Tampa Bay Rays: Thoughts on Kiermaier Contract Extension

Why now did the Tampa Bay Rays choose to extend the contract of two-time Gold Glove Award winner Kevin Kiermaier? Here’s a look into the possibilities.

Every female Rays fan already thought that Kevin Kiermaier was one of the best looking Tampa Bay Rays players and now he has the money to go with the face, but sorry ladies he got engaged this offseason.

After recently signing a $53.5 million dollar deal, which could be higher with the added incentives, Kiermaier is now one of the highest paid Rays players.  Now that the deal is official here are some possibilities the Rays were thinking when they signed him.

One option the Tampa Bay Rays might have been thinking when signing Kiermaier is that they are going to make him the new face of the franchise and trade Evan Longoria this season.  This makes sense because Kiermaier is currently five years younger and in the prime of his career.  Also with his recent two gold gloves, he is already a well-known name around Major League Baseball..

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Another option is that the Rays are getting closer to the new stadium in Tampa and want to get the future team ready for the move.  So, they want to start spending money to keep their key players and to build their core.  This also means it will keep Longoria happy and make him want to retire in Tampa.

The third option that the Rays front office may have had on their mind is to lock up Kiermaier long term.  This way if he can get his hitting to improve, the Rays would be able trade him for almost anything.  Lets face it if he can start hitting .300 he would no doubt be an MVP candidate.

With the Rays organization you never know what to expect.  If you look at the previous moves they have made in the past you would be inclined to think they would use this deal to either trade Longoria or Kiermaier.

Next: Rays Interested in D-Backs Ahmed, Ramirez Rumors

Rays fans hope this isn’t true and that the organization wants to compete for years to come and build that new stadium and continue to build their core group of players.  Only time will tell so continue following all of the updates throughout the season to figure out what’s going to happen.