Rays Unlikely To Move Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe

The Rays entered the offseason likely to shed some payroll via trades of veteran players — a frequent reality for the budget-crunched Tampa Bay club — which prompted many (MLBTR included) to speculate on the possibility of trading infielders Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe. The Rays are teeming with young infield options, and both players are set to earn eight-figure salaries in 2025. However, teams that have spoken to the Rays about Diaz and Lowe have been given the impression that Tampa Bay is likely to hold onto both players for the start of the upcoming season, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. More broadly, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic implies that the Rays aren’t keen on subtracting from the offense at all between now and Opening Day.

Tampa Bay has indeed shed some notable salary this winter, but it’s come in the form of trades and non-tenders. Left-hander Jeffrey Springs and his $10.5MM salary in each of the next two seasons went to the A’s in exchange for flamethrowing righty Joe Boyle, a pair of minor leaguers, and the Athletics’ Competitive Balance selection in the upcoming 2025 draft. Jose Siri (projected $2.3MM salary) was traded to the Mets in exchange for reliever Eric Orze. Nearly $10MM of additional projected salary was shed when the team non-tendered outfielder Dylan Carlson and lefties Colin Poche, Tyler Alexander and Richard Lovelady.

That collection of cost-cutting maneuvers trimmed $22-23MM from next year’s books. The only salary of note the Rays have added in place of those departures is the $8.5MM guaranteed to catcher Danny Jansen, who signed with Tampa Bay in mid-December. RosterResource currently projects the Rays for a $76MM payroll and about $104MM of luxury obligations — down from last year’s respective marks of $89MM and $115MM.

One of the motivations behind freeing up payroll space with trades of veterans would be to afford more at-bats to young players with little left to prove in Triple-A (e.g. Jonathan Aranda, Curtis Mead) while also creating flexibility to bring in other free agents of note. Circumstances well beyond the Rays’ control have hobbled any such efforts, however. The damage wrought on Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton both left the Rays facing even more financial uncertainty than usual and also made it harder to lure free agents. The Rays will play their 2025 home games at a minor league facility — Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field, the Class-A home of the Yankees — which is going to reduce interest for plenty of players on the open market.

The Rays scored the second-fewest runs in MLB last year, with their collective 604 mark leading only the White Sox. Tampa Bay ranked 27th in the majors in batting average (.230), 24th in on-base percentage (.302), 29th in slugging percentage (.366) and 28th in home runs (147). Viewed through that lens, subtracting one or both of Diaz (.281/.341/.414, 120 wRC+) and Lowe (.244/.311/.473, 123 wRC+) would feel counterproductive — at least in a vacuum.

However, the Rays habitually trade quality players as their salaries rise and their club control dwindles. Their willingness to engage in such frequent roster churn and their ability to successfully identify quality long-term contributors in the return for such trades has become a hallmark of the organization’s success and led to near-perennial contention in a stacked AL East — despite bottom-of-the-barrel payroll numbers. Diaz is earning $10MM this coming season and has a $12MM club option (no buyout) in 2026. Lowe will be paid $10.5MM this year and has an $11.5MM club option in 2026 ($500K buyout). Both are free agents in the 2026-27 offseason.

The dwindling club control on both players will make them prime trade candidates this summer if things don’t go well for the Rays or if Tampa Bay feels their production can be replaced by turning their respective positions over to younger options. The Rays aren’t the type of club to be shy about dealing solid contributors from the roster even in the midst of contending seasons.

With regard to the 2025 roster, however, the hope will ostensibly be for inexperienced players like Aranda and third baseman Junior Caminero to make strides at the plate, while other young players like Josh Lowe and Christopher Morel hopefully rebound at the dish. Both had strong showings in 2023 before wilting in 2024. Adding Jansen should be an upgrade to a catching corps that produced disastrous results at the plate in 2024 — even if the longtime Blue Jays backstop can’t recover from his own 2024 struggles with the bat. Jansen hit just .206/.308/.348 in 328 plate appearances last year, but even that would be an upgrade over the woeful .194/.272/.291 output from Tampa Bay backstops in 2024. And, if Jansen can rediscover the .237/.317/.487 form he displayed from 2021-23, it’d be a massive boon for the Rays.

Time will tell just how the Rays’ offense recovers — or fails to recover — from last year’s doldrums. Trades can never be expressly ruled out for a club like the Rays, but for the time being, it seems they’ll hang onto the veteran bats they have and reassess their trade candidacy this summer. Others on the roster (e.g. Pete Fairbanks, Zack Littell) have also come up in trade rumblings this winter, but there’s been some recent cold water thrown on that pair being available as well.