This is the latest post of MLBTR’s annual Offseason in Review series, in which we take stock of every team’s winter dealings.
After a surprising 2018 season, the Rays prepared for a full return to contention with some intriguing trades and the priciest free agent signing in club history.
Major League Signings
- Charlie Morton, SP: Two years, $30MM (plus vesting option for 2021 that could be worth as much as $15MM depending on time spent on injured list)
- Avisail Garcia, OF: One year, $3.5MM
- Total spend: $33.5MM
Trades And Claims
- Acquired C Mike Zunino, OF Guillermo Heredia, and minor league LHP Michael Plassmeyer from the Mariners for OF Mallex Smith and minor league OF Jake Fraley
- Acquired IF Yandy Diaz and RHP Cole Sulser from the Indians as part of a three-team trade also involving the Mariners. (Indians acquired 1B Carlos Santana and $6MM from Seattle, and 1B/OF Jake Bauers from Tampa Bay. Mariners acquired $5MM from Tampa Bay, and 1B/DH Edwin Encarnacion and a Competitive Balance Draft Round-B pick from Cleveland.)
- Acquired RHP Emilio Pagan and Competitive Balance Draft Round-A pick from the Athletics, and minor league RHP Rollie Lacy from the Rangers as part of a three-team trade. (A’s acquired IF Jurickson Profar from Texas. Rangers acquired minor league IF Eli White and $750K in international bonus money from Oakland, and minor league right-hander Yoel Espinal and minor league LHPs Brock Burke and Kyle Bird from Tampa Bay.)
- Acquired RHP Oliver Drake from the Blue Jays for cash considerations
- Acquired minor league IF Gionti Turner from the Indians for RHP Chih-Wei Hu
- Acquired minor league RHP Caleb Sampen from the Dodgers for RHP Jaime Schultz
Notable Minor League Signings
- Jake Smolinski, Emilio Bonifacio, Luis Santos, Tyler Cloyd, Ryan Merritt, Casey Sadler, Ryan Sherriff, Ricardo Pinto, Jason Coats
Notable International Signings
- Sandy Gaston, RHP: $2.61MM signing bonus
Notable Losses
[Tampa Bay Rays Depth Chart | Tampa Bay Rays Payroll Outlook]
Needs Addressed
The Rays enjoyed great success with the “opener” strategy in 2018, and they’ll continue to use openers to account for two of their five rotation spots this season. Joining reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell and promising but still rather unproven righty Tyler Glasnow is an established veteran, yet one that still seems somewhat “young” in the sense that we’re only entering the third season of the reinvented Charlie Morton.
After nine seasons of decent but unspectacular work for the Braves, Pirates, and Phillies, Morton breathed new life into his career as a member of the 2017-18 Astros. The soft-tossing groundball specialist suddenly turned into a strikeout machine with a 95mph fastball, whiffing 364 batters in just 313 2/3 innings for Houston.
Since Morton turned 35 last November, however, his earning outlook was limited. It was the Rays who made a rare free agent splash to land the right-hander, agreeing to a sizable contract that doesn’t come with risk of long-term entanglements. Geography played a role (Morton and his family live in nearby Bradenton, Florida), though Morton was undoubtedly intrigued at the possibility of joining another young team that may be on the cusp of contention. This isn’t to say that the Rays are about to enjoy a 2017 Astros-esque level of success, yet the club has further established itself as a legitimate contender to reach the postseason, something that would’ve been sounded wild a year ago at this time.
Both last offseason and throughout 2018, Tampa Bay unloaded virtually all of its highest-paid veteran players, yet thrived by acquiring and developing unheralded young replacements who largely outproduced those more established names. This allowed the Rays to feel comfortable in making a big expenditure on Morton — his $15MM salary is almost a quarter of Tampa’s entire payroll.
This financial flexibility allowed the Rays to take a bit of a deeper look into the free agent and trade markets. Beyond Morton, Tampa Bay also had interest in such free agent names as slugger Nelson Cruz and second baseman DJ LeMahieu, while the Rays were also one of the many teams who discussed a J.T. Realmuto swap with the Marlins.
