- As of three weeks ago, the Rays expected injured infielder Brandon Lowe to miss the rest of the regular season. That might not happen, though, as manager Kevin Cash suggested Friday that Lowe and right-hander Yonny Chirinos could return, Juan Toribio of MLB.com tweets. Lowe was amid one of the league’s best rookie seasons when he went down July 3 with a shin injury, while Chirinos was among the Rays’ top starters before landing on the shelf Aug. 5 with a finger injury. Despite their ongoing absences, Tampa Bay continues to hold an American League wild-card spot, albeit by the thinnest of margins. The Rays are a half-game up on the Indians for the league’s No. 5 seed.
Rays Rumors
Blake Snell Slated To Return Next Week
Rays lefty and reigning American League Cy Young winner Blake Snell is scheduled to return to action next week, he tells reporters including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). Snell will take the ball on Tuesday with the expectation of throwing about three innings.
Snell last appeared in late July, at which time he was sidelined with loose bodies in his pitching elbow. He has been working back since undergoing surgery to alleviate the issue. The absence has been a bit longer than initially anticipated.
It’s great news for the Rays, who’ll allow Snell to get his competitive rehab work in at the MLB level. There aren’t any more Triple-A games for Snell to appear in. And the Rays’ adaptable pitching staff is accustomed to covering for short starts and bulk appearances.
Snell will join righty Tyler Glasnow in returning with partial availability. Unlike Glasnow, who had been firmly on the rise when he hit the shelf, Snell had taken a step back early in the season. Through 101 innings over his twenty starts to this point, Snell carries a 4.28 ERA.
That said, the Tampa Bay organization has every reason to believe that Snell can get back to being the monster he was in 2018. He had been much the same pitcher by most measures — if not better. He maintained a 3.1 BB/9 walk rate while raising his strikeout game (12.1 K/9, 17.8% swinging-strike rate) and lowering his xwOBA (.263).
There isn’t much time left for Snell to build up his pitch count. He’ll be able to make three total outings before the end of the regular season, so it’s reasonable to presume he’ll still be climbing northward come crunch time. But he’d likely be nearing full availability. And if he goes every fifth day, Snell will be on turn to start the Wild Card game.
Rays Select Johnny Davis
The Rays announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of outfielder Johnny Davis from Double-A Montgomery. Left-hander Hoby Milner was placed on the 60-day injured list to create a roster spot. Milner is dealing with a “cervical neck injury” and will be shut down for at least three weeks before he’s reevaluated.
Davis, 29, will get his first look at the Major League level — a reality that would’ve seemed difficult to fathom even a month ago. Davis only signed with the Rays on Aug. 29, having spent the entire season to that point playing in the Mexican League. The former Brewers draft pick (2013, 22nd round) played only nine games of affiliated ball in 2018, splitting the rest of that season between the Kansas City T-Bones of the American Association and los Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos in the Mexican League.
Davis’ appeal to Tampa Bay is easy to see; he swiped 54 bases in 106 games in Mexico this season and has racked up 82 steals in just 161 career games in the Mexican League. He’s also appeared in parts of three seasons at the Double-A level (including five games with the Rays’ affiliate this year) and stolen 71 bases in 207 games. Davis a career .304/.364/.424 hitter in Mexico and a .262/.314/.337 hitter in Double-A, but his abilities with the bat are secondary, at best. He’ll give the Rays a valuable pinch-running/base-stealing option late in games as the club looks to hang onto the top Wild Card spot in the American League.
The Rays currently hold a 1.5-game lead over the Athletics for that top spot, with Oakland leading Cleveland by a mere half game for that second position. Taking an extra base late in games can prove vital — just ask the 2014-15 Royals — and Davis seems likely to take on a Terrance Gore/Quintin Berry-esque specialty role for at least the remainder of the regular season and perhaps for the postseason as well. Davis will indeed be postseason-eligible, given that he joined the organization prior to Sept. 1.
