The Rays entered the offseason more likely to shed some payroll by way of trades of veteran gamers — a frequent actuality for the budget-crunched Tampa Bay membership — which prompted many (MLBTR included) to take a position on the potential for buying and selling infielders Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe. The Rays are teeming with younger infield choices, and each gamers are set to earn eight-figure salaries in 2025. Nevertheless, groups which have spoken to the Rays about Diaz and Lowe have been given the impression that Tampa Bay is more likely to maintain onto each gamers for the beginning of the upcoming season, stories SNY’s Andy Martino. Extra broadly, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic implies that the Rays aren’t eager on subtracting from the offense in any respect between now and Opening Day.
Tampa Bay has certainly shed some notable wage this winter, however it’s come within the type of trades and non-tenders. Left-hander Jeffrey Springs and his $10.5MM wage in every of the following two seasons went to the A’s in alternate for flamethrowing righty Joe Boyle, a pair of minor leaguers, and the Athletics’ Aggressive Steadiness choice within the upcoming 2025 draft. Jose Siri (projected $2.3MM wage) was traded to the Mets in alternate for reliever Eric Orze. Practically $10MM of further projected wage was shed when the group non-tendered outfielder Dylan Carlson and lefties Colin Poche, Tyler Alexander and Richard Lovelady.
That assortment of cost-cutting maneuvers trimmed $22-23MM from subsequent yr’s books. The one wage of notice the Rays have added rather than these departures is the $8.5MM assured to catcher Danny Jansen, who signed with Tampa Bay in mid-December. RosterResource at present tasks the Rays for a $76MM payroll and about $104MM of luxurious obligations — down from final yr’s respective marks of $89MM and $115MM.
One of many motivations behind releasing up payroll area with trades of veterans can be to afford extra at-bats to younger gamers with little left to show in Triple-A (e.g. Jonathan Aranda, Curtis Mead) whereas additionally creating flexibility to herald different free brokers of notice. Circumstances effectively past the Rays’ management have hobbled any such efforts, nevertheless. The injury wrought on Tropicana Subject by Hurricane Milton each left the Rays dealing with much more monetary uncertainty than normal and in addition made it tougher to lure free brokers. The Rays will play their 2025 dwelling video games at a minor league facility — Tampa’s Steinbrenner Subject, the Class-A house of the Yankees — which goes to scale back curiosity for loads of gamers on the open market.
The Rays scored the second-fewest runs in MLB final yr, with their collective 604 mark main solely the White Sox. Tampa Bay ranked twenty seventh within the majors in batting common (.230), twenty fourth in on-base share (.302), twenty ninth in slugging share (.366) and twenty eighth in dwelling runs (147). Considered by way of that lens, subtracting one or each of Diaz (.281/.341/.414, 120 wRC+) and Lowe (.244/.311/.473, 123 wRC+) would really feel counterproductive — a minimum of in a vacuum.
Nevertheless, the Rays habitually commerce high quality gamers as their salaries rise and their membership management dwindles. Their willingness to have interaction in such frequent roster churn and their potential to efficiently determine high quality long-term contributors within the return for such trades has turn out to be a trademark of the group’s success and led to near-perennial competition in a stacked AL East — regardless of bottom-of-the-barrel payroll numbers. Diaz is incomes $10MM this coming season and has a $12MM membership choice (no buyout) in 2026. Lowe might be paid $10.5MM this yr and has an $11.5MM membership choice in 2026 ($500K buyout). Each are free brokers within the 2026-27 offseason.
The dwindling membership management on each gamers will make them prime commerce candidates this summer time if issues don’t go effectively for the Rays or if Tampa Bay feels their manufacturing might be changed by turning their respective positions over to youthful choices. The Rays aren’t the kind of membership to be shy about dealing strong contributors from the roster even within the midst of contending seasons.
With regard to the 2025 roster, nevertheless, the hope will ostensibly be for inexperienced gamers like Aranda and third baseman Junior Caminero to make strides on the plate, whereas different younger gamers like Josh Lowe and Christopher Morel hopefully rebound on the dish. Each had robust showings in 2023 earlier than wilting in 2024. Including Jansen must be an improve to a catching corps that produced disastrous outcomes on the plate in 2024 — even when the longtime Blue Jays backstop can’t get better from his personal 2024 struggles with the bat. Jansen hit simply .206/.308/.348 in 328 plate appearances final yr, however even that might be an improve over the woeful .194/.272/.291 output from Tampa Bay backstops in 2024. And, if Jansen can rediscover the .237/.317/.487 type he displayed from 2021-23, it’d be an enormous boon for the Rays.
Time will inform simply how the Rays’ offense recovers — or fails to get better — from final yr’s doldrums. Trades can by no means be expressly dominated out for a membership just like the Rays, however in the meanwhile, it appears they’ll hold onto the veteran bats they’ve and reassess their commerce candidacy this summer time. Others on the roster (e.g. Pete Fairbanks, Zack Littell) have additionally come up in commerce rumblings this winter, however there’s been some latest chilly water thrown on that pair being accessible as effectively.
