Rays Offseason 2016-17 Post #1
We ended the 2016 season with the Chicago Cubs ending a 108 year championship drought. In that championship team, there were several individuals that I'd like to congratulate that made some contributions to our Tampa Bay Rays organization at some point in time: LHP Mike Montgomery, Assistant hitting coach Eric Hinske, Bench coach Dave Martinez, Manager Joe Maddon and the World Series MVP Ben Zobrist.
We opened the offseason with Rays President of Baseball Ops Matt Silverman stating "When you only win 68 games... you're open to everything." Twitter exploded hours later with rumors of Evan Longoria a possible piece that could be dealt to the Dodgers and Chris Archer, a possible starter dealt to the Braves for the value and prospects that the Rays can get in return.
As of right now, the Rays are in need of a catcher, left fielder and a setup man. In the catcher position, Bobby Wilson was a good fill in for the season while Casali and Maile didn't live up to being that Major League catcher role. Available in the free agent market are the talents of Jason Castro, Matt Wieters, Alex Avila, Nick Hundley, Dioner Navarro, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Kurt Suzuki. The most intriguing out of that bunch that the Rays could actually go after is Jarrod Saltalamacchia and a reunion with Dioner Navarro. I wrote briefly last offseason on Avila and Navarro but this year it's about Salty. Salty, as many of his teammates and coaches have call him, has shown me that he is a good teammate, can hit at least once in every four at bats, possibly three if helped with new hitting coach Chad Mottola. His fielding percentage career wise as a catcher is at 0.989 which is impressive throughout his nine seasons in the majors.
For the left field position, this can be filled by a trade of one of the starters which seems very likely to happen since there are a few guys worthy of being in the rotation in the upcoming season from AAA and AA, (Jacob Faria, Taylor Guerrieri and Brent Honeywell). If the Rays look in to free agency, available is the talents of Carlos Gomez, Colby Rasmus, Nolan Reimold, and Angel Pagan. All seem risky but could seem valuable if worked with well. Pagan and Gomez have that hispanic firepower in them that is fun to watch, while Rasmus and Reimold have that power that the Rays could definitely use and benefit from to win more than 68 games in the upcoming season.
For the setup role, the Rays do not have to look any further the men already sitting in the bullpen already. Xavier Cedeno is the man for this role and he did a great job this season for the team after being acquired through waivers from the Dodgers. In 41.1 IP he went 3-4, 43 SO, 13 BB, 19 HLD, and a 3.70 ERA. A Cedeno-Colome back end tandem can give the Rays much success in this upcoming season.
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Rays Up!
