Kiermaier Promoted to Tampa Bay

Outfielder Kevin Kiermaier was promoted from the Bulls to the Rays on Friday afternoon, marking his first regular season promotion to the Majors. Last season, the 23-year-old made a dramatic MLB debut as a defensive replacement in Game 163 against Texas, and was also on the roster for the AL Wild Card game against Cleveland.

This season, the Indiana native was off to a hot start for the Bulls, hitting .310–2–7 in just seven games, while scoring a league-leading 10 runs and swiping a base. He began the 2013 campaign with Double-A Montgomery, hitting .307 in 97 games while stroking five dingers and driving in 27. He was promoted to Durham at the end of July and then proceeded to hit .263 in 39 games before his late-season promotion to the Rays.

Entering this season Kiermaier was a career .275 hitter in four minor league seasons after he was drafted out of Parkland Community College in Illinois, where his road to the draft was all but unlikely.

Taking Kiermaier’s spot on the roster is LHP Jeff Beliveau, who was promoted to Tampa Bay earlier in the week and then optioned back after pitching a scoreless inning against the Royals on Wednesday.