ST. PETERSBURG. Last December the Rays were part of a three-way trade with the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers. The only big name in the trade was Jurickson Profar who went from Texas to Oakland. The Rays gave up pitcher Brock Burke, a once-heralded 2014 draftee who had lost time to injury.
And without much fanfare, the Rays acquired a then-27 year old reliever with two major league seasons under his belt, the first of which (with Seattle) was pretty good, the second and more recent of which (with Oakland) was not. Emilio Pagan, a South Carolina native, had been a tenth round draft pick in 2013.