The Tampa Bay Rays management staff believes that they have a team competitive enough to make some noise for the remainder of the season.
That if half true. Yes, the Rays will remain competitive, and might even make the playoffs if some of the players can pick up the slack. At the very least, they will be in the hunt come September. However, competitive should not be what we are seeking: we should be gunning for a World Series berth, and potentially winning the entire thing. Of course this is all a long shot, winning a championship is always a longshot with this organization. However, what’s even the point if we aren’t trying? The Rays are like that poker player that never bluffs his hand, surely he won't lose big on any risks, but nobody has ever won a poker tournament without a few risky moves and a few tricky plays.
We are seeing squads that just a couple years ago were worthless, now making all the major moves. The Houston Astros lost 100 games a few years in a row, and now have suddenly picked up Carlos Gomez AND Scott Kazmir (of course, a former Ray) in a matter of days. The Kansas City Royals went from cellar-dwellers into AL favorites, and this is AFTER losing their main pitcher James Shields (former Ray) and their Opening Day Starter. The suddenly-awesome Royals picked up Johnny Cueto AND Ben Zobrist (Former Ray…again). The Astros’ payroll is just 6 million more than Tampa’s, yet have managed to bolster their staff to become among the best-looking teams in the American League.
As for the Rays? Well, fan favorite DeJesus is gone…and we got a minor league pitcher in exchange. And then the Rays did….nothing else. It is mind-numbingly frustrating to witness that year after year we do more subtracting than adding by the time the deadline rolls around. Last year we witnessed our season collapse as we traded David Price despite having a spectacular July and was still in the hunt. It is frustrating to know what the issues are, see potential affordable pieces get shuffled around, and yet not make a move to try to improve our chances. Offense and speed (and to a lesser extent fresher bullpen arms) is what the Rays truly need. We know this. They know this. Baseball knows this. So why isn’t more being done in Tampa?
Baseball is twice as competitive as it was in 2008 when the Rays turned the franchise around. At the beginning of the season there was no clear-cut favorite. To this day, upon the publishing of this article there still isn’t a team that is leaps and bounds above everyone else. 19 of the 30 teams right now are within playoff range. Even the Cubs, Mets, and Astros are pushing towards the playoffs---when they were expected to be in not-quite-complete mode in 2015. You can’t just sit around anymore, the competition is tighter than ever. From Los Angeles all the way up to Toronto, over a dozen teams are built well-enough to make a strong push.
But the Rays are a team in a devastating wheel of successful mediocrity. Although the fans aren’t showing up to the games and help with the revenue stream, why should they show up if we don’t really make major moves to keep our good players? The Rays have remained in the bottom-third in payroll several years in a row, even though baseball itself has reached $8 billion in revenue. Evan Longoria remains the only great player in the history of the Rays organization to stay aboard the ship and not jump off for richer waters. Every season we see good players, great players, and impressive potential move elsewhere or get traded elsewhere. So why go to the games? There’s just a great chance we won’t see half those guys shortly down the road. The Rays won’t spend the extra money (Not even asking for a Dodger-like increase, with just $15-$20 million more you can land good role players), leading to us not really spending the money to go to the games, leading to less revenue required to make the important deals to make the organization stronger. We are on our way to becoming the first team to average less than 15,000 since 2006. Embarrassing to say the least.
The attendance, appeal, popularity of the Royals skyrocketed after the magical 2014 playoff run. Instead of sitting around like what the Rays have done in recent seasons, they have gone all-in by being very aggressive in the free agency and the trade deadline, and filling Kansas City with this aura of hope that they will be back in the playoff spotlight once again. The Royals knew that teams like the Blue Jays and Angels would beef up their lineups whenever possible, and needed to be in the mix.
The Tampa Bay Rays will never win a championship under this current attitude of keeping all the prospects, never making a move (unless its for more prospects), and just assuming that keeping the same team will allow them to “remain competitive,” even though they are third in the division and several games back in the wild card. You don’t have the magical Joe Maddon as manager, you have yet to draw in experienced and valuable veterans, and you haven’t been appealing enough to draw the interest of good young players roaming the free agency. You need to make moves. Otherwise, you will continuously drain the spirits and momentum of your team, your fans, and the area that maintains them.
Chris Archer basically pleaded that the Rays make moves to keep up with the Blue Jays. Don’t hold your breath, Archer, we’d hate to see you go to the disabled list and limit our “competitive” team even more. I love my Rays, but we will never win the entire thing until there is more effort seen in the heart of the season.
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