The Rays’ decision to waive C.J. Cron on the heels of a 30-homer campaign in the offseason raised plenty of eyebrows — particularly when it became apparent that the plan to replace him was to entrust the bulk of first base/designated hitter duties to Ji-Man Choi, Yandy Diaz and reclamation project Avisail Garcia. To this point in the season, that trio has been reasonably productive.
Through 294 plate appearances, Choi has batted .257/.348/.410 with nine homers, nine doubles and a triple. He’s walked at a healthy 11.4 percent clip against a 20.4 percent strikeout rate and done so while playing for less than $1MM as a pre-arbitration player. Up until recently, Choi was even more productive. The endpoint here is arbitrary, admittedly, but Choi carried a .287/.363/.467 line as recently as June 14. Since that time, he’s floundered with a .160/.306/.220 slash line in 62 plate appearances. He’s drawn 10 walks in that time against 11 strikeouts, so he’s maintained his discipline. However, Choi has been plagued by a .179 average on balls in play over that stretch, and the swoon has tarnished his season line.
A slump of that nature is never welcome for any hitter, but Choi’s downturn in performance is of particular concern for him given the offensive explosion of rookie/top prospect Nate Lowe. Since being summoned back for his second stint of big league work this season (when Choi landed on the IL due to an ankle injury), Lowe has obliterated big league pitching. It’s only 41 plate appearances, but the former 13th-round pick has belted five homers and three doubles with a .371/.463/.886 slash that’s impossible for the Rays to ignore. Overall, Lowe is hitting .315/.386/.589 in 75 plate appearances in his debut season.
Choi (who was activated from the IL two days ago) and Lowe can coexist in the same lineup for now, but as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times mentions in his latest Rays notebook, the organization could soon have to choose between the two. The Rays will get Brandon Lowe back from the IL in the near future, which muddies the roster. His return will push Joey Wendle back to a utility/bench role, where he’ll join another hot-hitting rookie, Mike Brosseau, and whichever of Travis d’Arnaud or Mike Zunino isn’t starting on a given day. Choi is out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent to the minors without being exposed to waivers.
Wendle does have a minor league option remaining, which is of note given that he hasn’t hit well at all since returning from a fractured wrist (.198/.272/.253). However, he’s capable of playing virtually any position on the diamond, whereas Choi is a first baseman only. Optioning Wendle to accommodate the return of Lowe (Brandon, that is) wouldn’t leave manager Kevin Cash with much in the way of defensive flexibility. An in-game injury to Willy Adames in that scenario would prove particularly problematic, given that Wendle is the only real alternative to him at shortstop.
The Rays could delay any potential decision by dropping a reliever and going back to a four-man bench, but if they go that route, the preferred choice could be to bring outfielder Guillermo Heredia back up to the Majors. Cash called the decision to option Heredia the “toughest send-down” of the season earlier this week. Heredia rejoined the team as the 26th man for yesterday’s doubleheader but has since been sent back to Triple-A Durham.
As if that didn’t present enough options for a limited number of roster spots, the Rays will soon see infielder/outfielder Daniel Robertson and third baseman Matt Duffy embark on minor league rehab assignments, as Topkin reported last weekend (Twitter links). Both have minor league options remaining, but their impending returns only add another variable to the equation.
Certainly, the upcoming trade deadline could alter the roster construction and resolve some of these issues. It’s possible, too, that additional injuries will arise and render some of the decisions moot for an additional period of time. But as things currently stand, the Rays seem like they’ll have a tough call on their hands in the not-too-distant future.
Trade Choi, Wendle/Robertson, and Pruit for the closer off Detroit.
Choi wont garner any type of a return. If he doesn’t have any options left the Rays might be better off trying to get him through waivers and send him to triple a
Also why would the tigers trade Shane greene for auustin Pruitt? Pruitt is 29 and has a career ERA over 5. Shane greene just got back from the all star game
Trade makes absolutely zero sense for Detroit.
Nevermind didnt see the commas.aorry . Still I doubt Detroit would do that trade for those 3
They wouldn’t. I think they want guys with actual upside for Shane Greene.
I wonder if Tampa would pull the trigger on a boyd/green package for McKay ++++
Whoa no….
In your dreams…..
You wouldn’t get Shecky Greene for that package, never mind Shane Greene…..Greene has his limits, a usual shot-in-the-dark reliever, but he’s going to return a lot more than that…..
They would absolutely get Shecky Greene for that package. You are probably thinking of Buddy Hackett.
You must’ve dropped your AARP card.
Rays’ position player depth seems like a good problem to have
Brosseau isn’t even a top 30 prospect and he has been fantastic. Hes done well in the minors too, so it’s not much of a fluke.
Turnbull to the Ray’s for Choi and a couple middle of the road prospects. Send them goodrum too if they need a backup infielder.
Turnbull is not being traded
I like Turnbull more than Boyd. He’s younger and he has a great fastball. Lots of movement. He’s a little wild, but that should fix itself with time. He has more team control too. If they wanted to trade him, I bet they’d get a nice return.
Deep af, I want to like them but as an A’s fan I can’t help but seem them as our low budget/trash stadium rival
Sad really. Both organizations are run extremely well. Just think of what those teams could be with an extra 30 million a year to spend
But they have also been stupidly cheap at time. Like DFAing Corey Dickerson for nothing and not paying CJ Cron etc. They are good, but could be a lot better.