Early Trade Deadline Re-Assessment: AL East
It has only been a little over five weeks, so it’s too soon to judge with finality how this year’s trade deadline maneuvers will play out. That said, we’re already half of the way through the period — the regular season portion, at least — for which rental players were acquired. Even players with future control are usually added first and foremost for their immediate contributions (though there are some exceptions). It’d be awfully premature to say anything conclusive about the prospect side of any deals, but we do now have some additional information with which to work.
So, that’s why we’re going to take a glance back over our shoulders at the moves (and major non-moves) that organizations made in the run-up to this year’s trade deadline. We already covered the AL Central and NL Central; now we’ll go to the American League East …
Yankees
The Yankees did their shopping ahead of time, as it turned out. They first picked up Cameron Maybin (link) and Kendrys Morales (link) early in the season. Maybin’s stunning productivity has obviously been a boon for the Yanks, who’ve weathered countless injuries with a slew of surprise performances.
Over the summer, the New York club ultimately replaced Morales with Edwin Encarnacion in a mid-June swap and went on to pick up pinch runner extraordinaire Terrance Gore in a minor move. The Encarnacion deal gave the Yankees another fearsome slugger on a roster chock full of them. He has missed some time and hasn’t been at his absolute best, but still carries a strong .246/.320/.514 slash in 194 plate appearances with the club. Young pitching prospect Juan Then has had a nice showing since moving to the Seattle organization in the EE deal, reaching the Class A level and throwing a combined 48 1/3 innings of 2.98 ERA ball with 48 strikeouts and 13 walks.
That all seemed to be prelude to a bigger deadline strike. Surely, the thinking went, the Yanks would be ready to do whatever it’d take to fully load their roster in an attempt to win the World Series for the first time since 2009. Pitching, particularly of the starting variety, was obviously in need. As it turned out, the Yankees held pat on deadline day. While they nearly landed a big relief arm in Ken Giles, they ultimately decided to roll the dice on internal options.
So, are there any regrets? The Yanks are cruising in the division, so in that sense it’s hard to argue with the way the line was drawn. But the club doesn’t feature an imposing postseason rotation. It may be supposed that the team will try to make up for the lack of high-end starters with a fearsome relief mix, but that’s still somewhat dependent upon the recovery of injured hurlers Luis Severino and Dellin Betances. The uncertainties were well-known in the run-up to the trade deadline, so the Yankees are sleeping in the bed they made. There’s immense talent on the roster, but it’ll be interesting to see if the quiet deadline ultimately haunts the club.
Rays
There weren’t any headline-making moves, but that doesn’t mean the Rays weren’t busy at the deadline. The organization’s mid-season acquisitions didn’t jump-start a run at the Yanks, but have subtly altered their array of talent and helped the club stay out in front of the AL Wild Card race.
Parting with Nick Solak helped clear the deck on the position-player side while bringing in interesting righty Peter Fairbanks. Both have turned in impressive initial showings at the MLB level — 78 plate appearances of .949 OPS hitting and 5 1/3 innings of pitching with just one earned run — and could play significant roles on their respective new clubs in 2020.
The Rays then sent out Hunter Wood and Christian Arroyo for faraway outfielder Ruben Cardenas and $250K of international signing capacity. This seemed primarily to be a roster-clearing move, but it cost the team a cost-efficient reliever who has turned in solid results on both sides of the swap. That’s also what happened with lefty Adam Kolarek, who has made 17 scoreless appearances since being traded to the Dodgers. Outfielder Niko Hulsizer, acquired in return, remains a long-term project. In another roster-management deal, outfielder Joe McCarthy went to the Giants for youthful pitching prospect Jacob Lopez. The former has struggled at Triple-A; the latter has been successful in limited action both before and after the deal, but hasn’t yet moved past the low-A level.
