I few years ago I received an email from Jeff Erickson, inquiring if I was interested in covering the Rays for the website. My immediate reaction was lukewarm, given that I'm a die-hard Yankees fan (favorite player? – Dave Winfield, for the record). Then I tried to keep an open mind and realized what an intriguing team the Rays were. They had a small budget when comparing them to the other AL East teams (even going past the Yanks and BoSox) but managed to put together an elite team over the last few seasons.
We know the Rays "upset" the Boston Red Sox with a Game 7 win. The Rays appeared to run out of steam in the World Series and lost to the Phillies 4-1, although is should be noted that three of the Phillies wins were by one run. Ok enough nostalgia, I'll skip over last season's 96 wins and get to this year's outlook.
The Rays know they're in a rebuilding mode since they lost Carl Crawford, Rafael Soriano, Carlos Pena and half their bullpen. On top of that, they realized that there needed to be a rotation spot for Jeremy Hellickson which led to the trade of Matt Garza. It had to be a hard sell to try and trade James Shields given his regression over the last few seasons which led to the Garza deal.
So that leads us to Friday. Not a huge gamble but the signings of Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon (money aside) are very questionable. Taking on two aging veterans is good for a rebuilding team? I'm not getting that, at all.
The Rays avoided arbitration and signed B.J. Upton earlier in the week which inks him in at center field. After VP Andrew Friedman's comments earlier this week, it looks like Dan Johnson will play first, Sean Rodriguez and Ben Zobrist will share time at second while Reid Brignac will take over shortstop duties. So where does that leave the rest of the outfield after Upton?
Manny Ramirez will likely occupy the DH spot, although that could be changed if he doesn't produce. Johnny Damon will likely take over left (likely) or right field (he's never had a great arm) which leaves a big question mark. Who starts in the other spot?
Here are the two best candidates for the open spot. Desmond Jennings is one of the best prospects in all of baseball. He had a shaky season in the minors last year but that can easily be attributed to a couple of early-season injuries. Once healthy Jenniings hit and ran much better but displayed little power. Matt Joyce was brought over from the Tigers but a reported bad work ethic led to more time in the minors than most thought. With a new attitude and improved work ethic last year, he was called up and given semi-regular playing time. Joyce hit 10 homers in 216 at-bats with the big club, showing his upside. If I had to guess right now, I'd think Joyce starts in the open spot (likely right field) and Jennings is ticketed to start at Triple-A Durham. I'm leaving out another prospect - Leslie Anderson - here and Spring Training (both of Jennings and Joyce were hurt to start the season last year) could change everything.
Whatever ends up happening, I'm lost in what the Rays were thinking by signing |STAR|both|STAR| players. I'll concede that it wasn't a ton of money (a base cost less than $8 million for both, think about their worth three years ago) but it's still perplexing. They're not going to contend this year and it wouldn't surprise me to see them finish fourth or even last in their division. So why bring on both players and delay the development of your younger players? Johnny Damon isn't a fan of being traded to a contender should he prove to have some worth and Manny looked like he fell off a cliff after going to the White Sox last year. From a Rays perspective, wouldn't have been getting Vladimir Guerrero been a better signing than either Damon or Manny?
I'm not trying to give a "doom-and-gloom" outlook here as the Rays have a ton of upside, both in fantasy and real baseball. I could be completely wrong and watch Damon post a .370-plus OBP while Manny jacks 30 home runs. I just can't fathom either happening. Am I right here or was this a good gamble on the Rays part?
You can catch my complete outlook in a few weeks to get my thoughts on the rest of the team.