Tampa Bay Rays: Grievance Denied- Time to Break Bank on Kris Bryant

How to Sweeten the Deal?

A couple of top prospects (again) not named Wander, and perhaps a big leaguer with breakout potential. Yandy Diaz is a trendy breakout candidate but it is highly improbable that he turns into Kris Bryant at age twenty-eight. In fact, Bryant is younger than Diaz.

Diaz is a very good on-base player who hits the ball hard. Unfortunately, he mostly hits it on the ground. Last year he achieved a career-low in groundball percentage and it was still over 50 percent.

Additionally, Yandy had a career-high flyball percentage of around 32% last season but his home run to flyball ratio was only 17.5%.

Yandy’s strengths appear to be hitting it REALLY HARD on the ground and with line-drives. He’s still trying to figure out his swing. Last season saw his flyballs go up and his line-drives go down. With the increase in flyballs, he saw his average and his on-base percentage drop.

Yandy still had a fantastic offensive season and certainly got us all excited for 2020, but I’d prefer Kris Bryant.

I love Yandy Diaz and have no problem with him at third, but if the Rays are in a win-now mode, Bryant is a significant upgrade.

The Rays have shown they believe the time is now when they traded one of the top left-handed pitching prospects in baseball, Matthew Liberatore, to the Cardinals for Jose Martinez and Randy Arozarena.

They gave up a piece of the future to address current needs. Kris Bryant could be the final piece for the Rays to capture a World Series title in the next two seasons.

Whether they have to give up Yandy or could platoon him at first, the Rays are loaded with depth. The Cubs are looking to cut money and the Rays have tons of cheap players. It’s the Rays’ way!

If not Yandy, Nate Lowe has shown big-time slugging potential, maybe they like him? My point is, the Rays are in a position to upgrade. They have three potential Cy Young candidates at the top of their rotation, a favorite to win the Rookie of the Year in Brendan McKay, and last season’s number one bullpen still intact.

Offense is the one area they stand to improve upon. I don’t know about you, but I’m a lot more excited about a lineup that could feature Austin Meadows, Kris Bryant, and Hunter Renfroe in it.

Personally, as long as the Rays can hold onto Wander Franco, I say go for it.

Is it possible? Do you think Bryant is worth the price the Cubs might be asking?