The Rays ended up doing in a different direction to address that latter need at catcher….well, as much as a Rays/Mariners trade can be described as “different” given the two clubs’ extensive history of deals. This time, the Rays and M’s combined on a five-player swap that saw Mallex Smith go to Seattle, while Tampa Bay added Guillermo Heredia to more or less take Smith’s place in the outfield, plus acquired catcher Mike Zunino to bring some stability behind the plate.
Zunino is well-known as one of the better defensive catchers in baseball, with outstanding pitch-framing and an increasing knack for throwing out baserunners. At minimum, the Rays will add some strong defense and some added pop to their catcher’s spot, as Zunino has 90 homers over the last five seasons. It seemed as if Zunino was rounding into becoming a true offensive force with a .251/.331/.509 season in 2017, yet he took a big step backwards to his old low-average and low-OBP ways last year, with just a .201/.259/.410 slash line over 405 plate appearances. The Rays as a whole cut back on their strikeout rate (25% to 22.4%) from 2017 to 2018, so there’s some hope that a new environment can help Zunino regain some of his 2017 patience.
Such a rebound would also be welcomed from Avisail Garcia, who turned in a huge 2017 but otherwise hasn’t completed a full season with an OBP of over .309. Garcia followed up his career year with a disappointing .236/.281/.438 performance over 385 PA, leading the White Sox to decline tendering a contract. The outfielder was hampered by injuries last year, however, leading the Rays to take a relatively inexpensive risk ($3.5MM) to see if Garcia can get on track.
The Rays’ offseason was also highlighted by a pair of three-team trades, one of which involved the Indians and (again) the Mariners. Tampa Bay’s involvement in the trade saw the Rays essentially swap former top prospect Jake Bauers for former Cleveland infielder Yandy Diaz, giving the Rays a bit more multi-positional versatility since Diaz can also play some third base, while matching Bauers’ skillset as a first baseman and corner outfielder. Minor league righty Cole Sulser and his eye-opening 12.3 K/9 at Triple-A also came to Tampa in the deal, giving the Rays another bullpen depth option.
A few years after being linked to Jurickson Profar in trade rumors, Tampa Bay was finally part of a Profar deal, only as the third team in the mix while the Athletics ended up with the infielder. The Rays’ contribution was three minor league pitchers to the Rangers, while picking up righty Emilio Pagan and a Competitive Balance Round-A draft pick (currently the 39th overall selection) from Oakland. Pagan will help fill the void left by veteran Sergio Romo in the bullpen, though Pagan’s tendency to allow a lot of fly balls and home runs will be tested in the AL East.
Questions Remaining
This is just speculative, but since the Rays picked up an extra draft pick in the Profar trade, perhaps that might make the team more open to surrendering a high pick to sign a qualifying offer free agent….like, for instance, Craig Kimbrel. The Rays are at least keeping an eye on Kimbrel’s market to see if the closer would be willing to take a shorter-term (one or two years) contract, though it may still be something of a longshot that Kimbrel ends up at Tropicana Field.
Adding Kimbrel would certainly be a major way of addressing a closer position that otherwise didn’t seem like a big priority for the Rays this winter. The team seems comfortable using Jose Alvarado as its primary ninth-inning option, though it’s fair to assume that several others will get some save opportunities as Tampa mixes and matches its arms. Ryne Stanek and Diego Castillo, for instance, could be used in the ninth inning when they’re not being used as openers.
Beyond just the personnel involved, the bigger question might be simply whether lightning can strike twice for the Rays and their opener strategy. Opponents have now had more time to get a book on Tampa Bay’s young relief corps, of course, and the uniqueness of the opener may fade now that other teams are also planning to use a one-or-two inning “starter” for one of their rotation spots. Adding Morton to chew up quality innings should help keep the bullpen fresh, though the Rays will again be performing a constant juggling act of their relievers, including a frequent shuttle to and from Triple-A Durham.
The same question could be asked of the position players. Only five Rays players topped the 400-PA plateau last season, in part due to some key names being added or subtracted in trades, but also due to the team’s roster full of players with multi-position capability, able to be moved in and out of the lineup as a game situation warrants. This season’s Rays have more of a set starting lineup on paper, though it will require some players to prove themselves capable of regular duty.
