Rays first baseman James Loney has been informed that he won’t make the team’s Opening Day roster, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (Twitter links). He has been informed he’ll either be traded or released.
Loney is owed $8MM this year in the final season of the three-year pact he signed to return to Tampa Bay before the 2014 campaign. He was displaced by the team’s addition of several players, including fellow left-handed hitters Logan Morrison and Corey Dickerson, over the winter.
It remains to be seen whether the Rays can find a taker for any of that salary, though the failure to do so thus far suggests it may not be a viable option.
Though he’s a high-average hitter, Loney doesn’t draw a ton of walks and doesn’t have much pop. His production at the plate has tailed off in each successive year he’s been with the Rays, and he hit at a below-average clip (.280/.322/.357) in an injury-limited 2015 season. Loney has traditionally rated well with the glove, though metrics have seen him as very slightly below average in the last two seasons.
I think he’ll probably be traded. SF might want him to send to the minors if Belt gets hurt bad.
Nope, they already have Blanks in the minors, or they could always carry three catchers once Susac is healthy.
Cause no one screams “durable” like Kyle blanks
Loney is not going to the minors. I think Pittsburgh is a good fit as the Jaso experiment is not necessary.
Except that Jaso is better than Loney … with the bat in any case.
Jaso is a much better hitter though. Even if his glove proves to be a problem (and there’s no reason to think it will be), they have Rogers, Morse, Freese & Goebbert who all project at least as well as Loney.
Not to mention Jaso can’t be worse than Alvarez in the field, and they still won over 90 games last year.
The Bucs have reportedly looked into acquiring Loney in each of the past few offseasons. Now, however, they have plenty of 1B candidates: Jaso, Morse, Jason Rogers, David Freese (once Jung Ho Kang is healthy), and Jake Goebbert (who was sent down to AAA today). That ship has sailed for Pittsburgh.
How about Boston? I understand they don’t have much of a 1B?
Loney has been in the majors for over 3 years so he can’t just be sent back to the minors. He has to approve that action.
Astros could take Loney and Rene Rivera. Maybe send some mid level prospects in return.
Rene is a free man, and shouldn’t take much in way of prospects since they have stated they don’t want him on OD roster.
Astros should have no interest on him even though he is from Houston. They had a 4-man battle for the first base during spring training. Loney does not represent an upgrade against what the Astros have internally.
The Rays will be lucky to get anything for James Loney, let alone middling prospects. They can’t even salary dump him by the looks.
Baseball-Reference says he’s due $9.67M this season, not $8M. Who is right?
The extra $1.67 is signing bonus $.
8 million. The extra amount was for a signing bonus he already received.
Thanks for the clarification!
Wrong. The signing bonus was spread out for 3 years. He’s due 9.6 which is the other reason why nobody is taking him. Nobody wants to give up the prospect. With the Rays saying he won’t make the roster their is no incentive for any club to trade any asset since a waiver claim will basically get a decent 1st baseman that the Rays will pay for.
Now this is huge news to me! The smallest market team in pro sports with the lowest payroll in baseball decides to eat 9% of their payroll? I would have to think that someone is going to pick up the corpse known as James loney and assume at least a portion of that money. No way Tampa acts like a big market club and eats that cash!
On paper as far as a baseball move, I love it. Symmetry! No dead spots, and all pieces working towards a common goal and not forcing a player to play because you pay him to do so. Good going for the Rays, I just hope they don’t eat that cash, they simply can’t afford it.
Well said, but I’d argue we can afford it because, IMO, this should make the Rays better this year in the long run. However, an additional $8mm would have been extremely nice for another bat or backend bullpen piece.
I agree! And another thing going for the Rays is they have goodwill all across the MLB. I mean look, all their aces/studs making combined billions all over the lg. (Price, Shields, Zobrist,etc). There has to be a team appreciative of them trading them an asset that got out of their comfort level financially that will pay some of the corpse of Loney’s money. I am looking forward to seeing him traded as opposed to them eating the cash so they can do as you said, reallocate that cash to a much better use this season at some point.
Maybe we can sell him to the Cuban team,
they were probably impressed by him, JK !!
Quite a bit of drama based on an incorrect assumption. Multiple incorrect assumptions actually.
Tampa Bay is not the smallest market in professional sports. Quite the contrary. Just a few examples? Jacksonville, Memphis, Nashville, Columbus, Oklahoma City, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Winnipeg, and Green Bay.
Lowest payroll in MLB? Again, incorrect. TB is 28th in projected payroll. Is the difference between 28th and 30th significant. Only in that it proves that you are just being dramatic without actually basing your drama on fact.
Can’t afford it? Actually the Rays, like most teams, turned an operating profit in 2015.