Having parted with Solak and Arroyo, the Rays turned around and added a veteran in the same essential utility mold. Eric Sogard has hit well since coming down to Florida, turning in a .284/.348/.431 slash in 112 plate appearances. Indeed, he’s out-slashing fellow acquisition Jesus Aguilar, who’s hitting competently but hasn’t returned to his slugging ways since coming from the Brewers. That deal, too, saw a big-league-capable hurler leave the Tampa Bay org, though Jake Faria hasn’t yet distinguished himself in Milwaukee.
That was all prelude to the team’s biggest swap. Solid reliever/opener Ryne Stanek was packaged with quality outfield prospect Jesus Sanchez in exchange for righties Nick Anderson and Trevor Richards. The long-term key to this deal is Sanchez, who hasn’t yet turned on the jets but is seen by some as a future regular. Despite his relatively high-profile role in Tampa Bay, nobody has missed Stanek, who has struggled since moving south. Any thought of what has departed has been overwhelmed by what the Rays have gotten back. Richards has been excellent in a Raysian swingman sort of role, throwing 19 1/3 innings of 2.33 ERA ball. And Anderson? He has quietly racked up two strikeouts for every one of his 15 innings pitched with nary a free pass. Anderson is already 29 years of age, but his remaining control rights — he won’t be eligible for arbitration until 2022 — look to be quite valuable.
Red Sox
Not unlike their bitter New England rivals, the Red Sox acted early and then went quiet. But the situations weren’t the same: there was greater need in Boston, but also less cause to press the issue given the team’s perilous place in the standings.
It had been hoped that acquiring veteran Andrew Cashner would represent a low-cost means of shoring up a leaky Red Sox pitching staff. He was intended to start, with Nathan Eovaldi heading to the bullpen. As it turns out, both have pitched poorly while spending time in both starting and relief roles.
There’s no question that adding to the bullpen would’ve boosted the chances for the Red Sox. It’s tempting to believe that a bold strike might even have jolted a turnaround. But the Boston organization had largely played its cards in the offseason. Ultimately, a roster weary from the prior season’s World Series run just wasn’t up to the task. It’d be hard to say a different deadline approach would likely have changed the outcome.
Blue Jays
It was always clear how this deadline would go for the Blue Jays, who’ve almost fully turned over their roster over the past few years and are now looking to build around premium young talent. It remains a bit surprising that the club couldn’t find a home for Justin Smoak and Freddy Galvis — the latter ultimately departed via waiver claim — but the Jays did swing several sell-side deals.
First came the surprising Marcus Stroman swap. It was all but inevitable he’d be moved, but the destination came as a surprise. Some observers were underwhelmed by the return, but the Toronto organization seemed excited to add pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson. So far, so good. Kay turned in seven quality outings at Triple-A and recently made his MLB debut, with eight strikeouts against three walks and two earned runs on the board over 5 2/3 solid frames. And the 18-year-old Woods Richardson has thrived after receiving a promotion to the High-A level, compiling 28 1/3 innings of 2.54 ERA ball with 9.2 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9.
The Jays also dealt away another once-featured hurler in Aaron Sanchez. He went with fellow righty Joe Biagini to the Astros in exchange for outfielder Derek Fisher. This has the feeling of a trade that could be a complete non-factor in the long run … or one that could turn out to be quite significant in retrospect. Sanchez showed a brief spark but is now down for the year with a shoulder injury, while Biagini has struggled badly. Fisher will get a longer look, but the former first-rounder has struggled to a .167/.277/.403 slash to this point in his Blue Jays tenure.
