The Rays promoted Hamilton Marx to assistant general manager, writes Adam Berry of MLB.com. Marx is entering his 12th season in the organization and spent this past season as the club’s vice president of baseball process/strategy. He’d previously held the title of director of baseball operations.
Marx, 39, assumes the AGM role vacated when Carlos Rodriguez stepped down earlier this month. Rodriguez had previously run the team’s international scouting department. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times writes that Marx, who has a scouting background, will now be in charge of both the domestic and international amateur scouting operations. That’s on top of his previous responsibilities, which included arbitration and contract work.
The Rays have had four assistant GMs for the last two seasons. Marx joins Chanda Lawdermilk, Will Cousins and Kevin Ibach in that role. The Rays have a number of assistant GMs without actually having a general manager. They never filled that position after Peter Bendix departed to become president of baseball operations in Miami. The Rays’ front office is led by baseball ops president Erik Neander, who’ll continue in the role he has had for a decade under new owner Patrick Zalupski.
Rays are in a very precarious position, they haven’t been a true playoff team lately, the formerly vaunted farm system has dried up abit and the stadium issues are serious. I seriously wonder where this franchise is at in 5 years.
Tampa
I don’t think dried up is an accurate way to describe their farm system. The only reason the hitting has dried up a little is Williams, Caminero, and Simpson were all called up. The lower minors is loaded with pitching thanks to the trades last year. With that said, they are probably a middle-of-the-road .500ish team for the next few years if they don’t spend money to support the core they have. Their pitching could be elite a few years from now, but who knows with low minors prospects.
That’s not entirely correct. Yes, Williams was called up, but he still remains a rookie and is listed in all the prospect reports. He didn’t have a good year though; although, he played a lot better down the stretch in AAA before being called up prematurely to the Majors. The rest of the bats had bad years. Isaac has a serious K problem and can’t hit LHP (and he missed the 2nd half of the season for an undisclosed injury). B.Taylor looked like the worst player in the minors for a long stretch this year, but he did manage to stabilize by year end. Gillen had an ok year but ended the season on IL, which shouldn’t surprise anyone (multiple major surgeries in High School). He probably proves to be a wasted draft pick in the fullness of time because of injuries, and the Rays could have drafted Benge instead. Last year’s international gem B.Guerrero got injured again and then played poorly when he returned (and is sucking arse in the AFL right now). I could list almost every bat in the Rays top 30 list. They all had bad or disappointing years one way or another. I do like a lot of the Rays pitching prospects, but none of them look like sure-fire TOR pitchers right now. If they all top out at 3s, 4s and 5s (as has been the case lately), then the Rays Farm System is really bad right now.
I wasn’t defending the bats, I know about the issues with that bats. I pretty much said the same thing you said, which is that they have a pile of low minors pitching prospects that are basically promising lottery tickets at this point. I still don’t think that equals a dried up system.
Fair enough. The problem of course is that the Rays have missed the playoffs two years in a row, several of their best players are aging and likely to get traded, and they don’t have reinforcements waiting in Durham to promote. It will be an interesting offseason for the Rays and they could just be starting a multi-year stretch of mediocrity.
I doubt they’ll do anything significant this offseason based on the new owners press conference. They made reference to that the budget will stay the same. I have a feeling their priority is the stadium for the next few years. I do think that Aranda, Williams, Caminero, Mangum, and Simpson are an interesting young core to build around if they were to spend money. Their future hope is pitching for sure, but I, too, see them as a mediocre team that has a ceiling of being .500 and maybe sneaking into a wild card round for the foreseeable future.
No, nothing significant will happen. I’m definitely not expecting a splash signing or anything. However, if they stick to their normal way of conducting business, they’ll look to trade (or possibly extend) Lowe, Diaz and Fairbanks. Doing so would free up $35MM in spending for free agency and make sure these guys don’t leave in free agency themselves for nothing in return. They also have a surplus of potential SP (e.g., Ras, McClanny, Pep, Baz, Boyle, Seymour, Whitley, and Jax). and it will be interesting to see how they sort out the rotation with guys like Curet, T.Johnson, B.Hopkins, J.Baumeister, T.Cummings, and T.Nichols a year out.
A lot of Rays fans are wondering that lately. Seems like a brain drain has occurred in the RFO (or Stu forced the RFO to make bad moves in the twilight of his ownership when he used to be hands-off). Either way, there’s something rotten in Tampa Bay that only Rays fans are noticing, with the national media focusing on JC’s breakout.
Could not agree more. The FO has been sus lately and I wouldn’t be surprised if stu took over bc he knew he had to sell the team anyways.
Here for the Karl and Groucho jokes…
I was thinking Richard, but I see where you’re going with this.
Yeah, it was right there waiting for you.
Hold on to the nights.
Dont mean nothing
Now and Forever, and it was Al’s Bronco.
out of respect for the Goldman Family
I switched my Avatar to one of the all time greats if not the greatest
and should have know better that it was Al’s LOL
The RFO has had a string of bad years lately, and some of us Rays fans are wondering if the best minds have departed the Rays, leaving just the ones who really aren’t that good. There have been extenuating circumstances though, first with the attempt to get a stadium funded in St. Pete and then with the forced sale by Stu. Both factors might have led (probably did) to the Rays placing more importance on winning in the NOW than on managing the team overall for the long term. Still, it’s hard to overlook the Paredes trade (which was dogshit from the get go), the HSK signing, the lackluster trade returns and the poor drafts. Their refusal to draft a pitcher before the 4th/5th round for the past 3-4 years is the most insane thing a team known for developing pitchers could do, and yet…. here we are. Anyway, the Rays haven’t been a playoff team lately, will not be a playoff team in 2026, have a 2027 lockout coming, have new owners, etc… If ever there was a time for a reset in the front office to get back to doing what originally made the team great, now is it. I just hope they have the right people in place to make those decisions. I’m pulling for them.
You also have to consider the possibility that no number of brilliant minds should be expected to maintain a perennial contender on the Rays budget. This franchise has achieved a miraculous quantity of success and consistency since 2008 or so. But the thing about miracles is you really can’t expect them to repeat. Or continue.
I don’t expect the Rays to win every trade or always turn another team’s castoff into a productive player, but what’s concerning are the number of self-inflicted wounds. What the Rays have accomplished is not a miracle though. They have been disciplined, good talent evaluators, and unafraid of making the hard decisions.
You say that as if having all three of those traits at the same time isn’t a miracle. And in excess of every other club too! (except maybe the Brewers)
No, I don’t think it’s a miracle at all, but as I wrote above, they have not made smart decisions the past 2 years and as a Rays fan I am hoping that was because they were focused on generating community goodwill for the stadium and then trying to send Stu out as a winner. If they keep making bad decisions this offseason, then i’ll start getting worried.
Hamilton Marx sounds like a Rays executive