So again, you make an assumption based on comments made here and other similarly ill informed sources. But you really sound like you know what you’re talking about. Too bad you actually don’t. And no, before you make it even worse, that’s operating profit exclusive of revenue sharing.
Pedantic response. It’s just baseball, a little hyperbole is welcome!
Yeah…. lol….. I just knew someone was going to have some time on their hands to dissect that…… I read an article in December projecting Tampa as being 28th in payroll… unfortunately, I write for a company and had to do research on the subject. So, if I worded it against your better judgment and you prefer for me to be more specific and not as you say dramatic, I apologize.
I was not trying to be dramatic, I loosely spoke facts. I assumed nothing.
Smallest market: I should have worded it differently so you would have no way to pick it apart, but since I didn’t here is why I called them the smallest market.
*They play in
St. Petersburg ~ population = 253K (Not Tampa)
Your examples:
Jacksonville = 873K
Memphis = 670K
Nashville = 1.7MM
Columbus = 825K
OK City= 1.4MM
Fort Lauderdale? In Miami Metro with 6MM people and no bridge separating anything like St. Pete.And even the County seat called Ft Lauderdale is only 100k less than St. Pete
Orlando 262K (with 2.3MM in outlying metro area population)
Winnipeg = 663K
Green bay…. A team that has sold out for 70 years straight and represent a state only has 104K
Market size is equal to their following as well as support from local naming rights as well as the community around them that support their product. Comparing Winnepeg, green bay, and Ft. Lauderdale is absolutely no comparison to my point.
* They made the least amount of money in MLB in 2015, same as they have for the last couple of years.
*Lowest profit in 2015(’14 as well)
31,042 maximum capacity where their attendance figures were 15, 332 on average, good for less than 49% capacity.
The 76ers average the worse in the NBA at 72%.
Carolina in the NHL fills up 64% for the worst in the lg.(Winnipeg fills up 101.9%).
St. Louis rams fills up at 80% capacity for the worst in the NFL(GB leads all US Sports filling their stadium to 7.2% beyond capacity on average).
Back to the point in baseball, Cleveland averaged fewer % in terms of filling to capacity, but they have a larger ballpark and they still averaged 2,000 more fans per night and had 3 less home games. (110.000 more fans in total)
In payroll. you can go to a list and find a website that adds up all the salaries of the players on the active roster. Hell, you can do that yourself with a calculator(But you’re probably looking up populations of cities now), but for the detailed article I wrote about the rays, when you adjust for deferred salaries, disabled list money being paid by insurance, major lg players getting minor lg money due to the split contracts. The Tampa rays have the lowest amount of money going out to players in MLB, period. I actually don’t even know who you could be speaking of having a lower payroll. Maybe Milwaukee? they have deferred payments to Kyle Lohse as well as other player obligations that don’t count towards their 25 man roster(on the papers you read) that they are currently paying as well as pre arb salaries that actually get paid to players. Marlins? Braves? No clue…..
I was going to list all of the links and resources I used writing the article I published 3 months ago, but I stopped at the 2 below, besides you might not have your subscriptions paid up for the other ones anyway. I appreciate you taking so much time out of your life to try to pick my post apart, and I welcome more replies to my editorial, but maybe you’ll find time to publish a positive writing on this type of forum instead of attempting to make one look bad in a loosely set comment section. I in no way led your people to slaughter by not going into grave detail on something I already researched. i merely gave a comment based on things that were in my head due to previous research. It pertained to this, so I used it. Thank you for correcting my childish dramatizations.
bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2016/03/23/where-the…
forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list/#tab:overall
Whoa.
*bow of respect to thechiguy*
Yeah, you really should have worded it better. “Market size” refers strictly to the metro area population (and not just the city population like you noted) regardless of following. For example, St. Louis is technically a smaller market even though they draw better than most MLB teams and comfortably maintain an above median payroll.
LoL, I spent 5 minutes debunking your loosely supported claims and you spent another how long trying to rationalize them? I think the key point in your dissertation is that you’re published. Good for you. If you care to be published on any sort of continuing basis, I’d do that rationalization research first, use credible data, and reach credible conclusions BEFORE you publish.
Just sayin’
Cheers, mate.
mad props for this
Lots of words
A moneyball team that cuts a veteran leader that can hit being influenced by his lack of walks and defensive statistics. Were Hosmer not on the Royals, Loney would fit on the World Series champs perfectly.
He’s not a good hitter.
hes better than Logan Morrison.
Hit .280 last year and .290 the year before that.
Check the BA’s of other players in MLB.
And how many bad throws downs the guy save his infield? You’ll find out this year.
Great team leader. Loney will be a great pick-up wherever he lands.
