Some surprises as second round of cuts made.

PORT CHARLOTTE, FL – Thursday morning, more cuts were made down in Port Charlotte. Of the 10 cut, OF Jake Bauers and 1B Casey Gillaspie were reassigned to AAA Durham.

Bauers hit a team-leading four home runs, 11 RBI also led the team, and a slash line of .353/.439/.824 and an even more impressive OPS of 1.263.

Gillaspie finished with three home runs, eight RBI and slugged .500 with an OPS of .786 despite hitting .211.

Others reassigned to Durham were OF’s Johnny Field and Dayron Varona, INF Jake Hager, 3B Patrick Leonard, and pitchers Andrew Kittredge, and Neil Wagner. They also granted the release of pitchers David Carpenter and Jeff Walters.

Leonard is another name to keep an eye on as the season begins. He’s not going to dethrone Evan Longoria at third, however he did have an impressive spring. His 1.043 OPS was second on the team and he hit .290 in 17 games. It’s very likely he’s towards the top of injury call-ups at first or third base. He hit .198 in 42 games at Durham in 2016, something he’ll need to improve on this year.

Wagner, 33, heads to Durham after putting together a very impressive spring, himself. In six games, Wagner didn’t allow a run and struck out eight in 7.1 innings. The Rays signed him back in 2014 after he underwent Tommy John surgery in August of that year. He’s been in their system since and got his first invite to spring last year. He hasn’t played at the MLB level since 2014 with Toronto.