De Leon has impressed the Rays with his performance and conditioning this spring, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.
After an injury-plagued 2017, De Leon worked with Edgar Diaz, the trainer of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez this offseason. While the Rays have not explicitly shared their planned role for De Leon to begin 2018, his chances of becoming a factor in the rotation early on may have increased Thursday when top prospect Brent Honeywell left his bullpen session with a forearm strain. If healthy, De Leon should be called upon to make an impact with the Rays this season, but he's logged just 144.1 innings over the past two campaigns around several DL stints.