Burrell to attend sister's wedding

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Pat Burrell will rejoin the Rays on Monday after spending the weekend in San Francisco to attend his sister's wedding.

"The wedding is [Saturday]," manager Joe Maddon said. "And he has to fly back from San Francisco. So we gave him a couple of extra days for the distance. ... I thought we could live [without him for] three days in March."

Maddon has known about the wedding since the day Tampa Bay signed Burrell to a two-year, $16 million deal on Jan. 5. Maddon could relate to Burrell's attending a family function, as Maddon missed a weekend series in his first year as the Rays' manager to attend the college graduation of his fiancee -- who is now his wife.

"I told him all about that," Maddon said. "I said, 'I've done that.'"

Maddon is not concerned about Burrell getting enough at-bats. Burrell is hitting .250 with two RBIs in eight official spring at-bats.

"By the time he gets back, it's going to be almost like a normal Spring Training," Maddon said. "And as a DH, we can get him as many at-bats as he wants. And the other nice thing to remember is Minor League camp is right there. We can send guys over to get at-bats at the Minor League camp if they want more at-bats. So we've got all these different abilities now that we haven't had in the past. ... The length of the camp is so much greater that we're not worried about a situation where he's coming back from a wedding."

(mlb.com)