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Rays Winter Meetings recap, day one: Cash presser, trade rumors

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Rays manager Kevin Cash addressed the media on the first official day of the 2018 Winter Meetings, in Las Vegas.

Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash addressed the media on a variety of subjects Monday, the first official day of the Winter Meetings.

Here are some highlights from the media session:

The first six questions, unsurprisingly, involved the opener strategy, which the Rays pioneered in 2018. Cash reiterated that the strategy will again be utilized in 2019, and its usage will adjust based on who he has at his disposal.

Part of the reason Cash is sticking with the opener plan is that it worked on the field, and helped Tampa Bay notch its first winning season since 2013. It also helped acclimate some of the younger hurlers to the big leagues.

We watched guys develop and it allowed them an easier path to develop at the big league level which we all know is very challenging, Cash said. When you first introduce your career to the big leagues for us to be able to have young pitchers and put them in different roles, maybe be protective of them a little bit more than that traditional starter, we really saw the benefits of that.

Cash indicated his preference would be to have three starters and two openers, which, ideally, would find the team adding a veteran this off-season — someone who “can really log some innings,” said Cash.

(The opener strategy) puts a lot of pressure on Blake (Snell), It puts pressure on Tyler (Glasnow), their workload. We don’t want those guys to feel that they’ve got to do more than what they’re capable of. And I know Blake (had a) tremendous year. I don’t want him going into a game thinking I’ve got to pitch seven, eight innings so tomorrow’s day works out well.

On the subject of pitching, Cash spoke about Brent Honeywell’s rehab, which is progressing. Even though Honeywell would like to be ready to go by the end of Spring Training, the skipper said a late-May, early-June return to game action would be more reasonable. Ultimately they’ll wait until Honeywell is 100% and be smart about his rehab.

We know how special Brent is, and how valuable and what we view in our organization. But if we’re going to do Brent right, we have to let him go through the rehab process, not rush him. Knowing his personality, he’s going to want to make a club out of spring training. That’s not going to happen. We’ve got to do it right. Our medical staff is second to none. And I know Brent understands that. But he’s a motivated player, and he wants to be a part of something that we all view as pretty special right now.

We’ll do everything we can to calm him down, let him go through the process to make sure he’s a hundred percent healthy and get him through his rehabs and get him to affiliate, get some innings, and hopefully, he is helping us.

What we’ve talked about is some time May, June. But that’s not set in stone. We adjusted really well given the player. We have a bunch of players coming back from Tommy John and they all have different — they all have some good weeks to the rehab and they all have some slowdown weeks. Everybody is different.

Cash was asked about what Jake Bauers needs to do to make the next step after his bout with late-season struggles. Cash countered, saying that Bauers has always dealt with some struggles during his initial promotions, but always rebounded.

You know, I think Jake, of all of our young players that came up, Jake was as talked about as anybody, rightfully so. I think just experience and maturity, he was the youngest guy in the league. He’s been the youngest at every level he’s performed at. And he figured it out. He’s always struggled and started to stabilize himself a little bit and then he gets hot and he puts together some pretty good numbers offensively.

I think that’s what we saw this year at the big league level. He struggled, he probably didn’t have the right time to figure it. It was the right time for Jake to go home and gather his thoughts. But he was a little bit of an anomaly when you watch his at-bats, his swing looked the same, everything looked the same. He wasn’t getting his hits.

And I’m confident, Jake has hit everywhere, he’s going to hit. Defensively, our defense got a heck of a lot better when he was out there. And the confidence that he gave our infielders and the things that he can do around the bag were really impressive. I hope Jake is enjoying himself, letting his mind take a break and come in fresh this Spring training and ready to compete.

Even though the team had “some concern” of injury, Cash said OF Tommy Pham wanted to go play winter ball and was “motivated and driven” to want to make his swing better.

Tommy is a very driven player, very motivated. He was just outstanding for us when he came over. And at the end of the year we sat down and talked and he said he wanted to go play winter ball to work on his swing. And I said, How much more do you need to work? You hit .350 the last two months for us, hit all the home runs. When he was healthy, we had a different lineup because he was in it.

