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.

2. The Matt Garza Trade

Rays trade Matt Garza, Fernando Perez, and Zac Rosscup to the Cubs for Chris Archer, Brandon Guyer, Robinson Chirinos, Hak-Ju Lee, and Sam Fuld

The 2011 offseason was busy for the Rays as they completed one of the largest transactions in franchise history. Matt Garza was the centerpiece here in the deal. Garza had been a staple in the Rays rotation the past 3 seasons to go along with James Shields and David Price who formed one of the most formidable starting rotations in the entire league.

In return, the Rays were acquiring a large haul of prospects hoping to fortify their farm system. Chris Archer was the Cubs’ number one prospect at the time and he was dominating in the minors. Hak-Ju Lee, The Cubs 4th-rated prospect was just entering his age-20 season so there was hope that the shortstop would develop into an essential piece of the Rays roster. Despite some success at the Double-A level, Lee suffered multiple injuries during his minor league stints and never played a big-league game. Robinson Chirinos played one 20 games for Tampa Bay but with little success. He was eventually traded to the Rangers for cash considerations and ended up becoming a decent player for the Rangers and now currently the Houston Astros. Brandon Guyer ended up being a solid big leaguer for the Rays as he slashed .255/.341/.396 in 306 games.

Archer is the reason that this trade makes the list. A two-time all-star, Archer was the ace for the Rays for the better part of the 2010s. His dominance might not show completely in his record which stood at 54-68, but Archer’s stuff was as good as anybody’s during his run with Tampa Bay. In 2015 Archer earned his first all-star bid, posting a 3.23 ERA to go along with a whopping 252 strikeouts. The Rays eventually dealt Archer to the Pirates for Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow, and Shane Baz. In retrospect, Tampa Bay absolutely fleeced the Pirates here. Archer has been terrible for the Bucs’ while Meadows was an all-star last season and Glasnow has ace potential himself. Give it another year or two and that trade will be at the top of this list.