Trading Smith, for instance, puts pressure on Austin Meadows (a former top prospect) to take the leap in his second MLB season. Shortstop Willy Adames is being counted on for his own second-year improvement, while Joey Wendle will have to avoid a sophomore slump. Garcia is a total wild card. Ji-Man Choi delivered big numbers over 189 PA for Tampa last season, and will now have to produce over a full year as a frequent choice as the designated hitter. For Kevin Kiermaier and Matt Duffy, their primary challenge will simply be to stay healthy (Duffy has already run into problems in this regard).
As noted earlier, the Rays looked at some bigger names this winter, and did come away with Morton to help stabilize the rotation. Zunino also fills a need behind the plate, even if he isn’t Realmuto. For the remainder of the everyday lineup, however, it’s hard to argue that signing someone like Nelson Cruz wouldn’t have provided a clearer hitting upgrade. After Edwin Encarnacion was dealt from Cleveland to Seattle as part of that three-team deal, there was speculation that Encarnacion would then be flipped to Tampa, though such a follow-up move never materialized.
The Rays ended up with the much less-experienced first base/DH combination of Diaz and Choi, with others (Wendle, Brandon Lowe, Nate Lowe) likely to cycle through first base and much of the roster likely getting a DH day when warranted. Still, despite Choi’s impressive 2018 and Diaz’s highly-touted exit velocity numbers, Tampa might not have made much of a step up from Bauers and C.J. Cron, let alone the boost that a Cruz or Encarnacion would have provided.
The Rays designated Cron for assignment and watched him leave on waivers rather than pay him a projected $5.2MM arbitration salary. Bauers was moved after just one MLB season, following two years as a top-100 ranked prospect. It says something about Tampa Bay’s belief in Diaz that the team was willing to move Bauers this early in his career, though it could also speak to the sport’s general devaluation of players (like Bauers) who are limited to playing only first base and a little bit of subpar corner outfield.
2019 Season Outlook
The Red Sox and Yankees are both at least a few steps ahead of the Rays in the AL East, though Tampa Bay compares pretty favorably to the rest of the American League’s wild card contenders. Given the front office’s penchant for reshaping its roster on the fly, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Rays attempt a big midseason trade if they’re in the playoff hunt.
How would you grade the Rays’ offseason moves? (Link for app users.)
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
We thought Rays were crazy last off-season. Most questioned moves. They proved us wrong, and changed MLB via opener.
Despite not making the playoffs, 2018 was impressive; try not to doubt this organization, until the season’s end. If only Rays played in ANY other division!
Trading Mallex was not a good move.
Selling high on a guy extremely likely to regress for a top 5 defensive catcher in baseball who bats right handed when this team was left hand heavy… take that anyday
This. Mallex Smith had a 366 BABIP last season. That’s not likely to repeat, although speed guys do tend to run somewhat high BABIPs. But he has no power at all, and even with his speed he’s a below-average center-fielder. Trading that for an elite defensive catcher is a win for TB, IMO.
Unpopular opinion: This team is better and deeper than the Yankees.
*Delusional opinion.
Yankees have a better bullpen and that’s it.
Yankees have a better bullpen, rotation, and lineup
Lineup… no lol. Rotation? Not even close
Rays dont even have 5 SP how can the rotation possibly be better? Did the Rays put up the second most runs per game on average last year? No? Not first either? Then how is their lineup better? Kevin Keirmaier aint scarin nobody. Its a solid team but they arent better than the Yankees by a long shot. They probably would be if they spent money near the league average.
Because the Yankees are going to regress. And I’m not sure what people don’t understand about this but having an opener doesn’t mean they don’t have starters lol. They’re just choosing to bring them in during the second inning. Faria, snell, Morton, Glasnow, beebs, Yarborough and eventually Honeywell, banda, De leon. You’re right KK isn’t scaring anyone but a whole season. Of Pham and Adames and Lowe. This team will be better than what 95% of people think
Even before one pitch is thrown to start the 2019 season, it is VERY optimistic to say the Rays will do better than people think – especially after the kind of season they had last year, where they played beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. They won 90 games!!
Sure, the Yanks may regress because instead of winning 100 games, they may win 94 games in 2019.
This is why the AL East remains the most compelling division race to watch.
