The Rays have boasted the best record in the majors all season long and currently sit at 56-23 with a five game lead over the Orioles in the AL East. Given the club’s phenomenal performance in the first half of the 2023 campaign, it’s of little surprise to hear that the club’s front office is planning to make additions at the trade deadline this season. Given that, it should come as no surprise that GM Peter Bendix made just that claim in conversation with reporters including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
“This year’s club is really strong,” Bendix said. “We have a chance to do some special things. So, I think we’re going to be doing everything we can to make this club stronger, give it the best chance to win a World Series.”
While the news comes as little surprise given the club’s fantastic performance in the first half, it’s noteworthy nonetheless thanks to the Rays’ reputation for always keeping one eye on the future. After all, this is the same front office that didn’t let an AL pennant in 2020 stop them from trading ace Blake Snell to the Padres. While Bendix didn’t completely shut the door on the possibility of a trade or two with an eye toward future seasons, he did push back on the idea the club would entertain moves that extreme, saying that the club is “unlikely to be removing good players from this team, especially if you don’t have another player to back it up.”
Of course, it’s fairly easy to make the argument that the club is deep enough in position player talent that it could weather losing a hitter or two in trade this summer. Even with Brandon Lowe on the IL, the Rays sport a phenomenal infield of Yandy Diaz, Taylor Walls, Wander Franco, and Isaac Parades. Meanwhile, each of Luke Raley, Josh Lowe, Jose Siri, Randy Arozarena, and Harold Ramirez have made compelling cases for regular starts in the outfield. Given this, it’s not hard to imagine the club looking to take advantage of its considerable depth to address weaknesses in other areas, even as Bendix’s comments would indicate the likes of Franco, Diaz, Arozarena and Parades are all varying degrees of off the table in trade discussions.
Bendix goes on to discuss what those weaknesses are, readily admitting that the club is likely to look to bolster its pitching staff this offseason. That hardly comes as a surprise considering that the club has lost Josh Fleming and Drew Rasmussen to injury in the rotation while the bullpen’s 4.51 FIP is bottom three in the AL this season while their 3.94 ERA ranks in the bottom five. Topkin, for his part, cautions that it seems unlikely that the Rays would add “veterans due tens of millions of dollars” or win a bidding war for highly sought-after pitchers.
That would imply a serious pursuit of perhaps the two top starters who could be available on the trade market this deadline, Marcus Stroman of the Cubs and Eduardo Rodriguez of the Tigers, may not be in the cards. Not only has each veteran hurler impressed with fantastic run prevention numbers in the first half this season, but each is guaranteed a hefty sum of money beyond 2023, should they choose to opt-in and forgo the open market: Stroman holds a player option for 2024 worth $21MM, while Rodriguez has three years and $49MM left on his contract following this season should he not exercise his opt-out clause.
Even without a pursuit of a player of Stroman or Rodriguez’s caliber, plenty of interesting options figure to be available nonetheless. In the event the Cubs sell, they could make former Ray Drew Smyly available in addition to Stroman, while the Cardinals could consider dealing pending free agents like Jack Flaherty or Jordan Montgomery as they look to retool their roster. Mike Clevinger of the White Sox, Rich Hill of the Pirates, and Michael Lorenzen of the Tigers are among other pending free agents who could be made available at the deadline, speculatively speaking.
The Rays figure to have a much wider array of options as they look to rework their bullpen. The Royals have already indicated that the likes of Aroldis Chapman and Scott Barlow will be made available to clubs, while Brent Suter and Daniel Bard of the Rockies, Kyle Finnegan of the Nationals, Joey Kelly and Reynaldo Lopez of the White Sox, and Alex Lange of the Tigers all also seem likely to be available if rival clubs come calling. Any of those names would provide a boost to a Tampa bullpen that has struggled to find health and consistency outside of Jason Adam, Kevin Kelly, and Colin Poche.
Of course, with over a month left before the trade deadline on August 1, the landscape of the pitching market is sure to change in the coming weeks. There’s still time for a team currently tentatively expected to sell to turn things around, or for teams currently planning on buying to struggle and be forced to reconsider their stances. Pitching also isn’t the only place where the Rays could look to improve their club, as Topkin opines that the club could make a move at catcher if an upgrade over their current tandem of Christian Bethancourt and Francisco Mejia presents itself.
Regardless of how the trade market ultimately develops from here, the Rays have given their fans plenty to be excited about with their start to the season, and if Bendix’s words are any indication, the front office plans to be active in improving the club as they head into the second half.
The Ray’s are living the life of Riley with this Bendix performance as GM.
A true Ruthian comment.
