond Jennings, according to according to Bill Chastain of MLB.com.

Jennings was on Tampa Bay’s 15-day disabled list with a knee injury, which is part of the reason he is no longer a Ray.

The 29-year-old Jennings has been dealing with several leg injuries over the last few years. He was on the disabled list earlier in the season with a hamstring strain, and underwent left knee surgery last year, which limited him to just 28 games.

“It was time,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said when asked about the decision to part ways with Jennings. “Best for him, best for us going forward.”

“It’s unfortunate it didn’t work out,” Cash said. “We couldn’t quite get him on the field as much as we would have liked. We had to make a decision.

Jennings was ranked the 5th best prospect by Baseball America entering the 2009 season and was in the 2010 Future’s Game. Between 2011 and 2014, Jennings hit 47 home runs and stole 86 bases. In the two years since 2014, Jennings has only 8 homers and seven stolen bases in 333 plate appearances.

In his second season of arbitration, Jennings was making $3.3 million. Many around the league expected Jennings to hit free agency after this year, but he will still instead hit the open market about two months earlier.

For his MLB career, Jennings is batting .245/.322/.393 with 55 homers, 191 RBIs, and 95 stolen bases over 2,351 career plate appearances. This season, Jennings is batting .200/.281/.350 with 7 homers, 20 RBIs, and two stolen bases.

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