It’s always amazed me how their FO gets all this credit; only a few of their complete blunders gets mentioned.
1. Dickerson (WITH 5M to boot) for nothing
2. Cron for nothing
3. Colome (with a useful Span) for nothing
4. Odorizzi for nothing (for some reason, no one mentions that one)
5. Taking on Zunino’s completely wasted 5M
Ya they “won” the Archer deal, and did OK with Pham, tho everybody knew the Cards couldn’t wait to get him out of their locker room.
They need at least 3 more decent trades to be considered “meh”. Otherwise, it’s a resounding grade of “F”. Decisions made on the dollar, and ONLY the dollar; nothing else matters. So you can’t blame Neander. The fault goes further upstairs.
Lol. The rays routinely make the haters look like goofs with a bottom 3 payroll. You Scott Boras shills need to realize payroll doesn’t equal winning once in for all.
Ray’s and A’s have extremely low payrolls and are real challengers to teams spending the most. I want to see one of them win it all and put those big money teams to shame.
#bobsstupidtakes
Yep, all those playoff games and championships Tampa has won really drive home your point.
The threshold of success is set low for teams like Tampa and the A’s.
Sternberg got $120 mil from his national share last year and tv contract plus an additional $50 mil from the sale of BAM. He’s routinely pocketed a tidy profit for hanging around the margins of contention. That’s all before a single seat, concession, advertising, etc is sold.
It’s an embarrassment how little he has put into trying to really win.
Do you think he is the only owner turning a profit? Do you think he profits more than all the other owners? If so, please provide your proof because according to Forbes the Rays are nowhere near the top in profits.
Why are fans continually surprised that a team with bottom 3 revenues is also bottom 3 in payroll?
I live in Tampa area big Rays fan. I get in discussions with Ray fans.all the time, they say their competitive, I say how many championships have they won, when was the last time they made the playoffs?
Therealryan.
So easy. $27 million in operating income last year, which is a joke (these numbers are notoriously low) and doesn’t include the $50 mil payment from BAM.
forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list/#tab:overall
Tampa has reported one of the highest operating profits as a percentage of revenue for as many years as I can remember.
Anyone making excuses for the Rays not spending – or being impressed by their pretending to contend – does not understand the business of baseball.
You should learn to do your own research too.
What a terrible spin you’re trying here. So his percentage of profit is high, but not the actual dollar amounts. Can you pay players a percentage of a salary based off of your revenues? If not, then it doesn’t matter. Would you rather be a owner of a business who has $20k in profits on $100k of revenue or a the owner of a company that has $500k profit on $5 million of revenue? I get how easy it is to rip the big bad rich owner, but again, you need actual dollars to pay the player salaries. When that free agent starter wants $5 million more, the Rays percentage of profits don’t matter. They need the actual $5 million to finalize the deal.
Your link shows the Rays were 19th in profits last year. Which is probably not even fully correct since they don’t include profits from team owned RSNs, which the Rays do not have.
Accurate descriptions. The Pirates are low budget/beautiful stadium. The Marlins are low budget/weird stadium.
Lmao gotta be sports biggest rivalry.
What a team. A very low payroll and they couldn’t pay Cron a decent salary! What a joke!
Their few fans must cringe often…..
Yet none of the other 29 teams offered Cron the salary he was projected to make through arbitration with the Rays. Let me repeat that. Cron was a free agent and signed for less than the projected arbitration salary he would have earned with the Rays. That means all 30 teams didn’t think he was worth the salary you wanted the Rays to pay him, even though they are a bottom 3 team in revenue and were able sign his replacement for roughly 30% less.
Didn’t even think about it this way but what a awesome comment
Cron was never a free agent. The Twins claimed him off waivers. They were 13th in waiver priority, so a dozen teams did pass.
Greene for Lowe or Brujan.
Maybe for Josh Lowe.
Florial stinks
What was wrong with Pham with the Cards locker room?
Rays being cheap again and mlb not calling them out. They waived Dickerson the same way.
Whatever the reasons, the owners have shown a remarkable level of group think and restraint when it comes to spending.
MLB provides us with a daily example of why Antitrust Laws were enacted.
What’s tragic is that fans (who WILL at some point, bear the brunt of a new stadium in Tampa; count on it) defend the ownerships of these clubs. Fans have a RIGHT to DEMAND a full commitment to winning; anything less is a violation of a public trust.
No one thinks the Rays, et al, can spend with the Yanks, Sox and the rest. But a 60M payroll, or anything else shy of about 100-110M, is pure gouging; nothing more, nothing less.
And accepting it is tantamount to the abused child defending the abusive parent, because, after all, they “deserve” the abuse. Even more tragic, because it’s done for profit.
And these same fans, sadly, laugh at teams that really try to compete and fail, because it’s baseball, and you don’t always correctly predict the desired outcome.
If it makes you happy, the Rays can have Cabrera and Jordan Zimmermann… that should bring that payroll up to your liking.
The owner literally took the Rays fans hostage with the Montreal talks, and is probably going to get a tax payer funded stadium out of it.
I think it’s worth discussing though what the end goal is.. would you prefer to be the rays who put together a good team year after year or the tigers who go all out for 2-3 years and have 7-8 terrible seasons?
Miggy and Zimmerman are pretty much the rays whole payroll.
Brosseau is too valuable right now to send back down. The offense is anemic, Wendle’s defense is great…but his hitting has been lackluster.