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Rays Unlikely To Move Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe

By Steve Adams | January 8, 2025 at 10:29am CDT

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.

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Tampa Bay Rays Brandon Lowe Yandy Diaz

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29 Comments

  1. BrianCashmansBurner

    6 months ago

    The Rays might regret not trading Lowe while he’s upright and not on the IL.

    7
    Reply
    • Big whiffa

      6 months ago

      There doesn’t seem to be buyer

      Reply
      • Nuke LaLoosh

        6 months ago

        Mariners

        1
        Reply
        • Big whiffa

          6 months ago

          They can’t afford him or anyone else apparently

          1
          Reply
    • alwaysgo4two

      6 months ago

      But when he’s healthy he’s a line-up threat. When. The Rays cannot afford to lose any bats.

      Reply
      • Jarred Kelenic's Beer Can

        6 months ago

        The Rays are probably the 4th best team in the AL East this year. Keeping around an injury prone aging 2B because he can kinda hit makes little sense especially after they’ve traded out several of their good players already.

        1
        Reply
        • kc38

          6 months ago

          Rays will be fighting for the division lead all year. Book it

          4
          Reply
    • Rays in the Bay

      6 months ago

      If Walls is still in the lineup the Rays offense will be awful no matter who they trade

      2
      Reply
      • bwmiller79

        6 months ago

        I agree, Rays can compete in the AL East and Taylor Walls should be on the bench, Carson Williams and Caballero are both better options.

        The big wild card will be Eloy Jimenez. If he has a breakout season, and Lowe and Lowe stay healthy, the Rays will be pretty good.

        Reply
  2. bernbabybern

    6 months ago

    So you’re saying there’s a chance.

    4
    Reply
  3. LordD99

    6 months ago

    It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.

    4
    Reply
  4. The_Porcupine

    6 months ago

    Im fine with keeping yandy. Should ditch lowe however. It feels like hes only had 1 good year and that every hot streak hwe starts ends on the IL.

    Reply
    • myaccount2

      6 months ago

      I’m assuming that’s the issue. There probably isn’t a team willing to give up a bunch for Lowe for exactly that reason, and it doesn’t benefit the Rays much to trade him for a team’s 20-25th ranked prospect and organizational filler.

      Reply
  5. Mikenmn

    6 months ago

    One comment about the Rays (and I’m a Yankee’s fan, so take it with a grain of salt). At least they try. They develop well, they trade adroitly, the make an effort. They seem more deserving of support than they get. There are teams that only look to the bottom line, and don’t care about at least attempting to put on a competitive team. It’s possible FL. with it’s infinite number of distractions, can’t really support a MLB franchise

    4
    Reply
    • whyhayzee

      6 months ago

      Florida teams should play their 81 home games in April, May and September and be on the road for 81 games in June, July and August.

      1
      Reply
  6. whyhayzee

    6 months ago

    If every team had the acumen of the Rays, there wouldn’t be a single team below .500.

    Reply
    • BrianCashmansBurner

      6 months ago

      Or above .500

      2
      Reply
      • kc38

        6 months ago

        Rays have won the 4th most games in baseball the last 6 years lmaooo

        1
        Reply
        • TBRaysBucsBolts

          6 months ago

          I might be wrong, but I read that comment as, “ If no teams have a losing record then every team must be exactly .500”, rather than as a negative comment about Tampa Bay. I think most fans realize that Tampa Bay made the postseason five years in a row before 2024….

          Reply
  7. BeeCarbo

    6 months ago

    Every RS fan prays they move Lowe to the NL. What did he hit? .420 against us?

    Reply
  8. BigRedMachine

    6 months ago

    The Mariners chose to not participate in the Free Agent market this year and now their trade options to find a 1b,2b and 3b are dwindling. I am looking forward to pulling my hair out watching more 3-1 and 2-0 losses this season.

    2
    Reply
    • long-suffering

      6 months ago

      But we’ll only miss the playoffs by 1 game, so exciting to the end.

      1
      Reply
    • Big whiffa

      6 months ago

      This is their year to take the division too. Such a shame !

      Reply
  9. RotiniRick

    6 months ago

    -13th largest TV market.
    -An increase in population over 2023 climbing over 3 million.
    -99% of Lighting games sell out.
    -100% of Buccaneer games sell out.
    -Both teams spend up to their caps consistently

    Something in Tampa just doesn’t make sense to this outsider. It can’t ALL be stadium related, can it? Wrong site to ask but is interest in baseball just not there any longer?

    3
    Reply
    • Tom the ray fan

      6 months ago

      Rays stadium isn’t in Tampa and it’s a pain to get to. If you know NYC at all it’s like having team from NYC play 30 miles out on long Island, not worth the hassle.

      3
      Reply
    • CleaverGreene

      6 months ago

      The problem is location and the fact that they sell off most every long term asset before they get expensive.

      1
      Reply
      • kc38

        6 months ago

        No fans care that we sell off assets when we are in the playoffs almost every year. Fans want a successful team, not to buy a jersey when the player can’t even play anymore

        Reply
  10. Tom the ray fan

    6 months ago

    Give it 6 months then we’ll see.

    Reply
  11. MLBTR needs to hire editors

    6 months ago

    When “and” starts the sentence as in the context seen above, it should not have a comma after it.

    Reply

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