ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Former Webster University All-American pitcher Josh Fleming has been named to the Tampa Bay Rays 60 player roster for the upcoming abbreviated 2020 Major League Baseball season that begins in late July.
 
Fleming, who was a non-roster invitee to the Rays during MLB spring training camp in March, is one 13 starting pitchers on the 60 player roster of players available for the Rays to use in 2020. The Rays will restart preparations for the 2020 season on Friday, July 3 at Tropicana Field, with the regular season scheduled to begin on either July 23 or July 24.
 
For the 2020 season, MLB teams will submit a list of 60 players eligible to play in 2020 – the usual 40-man roster, plus a "taxi squad" of 20 players. Once the regular season begins, MLB team will carry 30 players for two weeks, 28 players for the next two weeks and 26 for the remainder of the season. The remainder of those players on the 60 player roster, will train and prepare at the Rays spring training complex in Port Charlotte, Fla.
 
Fleming, who was a fifth round selection (139th pick overall) of the Rays in the 2017 MLB Draft, is entering his fourth season of professional baseball in 2020 and was expected to start the season at Triple-A Durham (N.C.) before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the sports world in mid-March and has forced the cancellation of the entire minor league baseball season for 2020.
 
In his third minor league season in 2019, Fleming, who finished the 2019 season at Triple-A Durham, was named the MVP of the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits of the Southern League by the Rays after making 21 appearances on the mound for the Biscuits.
 
For the 2019 season at both the Double and Triple-A levels, Fleming went a combined 12-7 with a 3.57 ERA. He made 25 appearances, including 20 starts and tossed three complete game and one shutout. In 148.2 innings of work over two teams, Fleming allowed 151 hits, 70 runs, 59 earned runs, walked 27 and recorded 108 strikeouts. On the year, he had a combined WHIP of 1.20.
 
Since beginning his professional career with Princeton (W.Va.) in the Appalachian League in the summer of 2017, Fleming has posted a 22-13 record and a 3.40 ERA in 56 appearances and 46 starts for five different teams. In his professional career, he has tossed four complete games, one shutout and in 294 career innings, he has recorded 214 strikeouts and walked just 53.
 
After pitching in 12 games at the Rookie level with Princeton, Fleming, who was named the D3Baseball.com Pitcher of the Year in 2017, began the 2018 season with Bowling Green (Ky.) in the Class-A Midwest League, before being promoted to High A Port Charlotte (Fla.) in the Florida State League. In 2018, Fleming went a combined 9-4 with a 2.53 ERA at the Single-A level and then opened the 2019 season at Double-A Montgomery, before his mid-August promotion to Triple-A Durham.