So there was some concern. But he felt there was more tinkering that needed to be done. He plays all out. I asked him, please don’t run into any walls on the Dominican baseball fields. Be careful. We called his manager and asked the same thing. But he’s motivated and driven to get his swing where he wants it. And I think that speaks volumes to a guy that has had the last two or three years of success that he still wants to get better.

You can watch the press conference in its entirety at the Twitter link above.

Noteworthiness

— Per Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), the Rays continue to have a dialog with free-agent right-hander Charlie Morton. Chaim Bloom and company have also maintained a “running dialogue,” and discussed some parameters, with free-agent DH Nelson Cruz. Cruz’s agent, Bryce Dixon, said the slugger is very much interested and called it “a perfect fit,” although Cruz has 3-4 other teams interested. Because of it, the Rays are looking at other options besides a DH-only bat.

Tampa Bay Rays 2018 Winter Meetings preview

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The 2018 Winter Meetings kick off Sunday in Las Vegas.

The Hot-Stove is officially set to start heating up at the annual MLB Winter Meetings. This year’s gathering will take place at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, starting Sunday, December 9.

The Tampa Bay Rays are planning to add a few impactful pieces to the youthful core that won 90 games in 2018.

The challenge now, as Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) wrote Friday, is actually figuring out how.

And while they have millions to spend, don’t expect the front office to haphazardly throw money around, or commit to a specific payroll number. The Rays also aren’t likely to make upgrades that will muddy the roster, stealing at-bats, or innings, away from players like Jake Bauers or Willy Adames, potentially slowing down their development.

However, senior VP Chaim Bloom and company have made it clear that they would like to seek out a right-handed hitter who can pair with Tommy Pham in the middle of the lineup, a starter — like Noah Syndergaard or Trevor Bauer — who can back American League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, and a closer/back-end reliever like Charlie Morton to add to their crop of young power arms.

Insight on how to pay for a stadium provided; Rays head to Winter Meetings ready to make a deal

As I wrote Thursday (linked above), the Rays have some level of interest in the likes of Nick Castellanos, Evan Gattis, Carlos Santana (switch hitter), Andrew McCutchen and Adam Jones, among others. There’s also the potential of adding someone like 38-year-old Nelson Cruz to DH. In the words of Topkin, signing one of the big pieces and trading for the other would seem the most sensible model.

While adding players is a priority, don’t expect the Rays to wrestle away much of their current (or future) group for the benefit of just one season.

The balance that we’re trying to strike is making sure we don’t rest on our laurels and that we don’t walk past opportunities to make the group better and more competitive, Bloom said, but that we also don’t get away from what got us here, which was giving opportunities to players who needed the chance to establish themselves and letting them grow and letting them take the next step in their careers.

At the end of the day, the plan is to have sustained success.

We have a club that we think is capable of competing for the postseason and playing in October, and when you have that those opportunities are not to be taken lightly and they are precious and you want to do everything you can to support those chances, Bloom said. But we also think we’re at a point where this group is capable of doing this not just once, but many times. And that’s our goal is to be consistently competitive. To do that you also have to look at a multiyear picture. One of the things that goes into that is right now we have a very young and very inexperienced team that we think is very talented. As these players go out and perform, performance gets paid in this game. We have to keep that in mind, too, so we can give ourselves the best chance to keep the group together for the long haul. It’s not just about 2019.

It will also be interesting to see if they ink a long-term deal with Snell, who won’t be a free agent until after 2022. The southpaw is the best player on the team, so committing to him long-term is a good idea.

Buckle up, the next five days could be exciting.

Insight on how to pay for a stadium provided; Rays head to Winter Meetings ready to make a deal

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The Rays look to add to their 90 win season in 2019, and that all starts Sunday at the Winter Meetings, in Las Vegas.

