Delmon Young seven years ago and Jorge Soler today have a lot in common. Like Young, Soler is a 20 year old top outfield prospect expected to emerge as a cornerstone player for the franchise that signed him. And with this bat incident, their names will be irrevocably linked. Young’s story was different as he actually threw a bat at an umpire. It was not intentional- he meant to throw the bat not at the umpire, but towards the plate to argue a controversial call- but nonetheless it he made a stupid decision to throw the bat in the first place and no one was there to stop it. The critical difference between Young then and Soler now is that Soler has a support system around him, both physically and metaphorically, while Young was much more alone. Young was actually in the major leagues for the Devil Rays by the end of the year, with the team certainly disdaining wholeheartedly what he had done but regarding it as an isolated occurrence that would not happen again and being willing to move on. For Soler, the appearance of his teammates prevented his precipitate rage from turning into something much worse, and then there was Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein, who emphasized after what happened that it’s the duty of the Cubs organization to help Soler keeps his emotions in check.

“We condemn the act of what took place, but we support the player,” Epstein said. “We believe in Jorge as a person as well as a player. It’s our responsibility to work with him to make sure he has a better way to channel his emotions on the field and to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. So that’s our responsibility. It’s his responsibility to fully embrace that.”

The Cubs are going to do everything they can to work with Soler to make sure whatever emotional issues he has will be forgotten as he stays calmer and stands out on the baseball diamond for his immense talent and not anything else. Epstein described Soler as “tremendously remorseful” about what happened and unable to fall asleep that night as it set in just how horrible a thing he had almost done. Young himself was “sincerely regretful” about the bat-throwing incident and apologized profusely for his actions. But the difference now is that the Cubs are willing to go above and beyond to work with Soler and give him whatever help he needs to mature as a person. The Rays did nothing wrong, but with so much on the line for Young’s career and for their franchise, they could have done more.

The priority of MLB teams is to find players to help them win games. But baseball is only one peace of the puzzle. Just as much as injuries or mechanical flaws can ruin players’ career, so can emotional issues, and teams have to be willing to confront those problems equally fervently. Every team in baseball has to take note of how Theo Epstein the Cubs conducted themselves in this situation. They made clear first and foremost that Soler’s actions can’t happen but then took responsibility for what happened and stressed that Soler’s continued emotional development has to be as much of a priority for them as his development on the baseball diamond. The Rays for their part have made serious progress in a similar vein themselves, becoming a team that’s more accepting of enigmatic personalities than anyone, signing players like Yunel Escobar and willing to do whatever possible to work with them to be at their best on and off the field. Everyone realizes now that baseball is no longer a game where you can ignore what a player does off the field if he plays well enough when he’s on it, and they have to be able to adjust to that reality.

The Cubs have a long way to go reforming their franchise as they search for their first championship since 1908. However, with a support system in place to help their prospects develop not just as players but as people, they could not be doing anything better for the future of their ballclub. No matter what happens at the major league level for the Cubs the next couple of seasons, there is plenty of reason for optimism about what they can do in the long-term after this Soler situation demonstrated the atmosphere of support for their players that Theo Epstein and the front office has created throughout their franchise. It’s amazing how a team that has found so little success for the past century is quickly becoming a model for the rest of baseball for how to run their organizations.

Yesterday, the Cubs signed catcher Dioner Navarro, the former All-Star with the Rays, to a 1-year, 1.75 million dollar contract. The Cubs, as we know, also have right-hander Matt Garza in their starting rotation. But the parallels between the Cubs’ rebuilding process and the Rays stretch much farther than that.

Back in August, the Cubs signed franchise cornerstone shortstop Starlin Castro to a contract extension best described as Rays-esque: an affordable seven-year, 60 million dollar contract with a team option for an 8th year. The deal will keep Castro in a Cubs uniform until at least 2019. The first five years are similar to the five-year extension the Rays gave Carl Crawford before 2006 as Castro will make an average of 6.1 million dollars per season compared to Crawford’s 6.4 million dollar average. Both extensions also came after three seasons in the major leagues. Usually in baseball these days, teams either sign their players to short-term extensions to buy out their arbitration years or sign established stars to monster contracts to conceivably keep them in their uniform for the rest of their careers. The Rays have bucked the trend by signing their talented young players to extensions that not only buy out arbitration years but also several years of free agency, and the Cubs are following suit.

This past Tuesday, the Cubs signed former Twins right-hander Scott Baker to 1-year, 5.5 million dollar contract. Baker was one of the Twins best starters, going 46-28 with a 3.92 ERA, a 7.6 K/9, a 2.2 BB/9, and a 1.1 HR/9 (3.94 FIP) in 111 starts and 677.1 innings pitched from 2008 to 2011 before missing 2012 after undergoing Tommy John Surgery. The Rays never sign starting pitchers as free agents because of their outstanding starting pitching depth, but they love signing relievers to contracts like the one the cubs gave Baker, and occasionally do the same thing with position players. In fact, they signed Luke Scott to a 1-year, 5 million dollar contract before 2012. Scott’s contract didn’t work out, but similar deals to players like Fernando Rodney, Joel Peralta, and Joaquin Benoit worked out beautifully. Because they can’t spend much money in free agency, the Rays have to focus on finding undervalued players on the market, such as players coming off of injury, and the Cubs are relying on the same strategy as they hope to make maximum value for their money.

