Tampa Bay Rays: Window of Opportunity Not Closing Anytime Soon

Tampa Bay Rays – Get Paid and Get Out of the Way

Tampa Bay is the place where players earn their paychecks. They can come to Tampa to maximize their talents and then cash in on the open market. The Rays won’t pay up, for various reasons. One of those reasons is they know they can’t mold another player with the right tools, rather than pay someone $30 million.

Tampa Bay is a place where players can maximize their talent and go on to make the most money possible, they just won’t make it with the Rays.

They traded David Price with a year and a half left on his contract and are still reaping the benefits of that trade with their slick-fielding, 24-year-old shortstop Willy Adames, who led the AL in defensive runs saved last season.

They traded Chris Archer in July 2018 for three players. Two of which are currently key cogs in the team’s success. Austin Meadows is arguably the best hitter on the team. He’s reached the honored status of “everyday player.” Tyler Glasnow learned how to command his electric stuff and saw his walk rates plummet, along with his ERA. The third player in that trade is currently one of the  Rays top pitching prospects and was a former first-round draft pick in Shane Baz.

Meanwhile, Chris Archer has likely seen the end of his time in Pittsburgh after the announcement that he would require season-ending surgery prior to the  2020 season

The interesting thing about Chris Archer is that he is a part of the legendary tree of Delmon Young. You can read our breakdown of it in the link below.

Essentially, the Rays have continuously flipped players from that one trade in exchange for better contracts and prospects which has led to an accumulation of 47.3 WAR and counting. Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow (and eventually Shane Baz) are still adding to that total.

The Rays have an open window to win right now and are set up to keep that window open for a long time after.