On Wednesday, Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill finally provided insight on how to pay for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium. In a memo released prior to Wednesday’s Hillsborough County Commission meeting, Merrill laid out the following:

  • The Rays would bear 50% of the cost for the acquisition of land and construction of a stadium.
  • The remaining 50% funding would come from some, or all, of the following sources: private investment via an Opportunity Zone Fund; private investment by Ybor landowners via a Community Development District(s), authorized by the City of Tampa; and Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) property tax revenues.
  • Construction cost overruns would be borne by the Rays.
  • Depending on results of future negotiations with private investors, a future guarantee provided jointly by the Rays, City of Tampa and County (estimated to be less than $50 million in total) may be necessary. Such a guarantee, if called upon, would be reimbursable to the Rays, City and County.
  • The Rays would be required to make annual rent payments.
  • The Rays would be required to fully fund and maintain reserves for stadium repairs and maintenance, as well as for future capital improvements to the Stadium.
  • The Rays stadium would be immune from property taxes, as is the case with Raymond James Stadium, Amalie Arena, and Steinbrenner Field (except for the private portions of the Stadium controlled by the Rays).

Since the three public funding sources are very different in where the money would come from, that doesn’t tell us a whole lot. However, Neil deMause (Field of Schemes) separated the signal from the noise and explained things in a way that I better understand it.

The Opportunity Zones are a Trump creation that allows land development to be used as a tax shelter on capital gains taxes; it’s not entirely clear how the county would monetize this, though it’s certainly possible. CRAs are effectively tax increment financing, where any rise in tax receipts in an arena gets kicked back to pay off a project’s construction bonds. CDDs are similar but are a tax surcharge, not cannibalization of existing taxes, so are somewhat easier on the current public purse.

Clearly those are all different kinds of subsidies with different pros and cons — the CRAs are the most straight-up of a cash grant, while with CDDs and OZs the concern would be more if the county would have to promise to backstop any shortfalls if the new revenues didn’t turn up, which is a thing that happens.

There are other options as well, including a 1% hotel tax increase that the county could put in place, which as Pransky notes would raise less than $100 million, but every drop counts.

The concern here is that Tampa is going to get caught focusing on “How can we find enough money to make this happen?” instead of “How much is it worth to taxpayers to make this happen?”, which as any experienced eBay bidder knows is a great recipe for paying more than you wanted to. There are some potentially not-terrible funding ideas here, but none of them are likely to get anywhere close to the kind of public money Sternberg is looking for — which raises the question, if Sternberg doesn’t think it’s a good investment to put more than a couple hundred million into a new $900 million stadium, are we sure that building one is a good idea in the first place?

And the likelihood of this all coming together to pay for the almost $900-million stadium?

Meanwhile, Merrill also set a do-or-die deadline for the proposed stadium deal, and if the Rays don’t agree to the county’s terms within the next three months, then there will be no ballpark in Ybor City. Yet a decision needs to be made in the short-term, with just 26 days left to commit.

As it stands, the Rays now have three choices:

  1. Ask St. Petersburg city officials for an extension (the team hasn’t approached the city yet). Such an extension could cost the team millions of dollars and delay the construction of a new stadium.
  2. Give formal notice they will move to Tampa without a finance package in place (According to Pransky, the Rays can give St. Pete notice they intend to leave on December 31, and nothing really changes. St Pete will still be held hostage by the inability to finalize a deal in Tampa. The team can give notice they are moving across the bay, without specifying a timeframe.)
  3. Give formal notice they will stay in St. Petersburg through 2027.

For his part, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said he hasn’t talked to the Rays about extending their agreement with the city. Kriseman did not show his cards in a statement after Thursday’s news broke.

There are some issues that need to be resolved if that were to occur, as my city needs some certainty regarding this matter. We tried to accomplish that by giving the team three years to look around.

Both Hillsborough County and Tampa have had many more years to prepare for this, so it’s unfortunate to see so much ninth-inning scrambling.

To put it another way:

Winter Meetings

Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) wrote on Wednesday that the Rays are looking to add players to the roster, although it is uncertain what moves need to be made since “the versatility and flexibility of their youthful roster leave them somewhat position agnostic on whether that hitter plays the infield, outfield or DH.”

