Top Three Trades in Tampa Bay Rays’ History

The Tampa Bay Rays have been masters of the trade for a long time. Rays Colored Glasses contributor – Keegan McGuiggan ranks his top three trades in Rays’ history.

Our newest contributor, Keegan McGuiggan ranks the Tampa Bay Rays’ top three trades in franchise history. Enjoy, and let us know what your top three trades are on our Facebook Page.

3. Rays trade Aubrey Huff for Ben Zobrist

At the trade deadline in 2006, the Rays came to an agreement with the Houston Astros to trade Aubrey Huff for a couple of no-name minor league prospects. At the time of the trade Huff was the Rays career leader in games played, at-bats, hits, runs scored, home runs, and RBI’s. The perception amongst fans at the trade was lukewarm as most saw it as merely just dumping Huff’s expiring contract off to the Astros and freeing up some space in the lineup to move around some other guys like BJ Upton and Julio Lugo.

The excitement over the two prospects that Tampa Bay received, RHP Mitch Talbot and INF Ben Zobrist, was almost nonexistent as neither were considered to be major league ready for a while. Zobrist, however, made his major league debut not to long after he was dealt to the Rays where he didn’t do much to win over the fans with a less than stellar slash line of .224/.260/.311 in 52 games. He toiled in the minor leagues for much of the 2007 season before finally making the jump to the bigs full time during the ’08 season where he was used primarily as a utility player off the bench. He slashed .253/.339/.505 with 12 homers in just 198 at-bats and was used a lot during the Rays run to the World Series that year.

2009 was the breakout year for Zobrist as he was selected to his first and only all-star appearance slashing an exceptional .297/.405/.543 with 27 homers and 91 runs driven in. He also led the league in WAR that year with a mark of 8.6, right ahead of a prime Albert Pujols. Zobrist never quite kept up that level of play but he was still a remarkably good and consistent hitter in his time the Rays. Not bad for a guy who was just a throw-in on a contract dump.

1. The Delmon Young Deal

Rays Trade Delmon Young for Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza

In the 2007 offseason, the Rays’ decided it was in their best interest to trade the man that they took number one overall in the 2003 draft, Delmon Young. Young was coming off of his first full year in the majors and had acclimated pretty well with a slash line of .288/.316/.408 to go along with 13 homers and 93 RBI’s. That was good enough for him to finish runner-up in the AL Rookie of the year race losing out to only Dustin Pedroia. The sky was the limit for the young outfielder, but there were some character concerns that the Rays felt they couldn’t look past.

The Rays acquired the Twins starting shortstop Jason Bartlett, promising right-hander Matt Garza, and minor leaguer Eduardo Morlan. Bartlett slid right into the starting spot in Tampa Bay and proved to be a solid piece hitting a respectable .286. Garza also made an immediate impact winning 11 games and posting a 3.70 ERA. A big reason this trade takes the top spot is because of the success that Tampa Bay had immediately following the deal and that had a lot to do with the guys involved. The Rays run to the World Series was highlighted by a masterclass performance by Garza in the ALCS when pitched 13 innings in 2 games while giving up only 2 earned runs and striking out 14 batters. He was awarded the ALCS MVP award for his efforts to push the Rays into the World Series.

The Rays Way: Top Minor League System and the Tree of Delmon Young

While neither Garza or Bartlett had particularly long stints with the Rays, they were both two really good players who helped the franchise reach their first and thus far only World Series. If we look at the ripple-effect of this trade it has shaped the Rays’ franchise even to the present day. Garza was dealt to the Cubs in the Chris Archer trade. The Rays eventually flipped Archer to the Pirates to acquire current stars Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow. If those two can propel the Rays’ deep into the postseason we may have to re-evaluate this list.

All stats were compiled from Baseball-Reference and ESPN