The other recent transactions the Cubs have made have involved acquiring young pitchers. They acquired right-hander Carlos Gutierrez off waivers from he Twins, Zach Putnam off waivers from the Rockies, and Macelo Carreno as the player to be named for Jeff Baker. All three players are the type of upside plays the Rays love to make. Gutierrez, 26, was a former first round pick of the Twins with a mid-90′s sinker at his best whose career stalled in Minnesota thanks to injuries and secondary pitches that never quite developed, but the Cubs hope he can recapture his potential make a jump to be a nice big league reliever like the Rays did with players like J.P. Howell. Putnam, 25, is a former big leaguer for the Indians and Rockes who struggled in 2012 but features a nice fastball to go along with a good splitter and the Cubs hope he can give them value in a relief role. His signing is a little reminiscent of players like Lance Cormier and Cory Wade who were signed by the Rays, although Wade ended up returning to the big leagues with the Yankees, and the Rays signed players like John Gaub (from the Cubs, actually) and Matt Buschmann to fill such a role this season although neither worked out. Carreno, meanwhile, is a perfect example of the Cubs getting potential future value for a player useless to the team like the Rays managed to do with players like say Jorge Cantu and Seth McClung back in 2007, receiving a couple players who did not work out and one who did in Grant Balfour (although he was considerably older than Carreno). Carreno features a low-to-mid-90′s fastball and a curveball that shows flashes. The Cubs are making scrapheap pickups aiming for upside in the style that Rays have been able to perfect.

Will the Cubs be able to make a jump from one of the worst teams in baseball to a legitimate contender like the Rays were able to do? Only time will tell, but the good news for Cubs fans is that the Cubs are following the Rays’ game plan by maximizing efficiency and aiming for upside. This can only be a small part of their overall rebuilding strategy- the big key for them will be building through the draft and international signees like the Rays were able to do. The Cubs are emulating the Rays in that regard as well by drafting for upside, going for Puerto Rican shortstop Albert Almora 6th overall, Pierce Johnson, the ex-Rays draft pick, 43rd overall, and then drafting high school players with their next three picks. The Cubs are nowhere near they want to be, but they have the right mindset now and if enough of their upside plays can work out to go along with their current young core, their elusive elusive first championship since 1908 could not be so far away.

There are still plenty of doubters, although I’ll remark that many seem to live in the Boston-New York nexus and therefore could be counted as part of the wishful thinking crowd, however the naysayers aren’t the sole voice in the discussion. While I wouldn’t consider it a partisan crowd, the Rays have at least some admirers willing to look through their “Rays colored glasses” and see another crafty off-season of player maneuvers by Andrew Friedman and the Tampa brass.

Adam Markowitz at DB Sports says the Rays are rebuilding, even though as he puts it they are still a top ten team. What I found interesting was his assumption that “after years of picking on the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, it is becoming incredibly apparently that, without a miracle, the Goliath’s have finally towered over the David’s definitively.”

Markowitz goes on to say that the Tampa Bay rotation “underachieved” last year and that the trade of Matt Garza was for “a box of baseballs.” Needless to say I think the Orlando resident contradicts himself in his own article. If the Rays pitching staff under achieved last year, what happens if they bounce back to achieve?

For a counter to Mr. Markowitz’ views, Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com explains why people shouldn’t be so quick to count the Rays out of the AL East. He notes, as all of baseball knows, the difficulties the Rays have had in putting butts in seats, but I’ll say that it was more the effect of an unemployment rate in double digits and one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country that were the bigger issue, not the interest of the local fans by any stretch.

This quote from Theo Epstein, the Red Sox GM who seems cut from the same cloth as Andrew Friedman, (even if that cloth is made of Vicuna compared to Friedman’s Egyptian cotton) from Castrovince’s column is worth noting as well. Epstein, fresh off a buying binge that even made Yankee fans salute, cautioned on the Rays. “I think the demise of the Rays is greatly exaggerated,” Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein told ESPN.com the other day. “Even before [the Damon and Ramirez additions], we never erased them at all from our radar. I think they’re uniquely positioned to lose some really good players and keep their status as one of the best teams in baseball, given the strength of their farm system and the players they have ready to step in.”

In another of what will certainly be a plethora of analysis regarding the Rays this season, Kevin Queliz tells us why they will win 90 games and still not be a factor. He may be right, especially with the off-season Epstein had in signing lucrative deals for Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Bobby Jenks, but the Yankees still have their work cut out for them with a questionable rotation after C.C. Sabbathia and Phil Hughes that had them reaching deep into the free agent pool with signings of Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and Mark Prior.

The commentary is equally mixed regarding the Rays signing Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon, but I’m firmly in the “glass half-full” camp.

I am a huge believer in the intangibles of any game. Nothing screams intangibles more than a 12-time All Star who wants to prove to the world that he still “has game.” Manny Ramirez said in his press conference ““I’m here, like I said, because I love the game, I love to compete. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, If you love the game, it doesn’t matter. What you want is a chance to prove to people that you still can do it. So for me, it was not about the money, I could have gone some place else.”

Give me a motivated Manny, the crazy smart shenanigans of baseball’s most eccentric and eclectic manager and the savvy front office that has consistently defied the naysayers over, well, the Yankee’s signing Freddy Garcia, Mark Prior and Bartolo Colon don’t exactly overwhelm. While the bullpen is potent, especially with the recent signing of former Rays closer Rafael Soriano, they still need to get to the 8th and 9th innings for Raffy and incumbent closer Mariano Rivera to be relevant.