And BOTH*** teams are better than the Red Sox
The reason respected baseball people feel strongly that the Rays will be as good if not better this year, is they are smarter and ahead of the curve with changes than other teams!! Be assured what the Rays will do this year in reinventing the SP formats, matchups, and barreling the ball will have every team copying next year.
Still have a better lineup than the Rays.
The rays aren’t “deep.” They have 3 starters until possibly 2 rookies come back from TJ. Their 1B/DH is some combo of Avi Garcia, Yandy Diaz and Ji man Choi. I think you could possibly say they’ll surprise but I can’t really see an argument for deeper. The Yankees will likely have a gold glove 2B sitting on their bench when DD returns. They have about 5 relievers who would be the first or second best in tampa’s Pen. And they have 5 ML starters. With a couple more prospects and Monty coming back from injury. The Yankees also have a 200 million dollar team. The rays have a 55 million dollar team. They might have one of the deepest 55 MM teams but they pail in comparison.
I stopped reading your comment after you said the team with the #2 rated farm system isn’t deep.
And that money defines the ability of your roster lol. Check the giants out
The Rays are very deep in SPs. This year alone the Rays options for SP are Snell, Morton, Glasnow, Yarborough, W Font, Beeks, Chinros, Pruitt… (Injured, will be back by July) B honeywell, J DeLeon, A Banda, All these SPs would be in starting rotations on other MLB teams. More in the minors. With pitching defeating hitting 75% of times you can see why Tampa bay’s victory ceiling is rated so high.
Yer a Yankee hater neener neener
The Rays always do more with less. They have the 2nd lowest payroll in baseball and are fielding quite an impressive team with a deep minors for support all this year. The Opener follower works! glad to hear they will continue with it. This team is depended on Morton, A Garcia, Ji man Choi, Y Diaz and W Adames having good years. if they do,Look out Red Sox-Yanks! The Rays management hasn’t made many bad decisions the last few years and you can’t argue their previous player choices and success they have/had..
Rays also have biggest home field advantage in majors. Try to find fly ball in the Trop!! Try to play a grounder on that dirty rug of a field!! Also, something about playing hard and winning grinders is more easier when your whole Ray life is grit and grind.
Just got new Turf put in for the 3rd year in a row
“seems like something of a long shot that Kimbrel will end up in Tampa Bay” Really? Thanks Captain Obvious.
Tampa desparately needs a 4th SP if they want to compete for a wild card. Using an opener in 2 out of every 5 games is going to Tax their bullpen and put a ton of pressure on Snell, Morton and Glasnow to go 6+ innings every time they start. Perhaps Jalen Beeks will step up and become their 4th starter or another of their young pitchers, but they can’t sustain piecing together Openers and long BP pitchers for 65 games (40% of 162), and expect to have enough in the bullpen to finish of the games of their true starters.
Long term they have many options. Honeywell, Banda, Jose De Leon all had TJ last year if I’m not mistaken so not a bad look to go with 3 SP again this year to compensate for the lack of innings those guys will give them.
My sources tell me they are counting on big things from Wilmer Font.
This is actually funny because he pitched very very very well for the Rays
They “can” sustain the Opener- follower all year. They have the talent on the Mlb team and in the minors. What harder is a team to keep 5 starters healthy all year!
Yarbrough wasn’t the #4 starter? Went 16-6, pitched 147 innings, pitched 5+ innings 15 times and pitched 3 or more innings 11 more times and for over half the season he took the mound every fifth game. Sounds a lot like a #4 starter to me. And if you combine him with battery mate Ryne Staknek (who was opener for about 25 of Yarbrough’s games), they were actually a damn good #4 starter with about 2.5 WAR as a tandem.
This may be the last year the opener get used. Won’t the 2020 rule changes dampen that possibility a bit?
While I’m not a fan of the rule change at face value. Affects the lefty specialists the most I believe. It shouldnt really change the opener as they usually start and finish the inning.
Yeah, the Rays don’t do the whole “guy starts the game, gets one out, and then leaves”. Rays openers typically go 1 inning minimum, and often go partway or all the way through the 2nd inning as well, so the rule change won’t have any effect on their Opener strategy.
They most certainly will have an effect. Proposed changes would seriously effect the AAA shuttle of pitchers Tampa relies on.
