Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times says that Hank Blalock will not accept an assignment to the Minors if he does not make the Tampa Bay Rays’ 25-man roster.

“I don’t have any plans on playing minor-league baseball this year,’’ Blalock said. “At this time in my life, if there’s no major-league opportunities for me then I’ll find something else to do.’’

Blalock has the option to opt-out of he not on the Major League roster when camp breaks.

The infielder/DH is hitting just .219 with 1 home run and 4 RBIs this Spring.

Maddon also said Blalock’s refusal to go the minors would not impact their decision: “Something like that would not cause us to make a decision or reverse a decision that we may have made otherwise. That would just be unfortunate. But when it comes down to making a decision like that, because a player says he would not choose to do something then you don’t do something you didn’t want to do originally. So that should not be part of the final decision I would think.”

Blalock, 29, hit 25 home runs in 2009 for the Texas Rangers, but had a .277 on-base percentage. You can see Blalock’s contract history and statistics here.