Topkin added that they could add to the pitching staff — be that a legit starter, or an additional arm in the ‘pen — or an impact position player. Either way, an incumbent player stands to lose playing time, which Senior VP of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom spoke about.

This is less about trying to plug specific holes than it is about saying, okay, we have this group now that did what they did last year, that we feel strongly about their futures, how can we help support that group to put them in the best position to do what we didn’t do this past year, which is pop champagne and get to the postseason?

The Rays have reportedly kicked around countless ideas, including the acquisitions of players like Noah Syndergaard and Paul Goldschmidt, neither of whom are available on the market any longer. Other right-handed hitters who could be of some level of interest to the Rays include Nick Castellanos, Evan Gattis, Carlos Santana (switch hitter), Andrew McCutchen and Adam Jones, among others.

The Rays have plenty of financial flexibility with only about $32-million in payroll committed to the current squad. Expect something to come as early as this weekend.

This is a time to look at a wide array of possibilities, Bloom said. The important thing for us is to make sure we balance our opinion that we have a group that is capable right now of competing for the postseason with knowing this is something we want to do not just once, but we want to do year in and year out and have a consistently and sustainably competitive club.

Rays tender contracts to Zunino, Pham, Duffy and Roe

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The Rays tendered the contracts of Mike Zunino and three others.

There was no deadline drama for the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, as they tendered contracts to all four of their arbitration-eligible players: catcher Mike Zunino, outfielder Tommy Pham, infielder Matt Duffy and right-hander Chaz Roe were offered contracts.

Of the group, Pham is set for the biggest raise, projected to earn $4-million in 2019 by MLB Trade Rumors. Acquired from the Cardinals at last year’s non-waiver Trade Deadline, Pham hit .343 BA/.448 OBP/.622 SLG/1.070 OPS with seven home runs across 39 games for Tampa Bay. The outfielder previously rejected a two-year, $4-million extension offer from St. Louis after his breakout 2017 season.

Zunino and Duffy are both arbitration-eligible for the second time. Zunino will take over as the club’s primary backstop after being acquired from Seattle on November 8. He is slated to earn $4.2-million next season while he (20 homers) and Pham (21 homers) are expected to supply the bulk of the power on the current Rays’ roster.

Roe, 32, is a journeyman whose projected salary sits in the $1.4-million range. The right-hander proved a reliable back-end reliever last season, posting a 3.58 ERA/4.04 FIP across 61 appearances.

According to Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), the Rays are “considering high-end upgrades” to the current roster of youngsters, listing Noah Syndergaard, Paul Goldschmidt, and Nelson Cruz, among others, as potential options. With a new TV contract on the horizon, it would appear that the team’s monetary resources far outshine those of past seasons, so multiple major upgrades should not be ruled out.

As we draw closer to the start of the 2019 Winter Meetings in Las Vegas, X-Rays Spex will post our Winter Meetings primer, breaking down who or what the team may be seeking this offseason. Be on the lookout for that by the weekend.

Noteworthiness

— ICYMI…

Frago: “Rays’ Ybor stadium deal nears deadline with no agreement in sight”

Rays designate CJ Cron and others for assignment; add five to the 40-man roster

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CJ Cron was designated for assignment on Tuesday.

The Tampa Bay Rays made a number of moves over the last couple of days, most notably designating first baseman/DH C.J. Cron for assignment. Cron had been projected to earn $5.2-Million in arbitration. Relievers Oliver Drake and Hoby Milner were also designated, while right-hander Jose Mujica was outrighted.

The moves allow the Rays to add talent to the 40-man roster: southpaws Kyle Bird and Brock Burke, right-hander Ian Gibaut, and outfielders Joe McCarthy and Jesus Sanchez.

Cron led the team with 30 home runs while slashing .253 BA/.323 OBP/.493 SLG/.816 OPS with 74 RBI and a strong 122 wRC+ splitting time between first base and DH. He seemed likely to go at some point this offseason as the Rays are expected to consider free agents like Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson, and Andrew McCutchen and pursue trades, with Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks among those considered available.