Two more relievers went out the door as well. David Phelps has been a big contributor for the Cubs since he was dealt. But the deal brought the Jays back a potentially useful piece in righty Tom Hatch. He finished off his season with a strong 35 1/3 inning run at Toronto’s Double-A affiliate, over which he pitched to a 2.80 ERA with an exceptional 34:2 K/BB ratio. Finally, there was the swap that sent veteran reliever Daniel Hudson to the Nationals. Unlike the other deals, this was a classic rental scenario. It’s anyone’s guess what the team will get out of 23-year-old Kyle Johnston, the hurler added in return. He took a sharp turn for the worse upon arriving in his new org, allowing 22 earned runs with a terrible 13:20 K/BB ratio in 19 2/3 innings of action, but will have a chance to go back to the drawing board in the upcoming offseason.
Orioles
It turned out to be quite the quiet deadline for the Orioles. On deadline day itself, the club simply shipped Dan Straily to the Phillies in a minor move. Before that came only the aforementioned Cashner deal, which brought in a pair of 17-year-old Venezuelans. Elio Prado and Noelberth Romero. Those recent signees continued to play in the Dominican Summer League after the trade; whether they’ll ultimately deliver value to the Baltimore organization won’t be known for quite some time.
So far as the O’s were concerned, the most notable aspects of the deadline were the moves not made. It seemed that reliever Mychal Givens would draw interest, as he was carrying strong peripherals despite an ugly ERA. No doubt the Orioles received offers, but they ultimately elected to hold him in hopes that he’d boost his value. That’s just what has happened so far: opposing hitters have mustered only seven singles and two walks against him over his past 13 appearances, during which time Givens has racked up 19 strikeouts.
Otherwise, the non-moves weren’t terribly surprising, but there are a few of note. There was never much of a build-up surrounding young outfielder Trey Mancini. It’ll be interesting to see whether that occurs this winter. He’s also an extension possibility. The O’s also elected to hang onto infielders Hanser Alberto and Jonathan Villar. Both have hit quite well since the deadline, are on track to be tendered contracts, and could be traded away at any point moving forward.
Jonny Venters Will Try To Continue Pitching
No one would blame veteran left-hander Jonny Venters if he tapped out, so to speak, following last month’s shoulder surgery. The 34-year-old has already undergone three Tommy John surgeries and a fourth elbow procedure in his career, won 2018 Comeback Player of the Year honors, been named to an All-Star team and pitched in parts of three separate postseasons. Venters, though, in an excellent interview with Jesse Daugherty of the Washington Post, indicated that he plans to at least try to continue his career.
“I’ll probably give it all I can and hope for the best,” the lefty said roughly a month after his fifth major arm surgery. “And if it doesn’t [work out], we’ll figure something else out, you know?”
Venters’ latest procedure repaired a torn capsule in his left shoulder and will keep from throwing a baseball until at least December. He’ll assuredly have to sign a minor league contract somewhere in hopes of eventually proving himself capable of pitching on a big league mound once again, but the southpaw is surely accustomed to that sort of free-agent experience by now. He’s already signed four minor league contracts since undergoing his first major surgery.
Venters went more than a half decade between Major League appearances in 2012 and 2018, eventually working his way back from those four elbow surgeries to give the Rays and Braves 34 1/3 sharp innings last year. He’d arguably have been deserving of Comeback Player of the Year honors simply for getting back to a mound and appearing in 50 games — regardless of the results. It certainly didn’t hurt, however, that he not only capped off his near-miraculous return to the mound but picked back up as an effective bullpen piece; the tenacious lefty turned in a 3.67 ERA with a 27-to-16 K/BB ratio and a sky-high 69.1 percent grounder rate in that time.
The 2019 season clearly didn’t go as well for Venters. He walked eight men and served up three big flies through his first 4 2/3 innings before being released by the Braves, and his Nationals tenure was both brief and lackluster. He appeared in just three games for the Nats and allowed a pair of earned runs on three hits and two walks with five strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.
