Joaquin Benoit & the 8th Inning Hole

It’s official. According to the Detroit Tigers official website, Joaquin Benoit is out of Tampa Bay and heading to Detroit. The consensus among Tigers fans is while the trade was a positive move, the means of acquiring him via $16.5 million dollar signing has them a little hesitant and on edge considering his arm troubles in the past. No doubt his brilliant set-up performance out of the bullpen for Tampa Bay helped closer Rafael Soriano ice over forty games has really helped his stock value. As a Rays fan, the first cut is always the deepest, but no really, there is no time for panicking. To sit here and whine about the loss is really counterproductive. What’s really important now is to be realistic and focus on the positives. The upside is that the earlier the departures the quicker the organization can calculate and prepare its next move.  This is only the first of many devastating blows to the Rays roster to come and as we’ve said before it is going to be a very long off-season. However, Benoit signing frees up some salary space. It is time for the Rays to use that money and bring up some youth and get some reliable (NO MORE GARBAGE LIKE QUALLS!) arms into this bullpen. Start warming up Jake McGee and J.P. Howell and get them some quality help fast because the comfy 2010 safety net we all enjoyed after the 7^th inning is now gone.