Tampa Bay Rays: Tindering the Non-Tenders, who to swipe right on?

We sift through the stack of newly non-tendered players and decide who the Tampa Bay Rays should swipe right on.

The Tampa Bay Rays lost a handful of impact bats from the right-hand side this off-season. We watched as Avisail Garcia and Travis d’Arnaud sailed away into the Grey Havens of free agency.

We looked to Jesus Aguilar for a season of bounciness. A season of bouncing back to his 2018, 35 HR, 108 RBI, All-Star form. We hoped for that, but when we looked to him, the Rays were cutting him loose. GM, Erik Neander was looking at him as a risk he was not willing to take.

Even non-impact bats from the right-hand side are being thrust into exile from Saint Petersburg as Matt Duffy was DFA’d and Guillermo Heredia was non-tendered.

With Guillermo Heredia’s non-tendering, the Rays have opened up exactly one spot on their forty-man roster.

In losing Avisail Garcia and Travis d’Arnaud, the Rays have lost two guys that routinely handled middle of the order batting duties, including many games logged in the cleanup spot. The Rays are going to need to find more than just a bat, but an impact, power-packed bat from the right side.

Last night’s arbitration deadline produced a lot of surprising non-tenders. We will sift through a list of players who could potentially make an impact on for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020. It was like second free agency.

I see a lot of names that could slot right into the Rays lineups and make an immediate impact.

So, without further ado, we will begin our journey through Tindering the Non-Tenders to find the perfect match for our needs from the right side of the plate. We start with the honorable mentions. Make sure you make it through all the slides and let us know in the comments which player would be the best fit.

Let’s go!