Rays Interested In Ron Mahay

According to Marc Lancaster, the Rays are looking for a left-handed reliever.  Ron Mahay is on the radar, and Jeremy Affeldt is another possibility.  The Rays are moving quickly to plug up their holes - will this team finally break .500 in 2008?

Looking through the MLBTR archives, the Yankees, Brewers, and Royals seem to be the main suitors for Mahay.  Meanwhile Affeldt interests the Mariners, Braves, and Astros.

Lancaster's article also indicates the Rays are looking for a left-handed hitter who can handle right field and first base.  DRays Bay thinks that means Darin Erstad, Ryan Klesko, or Mike Lamb.  I'll add Cliff Floyd, Luke Scott, Shawn Green, Trot Nixon, Brad Wilkerson, and Eric Hinske to the discussion.

Comments

[bobhamelin]

too bad the rays traded delmon young. would love to see a jimmy gobble for jonny gomes or elijah dukes trade for KC.

[gogopalehose]

They should cool it on adding relievers. They have enough pitching already to fill those holes when their young starters hit the majors- Neimann and Edwin Jackson might be dominant in short spurts while Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Price and any number of their pitching prospects take over the fifth spot. They could be a potentially great ballclub. Think about it...the Rays FINALLY putting it together.

I think that they should use their trade pieces to acquire a big catcher and a DH or right fielder. Then you have to ask yourself whether Gomes and Baldelli would cut it over a full season...

[celtics464]

Yanks better hope Santana doesn't go to Boston or the Mets because they are looking like a 4th place team right now. Hopefully they get a RF so they don't have to rely on Gomes and Baldelli. I'd rather see them both dealt so they don't even have to worry about them again.

[bjsguess]

Any plan that counts on Edwin Jackson is seriously flawed.

[Torchy]

You might want to add the braves to the Mahay list. They did just offer him arbitration.

[gogopalehose]

Yes, but they aren't going to just throw away all that talent. He would probably be a mop-up man in any plan, but he is still very young and still has great stuff. He should be tried in a relief role before he is put on waivers.

I wonder if they could make a big splash in the trade or free agent market. Maybe I am dreaming but it would be awesome to see them go for Rowand or Andruw. Rowand's cousin is Shields, I wonder if that would matter at all to him. That would be better than relying on Gomes or Baldelli at any rate. They have a decent 7-8-9 in Wheeler, Reyes and Percival so they should be OK there. It's just that they have so much pitching depth now, it all has to go somewhere.

[tolo316]

Why would the Rays need a left hand hitting 1st baseman? Don't they have Carlos Pena?

[gogopalehose]

Assuming they don't really need a lefty hitting first basemen, they could go after Piazza or Mike Sweeney for DH...

Would they consider adding Fukudome? He would probably consider it because of Iwamura's presence.

[kevybo1]

They'd need a much bigger payroll to sign Fukodome.

[ArodSucksAtLife]

"They should cool it on adding relievers."

This is exactly what they should be doing. Imagine if they've gotten to sign Gagne, and Dotel last off season, then traded them in july. They bring in these free agent relievers, if the season isn't going very well come July they unload them for prospects. Giving their minor leaguers another 3-4 months of development time. Its a great plan.

[gogopalehose]

They already have guys like that...ie Wheeler, Percival, Reyes...they should probably invest in guys they want to keep for awhile. But I doubt that happens...

TB has a lot of live arms but a lot of them have blown it. They will be putting a lot of guys on waivers and will have a heavy AAA rotation. They COULD pull a KC with Dotel, though, that doesn't seem like a bad idea.

[sugarshane024]

Matt Stairs??