Rays Announce Promotions Within Baseball Ops Department
- The Rays are making some changes within their baseball operations hierarchy, per a club press release. Mitch Lukevics, the organization’s long-time farm director, is transitioning to a senior advisory role in the front office after 14 years running the club’s minor-league operations. Lukevics “will remain closely involved” with the minor league system, the Rays added. Tampa Bay has also promoted Jeff McLerran to director of minor league operations, promoted Patrick Walter to director of international operations and promoted Steve Miller to director of international scouting. McLerran and Walter had previously been assistant directors in those respective fields, while Miller has spent the past six seasons as an international crosschecker for the Rays.
Rays To Activate Tyler Glasnow
Sunday: Glasnow has officially been activated from the injured list to start this afternoon’s game against Toronto.
Friday: The Rays will activate righty Tyler Glasnow to take the ball to start Sunday’s game, manager Kevin Cash told reporters including MLB.com’s Juan Toribio (Twitter link). Glasnow, who has been sidelined for much of the season with a forearm injury, is expected to be limited to two or three innings of work.
While Glasnow isn’t going to step right back into a full starting role, that was never the expectation. For one thing, he’s returning without the benefit of a lengthy minor-league rehab schedule. For another, he is needed in the majors as soon as possible with the Rays engaged in a closely fought battle for Wild Card position.
It’s hard to predict how the situation will unfold. Glasnow could perhaps build his arm strength up while working as an opener. Perhaps that’ll morph into something more akin to a typical starter’s workload as the postseason approaches.
Glasnow, who recently turned 26, is a key piece (in the present and the future) for a Tampa Bay organization that is hoping to return to full health in the pitching department at just the right time. Fellow hurlers Blake Snell and Yonny Chirinos are also trying to work back to the MLB bump. In eight starts to open the year, Glasnow pitched to a 1.86 ERA in 48 1/3 innings.
Rays To Promote Kean Wong
1:39PM: The Rays have officially called up Wong, and moved left-hander Jose Alvarado to the 60-day injured list to create roster move.
8:35AM: The Rays will call up utilityman Kean Wong, The Athletic’s Josh Tolentino reports (Twitter link). Wong — the younger brother of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong — isn’t on the 40-man roster, so the Rays will have to make another move prior before the 24-year-old prospect’s contract is officially selected.
It will mark the Major League debut for Wong, who was a fourth-round pick for Tampa Bay in the 2013 draft. Originally selected as a second baseman, Wong also began to see some time as a third baseman, and then over the last two seasons has expanded his defensive repertoire to include shortstop and all three outfield positions.
This type of versatility will have Wong fit right into a Rays lineup that values multi-positional ability. Wong is also a left-handed hitter, giving a bit more balance amongst the middle infield options. Wong, Eric Sogard, and Joey Wendle all hit from the left side, while Matt Duffy, Daniel Robertson, and everyday shortstop Willy Adames are all right-handed bats.
MLB.com doesn’t rank Wong within the top 30 prospects in the deep Tampa farm system, though he punched his ticket to the big leagues with a breakout season at the plate. Wong hit .307/.375/.464 with 10 homers over 506 plate appearances for Triple-A Durham this season. The power surge is of particular note, as Wong’s previous high in slugging percentage was a .406 mark in 2018.
While Wong is far from the only Triple-A player to suddenly start mashing in 2019, it provides some evidence that he’ll be able to hit MLB pitching, which was the biggest question mark facing Wong’s prospect status. Even counting his big 2019 numbers, he still has an overall modest .287/.342/.383 slash line over 3052 career PA in the minors.
Latest On Jeremy Jeffress
Right-hander Jeremy Jeffress, officially released by the Brewers yesterday, has drawn some level of interest from several teams, tweets Yahoo’s Matt Ehalt. The Reds, Mets, Phillies, Rays and even the Brewers are among the teams who’ve inquired about the 2018 All-Star.
Jeffress isn’t postseason eligible, having been cut loose in September, but some of the interested teams would apparently like to proactively lock him up to a deal that covers the 2020 campaign (perhaps via a club option). That’d help to explain Milwaukee’s reported interest in bringing the righty back; the Brewers clearly had no intention of exercising Jeffress preexisting $4.3MM option for the 2020 season, but they (or another suitor) could conceivably try to hammer out an option at a lower base salary with some additional incentives. Any team signing Jeffress would only owe him the prorated league minimum for the remainder of the current season.
