Despite significant injuries on the pitching front, the Rays spent much of the season's first half in or on the periphery of the Wild Card chase. The front office took advantage of a seller's market at the deadline even though the club was hovering around .500, bolstering the farm, reducing payroll and setting the stage for what could be a quick turnaround.
Guaranteed Contracts
- Jeffrey Springs, LHP: $21.75MM through 2026 (includes $750K buyout of $15MM club option for 2027)
- Yandy Diaz, 1B: $10MM through 2025 (contract contains $12MM club option for 2026, with no buyout)
- Pete Fairbanks, RHP: $4.667MM through 2025 (includes $1MM buyout of $7MM club option for 2026)
- Shane McClanahan, LHP: $3.6MM through 2026 (McClanahan is arb-eligible for two more years thereafter)
2025 financial commitment: $27.766MM
Total long-term financial commitments: $40MM
Other Financial Obligations
- Wander Franco owed $172MM through 2032; Rays unlikely to pay remainder of contract due to abhorrent allegations against Franco and subsequent legal proceedings in Dominican Republic
- $2MM to Twins for buyout of Manuel Margot's 2025 club option
Option Decisions
- Brandon Lowe, 2B/OF: $10.5MM club option with $1MM buyout (contract also contains $11.5MM club option for 2026 with $500K buyout)
Arbitration-Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; projected salaries via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)
- Colin Poche (5.114): $3.4MM
- Zack Littell (5.043): $4.8MM
- Tyler Alexander (5.011): $2.8MM
- Drew Rasmussen (4.111): $2MM
- Dylan Carlson (4.104): $2.7MM
- Cole Sulser (4.031): $1MM
- Taylor Walls (3.092): $1.3MM
- Garrett Cleavinger (3.060): $1.4MM
- Ben Rortvedt (3.043): $1.1MM
- Jose Siri (3.015): $2.3MM
- Richard Lovelady (3.008): $900K
- Shane Baz (2.158): $1.9MM
- Non-tender candidates: Poche, Alexander, Carlson, Sulser, Walls, Lovelady
Free Agents
- None
As we began this year's Offseason Outlook series, the top focus for the Rays was understandably on the team's roster and reshaping an offense that lacked balance, struggled against righties and was far too whiff-prone. While the series was being written, however, a far broader-reaching issue arose. The awful damage stemming from Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene has wrought incalculable, heartbreaking levels of damage on the country's southeast region. The big-picture focus, of course, is on helping those impacted and rebuilding those ravaged communities. In the grand scheme of things, the logistical challenges a natural disaster of this magnitude presents to a baseball team are trivial, at best.
Nonetheless, for the Rays themselves, Hurricane Milton created an unexpected and undeniable challenge the team will have to address. The roof of Tropicana Field was shredded, exposing a stadium interior that does not have a drainage system. It's not yet clear when the facility could return to a serviceable state, but the Rays aren't likely to have their home field available to them to begin the 2025 season. They'll spend as much time and energy this offseason determining where they'll play their home games as they will augmenting their roster. We at MLBTR extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to all affected by the tragedy in the southeast.
Turning to the baseball operations side of the offseason, the Rays have a clear picture of what went wrong. Tampa Bay entered the 2024 campaign with an injury-ravaged rotation. Starters Shane McClanahan (Tommy John surgery), Drew Rasmussen (flexor tendon surgery) and Jeffrey Springs (Tommy John surgery) were set to miss some or all of the 2024 season while recovering from surgery. Former top pitching prospect Shane Baz was finishing off recovery from his own Tommy John procedure, performed late in the 2022 season.
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“Offseason outlook: Tampa Bay Rays”
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs…
That would allow some definite naming rights prospects with olive garden given the current state of the stadium roof….
TB may have help coming in like 26 for LH power bats, seen some noise regarding Tre Morgan, drafted in ’23. Good eye, raw power, which should develop into more game power and saw an AFL update where he’s doing well this fall there.
Kind of weird how the college World Series stadium basically is never used… would love to see the rays play there
Steve Adams makes his living stealing my trade ideas. Haha!
Did he mention Herrera?
Building a stadium in Florida without drainage. I guess thats fitting with the ‘brain drain’ they’ve experienced and the influx of lead-addled boomers.
Tropicana Field predates the team by several years and they’ve been trying to get a new stadium built for what seems like a generation now.
I’m not sure how one can put any blame on the team, other than having a cheap owner unwilling to pay for a stadium out of his own pocket.
I’m not blaming the team. I’m blaming the people that designed and built a stadium in the late 80s that opened in 1990 without drainage. From design, funding, permitting, and build. Just a monument to stupidity.
I think because it had a roof there wasn’t much thought about drainage.
Design blame, yes, for sure. They should have spent the extra dollars for a solid wind proof roof. Blame for not having drainage in a closed roof stadium? that’s asinine. The Teflon roof was not made to be disposable.
IMHO, the issue is they didn’t plan for a new stadium 30 years ago. The roof has a 25-year life I think. Stadiums have a useful life of 30 years. Since you won’t put a new 25-year roof on a stadium with 5 years of remaining life, they should’ve had this in mind when the joint was first built.
I’d even go so far as to suggest that this comprises an audit risk if there were no contingency plans for having the roof blow off. This would be the same in SF, etc.. Like, what are you going to do if an earthquake makes the stadium unusable.
So your argument is dont build a stadium to last, and have it up to the lowest code grade, ie category 1 hurricane or lowest possible earthquake. Roman collesium is still there.
What if there was a category 4 hurricane that hit tampa st pete in 1991? the argument is flawed
MLB should really use the next three years to test out markets for possible expansion sites. If they were smart they would use the Rays and the A’s for a year each in Portland, Salt Lake City, and Oklahoma City (A’s) and Montreal, Nashville, and Charlotte (Rays). An audition f sorts. Kind of like when Oklahoma City hosted the Hornets following Hurricane Katrina destroying New Orleans and then getting the Sonics a couple years later. It could give fans in those cities a year of MLB baseball and show them that they are finalist for the 31st and 32nd team in MLB which will almost definitely be coming within the next decade. It could definitely build fan bases in those markets that may not have a general team to root for. And it could help build a larger fan base for the Rays who just aren’t getting enough love in Tampa.
If MLB was REALLY smart, they would fold about half the lesser fan supported teams and not need fluffed up nonsense about how other cities.. just as bad as some of the cities which fail to support teams they currently have never will.
Too much product in areas which require support from franchises in other locales that do have the support.. Not workable, nor is expecting tax/support from local government for a place to play.
Where would they play in Portland. I have lived in the NW for 34 years and I know of no reasonable place for a mlb team to play their games.
Still paying Wander Franco?
No they are not. Once he was put on restricted list they no longer are on hook.
Feels like B Lowe finally gets moved this offseason.
I have seen a few scenarios where the Rays could trade Springs or Rasmussen. What about McClanahan? Could he be available? What kind of package would it take to get McClanahan coming of TJ surgery?