BA is one of the most overrated stats in baseball. I watch 150+ games a year & while Loney would hit for average, he had 4 HRs, 101 of his 129 hits were singles, and a downright sad 32 RBIs. You can’t have an everyday first baseman with a line like that.
A few years ago, the Rays signed Kotchmann to a rehab contract. He hit .310 or something like that. Same situation, no power, tons of singles with nobody on and two outs, less than 50 RBIs.
Point being, a batting average is only as good as the production it provides. Slow footed base runners on first with 2 outs isn’t production, its statistics.
If LoMo/Pearce/Guyer whoever the Rays platoon at 1B hit .250 but drive in a combined 75 or 100 runs, so much the better for the Rays who have trouble scoring runs. And if that combination contributes an extra 10 or 15 errors over the season, who cares? Teams don’t score that many runs on that pitching staff.
Hear, hear good sir.
“BA is one of the most overrated stats in baseball.”
If I hear that one more time I’m going to explode. OK, it’s true in rotisserie league. Not in MLB……
A high BA means the batter is putting the ball in play. And balls put in play make things happen, even when there aren’t hits. It forces the defense to make a play – oftentimes they don’t, and a smart team can take advantage of it (see Tim Kurkjian’s article on the Royals making the biggest play in the 2015 WS when Hosmer scored from 3rd). I agree with Tony LaRussa – OBP is one of the most overrated statistics in baseball. But there has always been a difference between measuring a players “productivity” and watching players that do things that help their team win games. It’s why the Royals have been so underestimated for 2 years, and again this coming season.
And I see parts of at least 700+ games a year on MLB.TV.
Loney is a winner. He is going to help the team that gets him win more games this year.
Any stat besides BA is better. And Loney’s defense has slipped, he has zero power. Can’t run. He’s a pinch-hitter in an era in which teams can’t carry pinch-hitters.
Yeah but like you just said about Kotchman. There was no one on base….. The same went for Loney… You can’t fault them for RBIs when tehre is no one on base…
I’d like to really get deep into a discussion about this, but one feels we wouldn’t come to an agreement.
Let me asses it like this:
Chris Johnson won the NL batting title a few years ago.
Please don’t use an isolated play as any evidence of what a players value would be over the entire season – writers love to ride the narrative (ie a play that happened on the biggest stage of all) to get clicks.
There is a slew of analysis – not opinion, analysis – that would poke holes in your theories. I love players putting the ball in play, good as gold – that doesn’t mean we need to be calling up David Eckstein and giving him a job. Or should we?
The eye test is subjective. Analytics are far away from quantifying the game of baseball. Many eyes, and almost all analytics, point to James Loney being terrible with the bat, and well-below par in the field – living off a reputation he built years ago, not because of excellent glovework, but because of the narrative that “he can’t hit, so he must have a slick glove”.
He’s a negative baserunner, a negative fielder, and a negative hitter. No amount of “he puts the ball in play” can overcome that. Even his situational stats aren’t impressive.
Don’t let the game leave you behind – choosing to write off progression in an understanding of this great game, isn’t noble,
Great response. I’m not sure your OP is anything but a troll, however this response hopefully will help those that are still forming an opinion become more educated.
Chris Johnson did come in second to Michael Cuddyer but didn’t win the batting title.
I agree that batting average isn’t as overrated as a lot of people think (although it’s ironic that you guys are then singing the praises of RBIs, which are highly dependent on teammate performance and lineup position; at the very least only look at them in combination with Runs scored).
However, it’s still only a piece of a position player’s overall profile. You also need to look at the guy’s power hitting (both homers and other extra-base hits), plate discipline (K’s and BB’s), defense, and to a minor extent baserunning. I haven’t been keeping up with the situation, but how does Loney’s overall game compare to the Rays’ other options?
Chris Johnson never led his league in batting average.
Noted, mixed being in the race in ’13 and ran with it in a haste before checking.
He is basically Billy Butler with a glove. They already cut Butler.
I would never signed him in the first place. Not for that kind of money.
The current regime didn’t sign him. We have good old Mr. Friedman to thank for that. Another one of his stellar moves that the Rays had to deal with. Same as when he signed Jose Molina and Grant Balfour to two year deals before skipping town.
White Sox are an obvious answer for a Left Handed DH/Back Up 1st baseman looking for a job,
Not much power, but an upgrade over Ishikawa for certain if he comes in at reasonable rate.
He’s not an upgrade over Ishakawa in the OF.
Get on the phone, preller
More like stay away Preller.
I think Angels should see if they can get him without all the salary. Lefty first baseman can help Cron out at the position. He’s also another possibility if Pujols’ foot acts up during the season. He’s always been able to get hits and I see him as an underrated first baseman.