It’s also possible, though, that Jeffress could simply sit out the remainder of the season and explore opportunities this winter. He was on the injured list due to a hip ailment at the time of his release, and there’d surely be some benefit to an extended period of rest for the righty. He’ll likely have offseason minor league offers with decent base salaries (though less than the previous $4.3MM) at the very least, meaning there’s no rush to sign at the moment. There’ll surely be teams who are only interested in adding him after the current season draws to a close, so waiting until November to take a deal would widen his market.
Open-market circumstances surrounding Jeffress will always be somewhat atypical, given the right-hander’s history. He’s served multiple minor league suspensions for drugs of abuse (i.e. marijuana) and was charged with a DWI while pitching for the Rangers in 2016. That track record surely contributed to the club-friendly deal Jeffress signed with Milwaukee prior to the 2018 season, which came with two team options at relatively low base rates and plenty of yearly incentives based on innings pitched and games finished.
Jeffress’ release earlier this week marked the end of a radical downturn in performance. The right-hander logged a 1.29 ERA with 10.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 0.59 HR/9 and a 56.4 percent ground-ball rate in last year’s All-Star season before unraveling in the playoffs. He then missed the first several weeks of the 2019 season due to shoulder fatigue.
Upon activation in mid-April, Jeffress pitched well for two months, logging a 2.52 ERA and a 26-to-9 K/BB ratio through his first 22 appearances (25 innings). Since that time, he’s scuffled with an ERA north of 7.00 and a deflated strikeout rate. Jeffress’ velocity has actually improved a bit as he’s distanced himself from the early shoulder fatigue, but the aforementioned hip ailment has added another injury to the ledger. In all, he’s turned in 52 innings with a 5.02 ERA, 8.0 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 1.00 HR/9 and a 48.4 percent ground-ball rate while enduring a pair of IL stints in 2019. The upside a healthy Jeffress brings to the table is enormous, but he’s struggled to produce consistent results over the past three seasons.
An Alternative Approach To Team Building
This afternoon, the Rays won a 5-4 decision against the Orioles, their latest effort in pursuit of an AL Wild Card appearance. Now in sole possession of the first play-in spot, the Rays managed a victory thanks to a solid bullpen effort and a clutch RBI knock from outfielder Tommy Pham. More notably, they took the field with an active roster unlike that of any other AL playoff candidate.
When manager Kevin Cash penciled in today’s lineups, he was working with a set of names that are, for most casual fans, unrecognizable. Players like Eric Sogard, Ji-Man Choi, and Willy Adames could all probably go unnoticed in a police lineup, but they’ve nonetheless been key contributors to Cash’s 81-58 Rays outfit. But, aside from their collective lack of renown, Cash’s players all share something else in common–nearly all of them arrived in Tampa via another club’s roster.
At time of posting, 27 of the players on Tampa’s 40-man roster were originally acquired by the club via trade or waiver claim.
Currently, there are only four players—Diego Castillo, Austin Pruitt, Nate Lowe, and Kevin Kiermaier—on the Rays active roster who can claim that Tampa was their first professional stateside club. Every other player suiting up for Tampa these days was signed, drafted, or developed by a different MLB organization.
For context, this is far more than most teams in the current AL playoff race. According to Roster Resource, the Red Sox (10), Yankees (18), Astros (15), Indians (19), and Twins (9) don’t even come close to the Rays in terms of trade-acquired 40-man roster players. The only other competitive team with a somewhat similar roster makeup is Oakland, with 25 such players.