Moving from 10 to 15 days minimum stint in minors when optioned for pitchers
Unless, of course, they manage to accumulate and stash a couple extra guys into the AA level if need be. Then those extra 5 days are back to no effect.
In no way did the Rays abuse the AAA shuttle last year. That’s a false narrative. There were several teams who shuffled players more than they did last year even with all the injuries and rookie graduations they had.
Rays spend 30 mill on Morton but cant pay their CY winner. I hope he throws his season away to make a statement to this joke of a club
what makes you think they pay snell? their payroll is bottom of the barrel for yet another year. if they tell you they cant pay for it theyre lying
Can we please go back and look at the rookie contracts of judge and trout and betts and all these other all stars. Before you wanna bash the rays do some research
What point are you even making?
Im saying the Rays can pay for Snell. Im saying the Morton signing should have nothing to do with whether or not they are able to pay Snell. I had a typo where I wanted to say “they cant pay Snell” and instead said “they pay snell”. But if you were to using context clues you wouldve found in the next sentence i said “if they tell you they cant pay for it then theyre lying”. It being an extension.
Please look up how the arbitration process works in baseball. You can’t compare a pre-arbitration player’s contract to a free agent’s.
Rays are one of the best stories of baseball.
My sources tell me Rays will win the World Series this year.
The only folks paying attention to the Rays will be other owners/GMs. It’s a copy-cat league after all. If the owners/GMs see how the Rays “buy” wins at a cheaper cost, AAV could take a hit on players at each position throughout the league.
The MLBPA probably view the Rays club as a sideshow of cheap and misfit toys, like the Billy Beane moneyball Athletics (for many years) and not a “good example” of how a “healthy” ball club *should* be run.
The Rays paid Morton a “veteran pitcher Tampa Rays tax” to come pitch. He will be pitching near his home and has stated that he will retire in two years when his contract is up. I don’t think it has anything to do with snubbing Snell.
It’s already happened with having a stats guy with no baseball experience as GM, increased shifting, focus on framing, and super-utility players, as to all of which either the Rays were first movers or early adopters (and I suspect management-directed in-game management as well). Eventually the rest of the league will follow by hiring guys who think outside of the box and the Rays will go back to being perennial 65 – 70 game winners.
I’ll tell you what the Rays need… they need fans.
In 2018, they ranked second to last in game attendance at 14,259 per home game (MIA was dead last at 9,000+/game).
Watching the Rays win games using their business model is fun to watch. But in the end, if you can’t fill the seats during winning seasons, you have to move the club. I have heard some of the logistical issues the Rays have with drawing fans to the Trop. It’s not a cool place to see a game, the Trop is sort of out of the way for many fans, etc.
The Rays can build a smaller 20,000 seat stadium and turn it into one big optical illusion to feel “bustling” and “busy.” Charge fans $10k per game to be able to sit in the dugout with the players, etc. (giggles)
I wonder… hypothetically… if the Rays signed Bryce Harper, would they be able to draw more attendance? My gut says you may see a slight uptick, but not enough to bring 20,000 per game. Move the club.
During the years they were competitive, the most they ever drew was 2M. And that was with a young, exciting team, complete with a manager whose sole good quality was that he’s a great interview.
Last year, with one of the more entertaining teams in MLB to watch, they drew 1M, which was 100K LESS than they drew in 2017 (when they were as exciting as watching paint dry).
It’s easy to understand why. They’ve had two owners; one who sadly never realized you have to have money to own a team (remember, there was no Revenue Sharing for Vinnie) and now a Wall Street sharpie who you can tell when he’s lying because his lips are moving.
It WAS a decent market in the beginning, and STILL is a decent TV area. But unless they get an owner that will accept the fact that you can’t get rich with the team, and is willing to invest during those windows that open up, they’ll move. The rumors about “sharing” the team with Montreal are just the harbinger of things to come, deliberately put out there to grease the inevitable skids.
How will they do this year? Depends on lots of stuff, most of which don’t have anything to do with themselves. Will the Sox run away from the rest of the division, thus rendering most games in August/September meaningless? Will the Jays/O’s be as bad as they look? Who will be left after the almost inevitable (noted by Steve Adams here, Keith Law, Ken Rosenthal elsewhere) sell off on July 31? Those things will determine the win total, much more than if Tyler Glassnow is really a starter.