Haha love the life of Riley
Team chemistry. Important? Franco. Change of scenery guy? To the Rockies for a Tovar, Johnson and Suter type deal? Rockies get their long term SS and cheap. (17 mil per). TBR gets relief help and possibly Tovar long term.
Wait, we aren’t going to just gloss over this and pretend you didn’t suggest trading a generational talent for a bag of beans??? Surprised you didn’t offer Gomber for Arozarena.
This has to be trolling. Has to be. Please tell me you’re trolling
Nah Jeff is just dumb.
LOL. Rays wouldn’t trade Franco to the Rockies for their entire Farm.
Tovar. A “bag of beans”, your kidding, right?
Rays bullpen is a big mess.
And their generational SS talent looks like he’s a generational jerk to teammates as well. Change of scenery needed?
Incredible opportunity for TBR to win it all this year. Doesn’t come often to small market teams. Do what you gotta do to win including moving that generational talent. Again, Tovar is no slouch.
I want to amend my post. Rays wouldn’t trade Franco to the Rockies for their entire Farm and Tovar.
I am a Rays fan and although there is something to discuss regarding Franco this last couple of months besides his all-world ability, calling him a generational jerk seems way over the top.
Now, what intriguing perspectives might you possess concerning Franco’ that the Tampa Bay beat writers have not addressed in his 2 and 1/2 years in the majors?
And what Tovar is 5 months younger than Franco. I certainly would not trade Franco for Tovar. Don’t want to hate on Tovar but acting like he is in the same league of talent as Franco seems very uninformed to me.
Might be out of bounds but Eduardo Rodriguez has an opt out after this year. I think he is opting out of that contract for sure. So, he is a 1/2-year rental. So, although the price will be something for him, I am not sure that it will be that ridiculously high. The caveat would be someone like the Mets who would trade for him and also at the same time give him a higher guaranteed extension.
So, for me a scenario that works is Brandon Lowe and a prospect for Eduardo Rodriguez. Rays already have 2nd covered by players on their roster.
Just stop , maybe go troll the Baltimore site and offer bard and tovar for Rouchtman, maybe they will throw in gunner Henderson just to make it fair. Or perhaps the reds will give you Della cruz!. And i thought the rockies GM was the most dumb rockie fan
I don’t think that we wanna C Jeff anymore!
Fellas. Speaking of trolling, I don’t scare easily. Am I an amateur GM. You bet I am. Grateful for this site to be able to be just that.
A suggestion to you guys. Before sending out a post that counters what another poster says, maybe put down the Bud Light.
Please stop posting, that is just so DUMB!
Jordan Montgomery seems like a Rays type of pickup. Another bullpen arm and they’ll be good. They could probably do nothing and they’d be fine
One stop shopping with the Tigers. Grab Erod and/or Lorenzen to start and Lange for the pen. It’ll cost you though!
The Rays are putting the brakes on Bendix acquiring any big contracts at the trade deadline.
Most people here can’t afford cars, so they don’t know that your pun is funny.
Well please tell them it’s funny? Maybe they won’t be so depressed.
I’ve been a Rays’ fan for a very long time, and I want to believe Bendix…. but I don’t. I think the Rays will trade for a few cheap reclamation projects, state they expect Rasmussen and Kittredge will return to health, and call it a day. I fear they’ll really regret that approach too.
What do the Rays need? They need a good 5th starter they might be able to sprinkle their pixie dust on and improve. I’d love Kopech in this role. They also need another 2-4 relievers, with at least 1 being a true high leverage shutdown arm. Right now, they are counting on last year’s two high leverage arms to get their stuff together and for 2021’s best reliever (Kittredge) to come back healthy after TJS. Unfortunately, Fairbanks has a disorder that results in him not being able to pitch in cold weather, Adam has pitched pretty badly all year, and counting on someone to pitch well immediately after returning from TJS is foolish. Maybe one of these guys steps up when the games really matter, but the RFO can’t count on even that. They have a top 10 Farm and almost no long-term holes on the team (their pitching is weak because of injuries). They need to be aggressive!!!
100% with you.. really regret trading Joe Ryan for those 55 games of Nelson Cruz.
Yes, but you can’t win them all- and that can be the cost of these “we’re all in” type of deals.
Yeah, that one did not work out but more of them did so far then did not.
Mets should go after Jordan Montgomery, Scott Barlow and Brent Suter, not just for this year but resign which ones are free agents for next year too
No one cares about a non playoff team, wrong site
This author throwing out Clevenger without mentioning the Sox other impending FA in Giolito seems uninformed to me. I’d much rather have the latter if I had a choice.