That the Moneyball-grounded Athletics are the only other team with a similar roster construction is, obviously, not a detail to be overlooked. Though A’s executive Billy Beane is arguably the face of “value-oriented” baseball strategy, the employees at the controls of the Tampa war room seem to have just as much invested in the exploitation of market inefficiencies.
In November 2016, the Rays organization came under the control of three men: Senior VP and General Manager Erik Neander, Senior VP Chaim Bloom, and VP James Click. Since then, these men have directed a Baseball Operations department with a consistent ethos, which could be best described as a combination of payroll-cutting moves committed in concert with the acquisition of advanced (read: older) prospects and post-hype players on the fringe of other MLB rosters.
As you might expect, this strategy has welcomed its share of detractors. When the team traded All-Star outfielder Corey Dickerson to the Pirates in 2017 for pitcher Daniel Hudson, minor league infielder Tristan Gray and cash considerations, many were quick to decry the monetarily motivated decision–among the critics was former franchise icon Evan Longoria, who said that he “felt bad” for Rays fans in the wake of the trade.
Of course, that trade was perhaps a table-setter for another, more successful trade with Pittsburgh. At the 2018 deadline, the team dealt pitcher Chris Archer to the Pirates in exchange for pitcher Tyler Glasnow and outfielder Austin Meadows. In terms of Baseball References WAR, Tampa has already received more value from Glasnow and Meadows (3.9 combined WAR) since the trade than Archer has provided Pittsburgh (1.4 WAR). And that’s before accounting for the massive gains the club earned in terms of controllable years, or contractual savings (Archer has identical club options for 2020 and 2021 worth $8.25MM, while Glasnow and Meadows are both still pre-arb players).
There have been other “hits” for Tampa on the trade market along the way. This past offseason, the club sent former top-100 prospect Jake Bauers to Cleveland in exchange for infielder Yandy Diaz and minor league pitcher Cole Sulser (with cash going to Seattle to help facilitate the deal). Though Bauers was the younger, more widely renowned chip in the deal, Diaz ended up providing a solid 1.7 WAR campaign in limited action for Tampa before being felled by injury, while Bauers has struggled to a 78 wRC+ with the Tribe in 2019. This deal, though not a franchise-altering move by any means, is a perfect exemplar of the small, near-term wins the Tampa front office has continually milked out of trading partners.
This organizational inclination toward wheeling-and-dealing has obvious economic roots for the Rays, who have been locked in a roller coaster stadium saga that, in its most recent episode, saw the org announce plans for the team to split time between Tampa and Montreal in coming years. The Rays rank 29th in 2019 game attendance and are dead-last in organizational payroll with a $62,367,745 outlay (a figure which would account for less than 30% of Boston’s league-leading 2019 payroll).
Even if they will never be big spenders, per se, the Rays did at least loosen the purse strings with this offseason’s signing of starter Charlie Morton to a 2-year/$30MM deal–an organizational exception-to-the-rule that has paid massive on-field dividends in 2019. At 35, Morton is in the midst of his best season, with a 5.4 WAR valuation underscored by his 3.06 ERA, 2.80 FIP, and 11.04 K/9 through 170.1 innings of work. The Rays may not dip into free agency much but, in the case of Morton, they threaded the needle with aplomb.
It’s quite easy to be judgemental of the machinations of a baseball ops department so clearly constrained by the financial realities of working in a small market. Still, despite any prescriptive beliefs one might hold about how baseball teams should use their revenue, it’s important to recognize what Neander and Co. have been able to pull off in constructing their third consecutive 80-plus win ballclub this year.
In a game where much is often made of the culture-building aspects of draft-and-develop philosophies, the Rays have been able to squeeze wins out of a roster constructed more like a Lego set, where pieces are matched, assembled, and deconstructed again with purely modular logic.
These are not players that have come up through the ranks together; they are not players who have developed camaraderie over years of minor league bus rides and minor league meetings.
Today’s Rays are, simply, players who have come from everywhere but Tampa, to somehow steer themselves within arm’s reach of October.