Since you say this in every single comment can you tell me why and who the Rays would sell on July 31st? Especially when they’ve already stated they intend to buy during the season knowing this team will be good. In what galaxy would the Rays trade any of these players on the roster?
Wow, I think there’s more fans on this blog than the average attendance of a Rays game. As a Mariner fan I can attest that Zunino is a great kid. Of course he’ll become an all star with the Rays as Smoak & Saunders did with the Jay’s.
20 years from now are we going to debate the “greatest openers” of all time? ”
“Joe Forkball, in 2022 for the Rays, had a 1.27 ERA to go with his 0-0 record in 54 games opened.”
What a job to be an “opener.” You cannot win a game but you can lose them.
“Joe was the greatest of all time with a career ERA of 2.33 in 700 games opened to go with his 0-7 win/loss record.”
“The question in 2040….is the Hall of Fame ready to admit openers?”
If that actually happens, someone will invent a useless stat for that just like how someone invented the save a few years after it became increasingly common to have guys finish up games with 2 – 4 innings after the starter got yanked (remembering that back then usually there wasn’t more than one, maybe two, relievers pitching in a game).
Yes! The Hall will change with the game! Your criticism of the opener doesn’t take into account that the all teams and Hitters have CGI “video” of every MLB Pitcher, delivery and pitch type to practice with, So to counter that, the Team mixes up the relief pitcher with the Starters! Then it slots it’s it pitchers against the most vulnerable hitters to their stuff. Seems no-one talks about the Hitters changing the game strategy!
I didn’t really understand the use of a opening pitcher other than putting in a “capable” reliever to take the first 3 outs in the lineup – usually the top 3 hitters in the lineup.
But matt4baseball brings up an interesting point.
But I don’t think that is enough to justify using an opening pitcher for the first 3 or 6 outs. That pitcher, who you consider a good strategic arm, is immediately out of the game after the first inning. All in all, the reason why a team would use an opening pitcher to begin with is because they don’t have enough premium starters or starting pitchers they feel confident with to throw the opening pitch.
You need to ask the real question here > when is the owner going to put up some real cash and put a contender on the field, you only need to look at the league payroll per team to see what the orioles will do or for that matter where they will be in the standing same as every year at the bottom. you get what you pay for and the owner isn’t willing to pay to put a winner on the diamond. When the city gets a new owner or he puts up some cash like the top team in the league do the orioles will away be at the bottom. Just look at the payroll per team and you will see year after year the orioles have been at the very bottom and the teams putting up cash are at the very top….old time orioles fan that seen a lot of winning in years past Shame the owner will not put a winner back in Baltimore…
Money doesn’t create wins. Dodgers would have won the World Series years ago, the giants would be relevant. The Royals winning the World Series with speed and defense should be a lesson to everyone. The Red Sox got very lucky the dodgers pitching staff fell apart and they just slugged eachother, because without pitching you are nothing unless your offense is elite like the Sox last year
they were not at the bottom of the team pay roll when they won they had a handful of good players that the team paid for
if you get a handful of good player you got a shot but the dodgers and royals as you point out had some good players and Yes they paid for them, I am just asking for the owner to give the team a shot and pick up a handful of good players. when the orioles get a good player they will not pay to keep him or they deal him for junk
Well Morton is still a good SP imo, but I don’t think I would have paid him 15 mil a year. Garcia is an underrated offensive player, and a pretty good signing, as injuries affected him and playing time as well. The extreme defensive shifts might hurt him however, but as I’ve argued that’s more an indicator of good defense than good pitching (if you have good pitching you don’t need to shift as much because you can induce weaker groundouts, but that’s where baseball seems to be heading nevertheless). Dont really care for Zunino as a player because he strikes out too much even with the pop he has. Hereida to me is one of those under the radar guys as a contact speed hitter as long as he gets consistent AB’s and not a platoon role. Yandy seems like a good player but im not sure he meets the plate disipine threshold where even if he doesnt strikeout a lot, he might chases pitches for weak groundouts, but again I havent seen too much of him. Meadows seems like a solid player with a nice smooth swing and a decent eye. Overall, good, not great, but given their payroll, I can understand.