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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Updates on arbitration and trade/free agent front

Posted Jan 15, 2013 by Roger Mooney

Updated Jan 15, 2013 at 07:46 PM

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG Rays RHP Jeff Niemann, INF Ryan Roberts and OFs Sam Fuld and Matt Joyce are among the 133 major league players who filed Tuesday for arbitration.

The Rays and the players have until 1 p.m. Friday to exchange numbers for a 2013 contract.

Rays executive vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said deals could still be reached before Friday’s deadline.

“I just don’t have a good feel. Very well could, just don’t know yet,” he said.

Friedman also said the quest to add two relief pitchers and one or two bats continues.

“Continuing to canvas the market for free agents and trades and seeing what lines up that makes us better,” he said. “We certainly don’t need to do anything. We feel comfortable with the guys that we have in house, but that being said, obviously we’d like to continue to get better. By doing that, we also add more depth, which is a good thing.”

Friedman said he is still searching for a traditional designated hitter but doesn’t feel a pressing need to add one.

“Point is, there’s a scenario where you have one position player who’s not a DH and you just rotate a bunch of guys through to get them off their feet, and then there’s scenarios where you add a more traditional DH,” he said. “We’re just going through all those scenarios.”