Tampa Bay Rays: 2 players we may have seen the last of without ’20 season

Today, we look at Tampa Bay Rays players that are in the final year of their contracts and wonder if we’ll ever see them play for the Rays again.

Per the usual with the Tampa Bay Rays, most of the players are still under team control for a long time. However, there are a couple of big veteran names that stick out as guys that could be spending their final season in Tampa during the 2020 season.

Whether or not that season happens is getting murkier by the minute. The clock is ticking away as owners and players attempt to come to terms on a pay structure.

Rather, they try to use public platforms to make one another look like the bad guy in the fight.

We won’t get too far into the weeds on the sliding scale or the revenue splits and why the players will not accept these deals. If you’d like to read more on those topics, here are some links below:

• Players decline latest proposal
• On the verge of a Strike?
• Blake Snell: A spoiled millionaire or misunderstood?
• Blake Snell won’t play for less money
• Why Blake Snell is right

There, that should cover it. Get your fill and leave some comments of your own!

We have discussed the possibility that we may have seen the last of Charlie Morton this season. You can read all about that here:

• Could we have seen the last of Charlie Morton?

A brief summary of the article goes like this: Charlie Morton is in the final year of his contract before the team has a vesting option for 2021. It appears that without a season, the option would be worth $15 million. Morton has made it known that retirement is in his near future. Then finally, would the Rays be willing to pay a 37-year-old pitcher $15 million in 2021 after he just took a year off of baseball?

It’s a reasonable question. I sure hope they play this year.

The other player is Mike Zunino. He signed a one-year contract prior to the season. Like Morton’s it also has an option for the 2021 season at the same price. It’s an interesting call on Zunino. We don’t know how much faith the Rays have in Michael Perez or Ronaldo Hernandez.

Zunino’s option is a straight option with no buyout. If the Rays choose not to bring him back, it won’t cost them anything. Without a 2020 season, we won’t have a chance to see if Zunino could bring that 2020 power production to the catcher position.

What do you think they will do? Will they bring back the veteran catcher? Will Morton be worth a $15 million risk in 2020 without seeing him throw a pitch in 2020? Hopefully, all of these questions are useless in a couple of weeks because spring training is underway.