ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays will be without Mike Zunino for the next couple of games as the club announced that the catcher was placed on the paternity list on Friday.

Zunino got off to a slow start at the plate, but he has picked it up over the last week. After starting the season 2-for-29, Zunino is riding a six-game hitting streak and has a 1.045 OPS over that span. Zunino has also been a key piece of Tampa Bay's defense, throwing out 45 percent of potential basestealers.

“Everybody is good and healthy,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “No baby yet, to my knowledge. But he had given us a heads-up yesterday morning that the plan was that his wife was seeing a doctor and he was going to go back.”

With Zunino set to miss a couple of games, catcher Nick Ciuffo was recalled from Triple-A Durham to serve as the team’s second catcher. Ciuffo was the team’s first-round pick in the 2013 Draft and made his big league debut in '18, appearing in 16 games in September for the Rays. Ciuffo is known as a quality defender, but he's hitting just .158 in 10 games with Durham this season.

Placing Zunino on the paternity list was one of two moves the club made before beginning its series vs. the Red Sox over the weekend at Tropicana Field. Due to a tired bullpen after consecutive days using the opener and an extra-inning game on Thursday, the Rays selected the contract of right-hander Casey Sadler from Triple-A Durham and sent down right-hander Emilio Pagán, who appeared in the previous two games out of the bullpen, yielding one earned run despite not allowing a hit over his three innings of work.

Sadler was a non-roster invitee for the Rays this spring, but he made quite an impression. The right-hander made nine appearances for the Rays this spring, finishing with a 3.94 ERA over 16 innings. Sadler made two big league appearances last season with the Pirates, but he allowed nine hits and seven runs (four earned) in 4 1/3 innings.

“He was probably able to give us the most length for tonight and moving forward,” Cash said, when asked why Sadler was the choice to join the bullpen. “We’ll see where we get tonight.

“We’re happy to have him. He did some nice things for us in Spring Training. He has some big league experience, so he’ll be one of the guys down trying to help us win a game.”

With Sadler going on the 40-man roster, the Rays moved right-handed pitcher Jose De Leon, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. De Leon, who missed the entire 2018 season, continued his rehab process in Port Charlotte and had another encouraging session. The right-hander pitched 1 1/3 innings, which was the plan coming into the outing, and threw 18 of his 22 pitches for strikes.

Wendle getting close to return

Joey Wendle, who has been sidelined since April 1 with a left hamstring issue, appears close to returning to the Rays lineup. The infielder played in a couple of extended spring training games in Port Charlotte and says that he “feels ready” to return to the big league club.

“I feel good. I feel healthy,” Wendle said. “I was able to make some plays and some instinctual things without even thinking about my hamstring, so I think that’s the goal. You can be fully healthy and still be thinking about it and it affects your play, but I was able to do some things without even thinking about it. So hopefully it’s a non-issue moving forward.”

Even though Wendle feels ready to return, the Rays still want to make sure that there’s no more issues with the injury before bringing him back.

“I’m going to talk to him sometime tonight and we’ll kind of revisit what our plans are,” Cash said. “We’re confident he’s very close and he’s still there.”