This was a tough call obviously because of what C.J. did this past year and what he meant to our group, senior VP Chaim Bloom said. We certainly haven’t closed off the possibility of a return. But with as many deserving players that we have on our club that need playing time and also the number of possible paths for our off-season to take, it didn’t make sense to us to commit to him right now.

Bloom told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) the Rays wanted to both make sure to make sure there was room for some of their young left-handed hitters to get at-bats (such as Jake Bauers and Ji-Man Choi) and also to keep “a number of different options open and a number of different paths viable” for additions.

The Rays are no strangers to controversial roster decisions, designating 2017 All-Star Corey Dickerson prior to the start of last season to accelerate trade talks. According to Topkin, Bloom indicated this was a different situation in that they expect Cron to go on waivers and either be claimed or pass through and become a free agent, which would imply they felt they exhausted all trade options.

Topkin gave some information on the five players added to the 40-man roster, as well as comments from Bloom (in italics):

LHP Kyle Bird, 25

The lanky lefty reliever is somewhat of a control freak, allowing only 108 walks in 307 1/3 minor-league innings. He moved from Double-A Montgomery to Triple-A Durham in late May, posting an overall 3-3, 2.39 mark with four saves, allowing just a .198 average and recording 88 strikeouts for a 10.51 strikeouts per 9 innings ratio. He is playing winter ball in Mexico for the Yaquis de Obregon, going 1-0, 2.00 ERA in 18 relief apps. Over five minor league seasons, he is 15-7, 2.64 ERA in 185 games. Bird was a 35th round pick in 2014 out of Flagler College after transferring from Florida State, where he was a teammate of Jameis Winston. Bird is a graduate of Clay High School in Green Cove Springs.

Kyle Bird has methodically moved his way through our system and really took a step forward this year I think both physically and mentally. Showed incredible versatility pitching in all parts of the game — coming in to get a lefty out, going multiple innings, opening games, finishing games. With the success he had at Triple-A he is someone who could contribute in the big leagues in the near future.

LHP Brock Burke, 22

Earned Rays minor-league pitcher of the year honors after going 9-6, 3.08 ERA in 25 games (22 starts) between Class A Charlotte and Double-A Montgomery. He did better with the Biscuits after his July 9 promotion, 6-1, 1.95 ERA in nine starts, 4-0, 1.35 in his last five. His 158 strikeouts ranked 14th in all of minor-league baseball, and more impressive to be done in 137 1/3 innings. He led all Rays minor-leaguers in strikeouts while ranking fourth in ERA and tied for fourth in wins. He was a third-round pick in the 2014 draft out of Colorado’s Evergreen High.

Burke, really kind of a late bloomer who this year really started to show a lot of, to start to fulfill a lot of the potential that we’ve seen in him ever since we took him out of high school. His velocity jumped. His maturity took steps forward. That shows obviously as he was our organizational pitcher of the year for a reason. We’re really excited about his future. We feel there is still more to come with him as he progresses.

RHP Ian Gibaut, 25

Mlbpipeline.com prospect rank: 29

The hard-throwing reliever who has moved steadily through the system after being a 2015 11th round pick out of Tulane University, going 4-3, 2.09 with 14 saves in 15 chances this season for Triple-A Durham, striking out 75 in 56 innings. His 14 saves ranked first among Rays’ minor leaguers and fourth in the International League. He also was selected to the IL midseason All-Star team.  Over four minor-league seasons, he is 16-7, 2.25 ERA.

This is a guy who has end-of-game stuff. Three power pitches, they’re all plus. Really a prototypical late-game reliever who was dominant at times for us last year. He has stuff that can really match anybody’s in the game. Another guy who after a really successful year at Triple-A could be in a position to impact us relatively quickly.

OF Joe McCarthy, 24

Mlbpipeline.com prospect rank: 17

Has also climbed through the minors as a 2015 fifth-round pick from the University of Virginia, known for his strike zone discipline and defensive versatility in playing first base and outfield. He moved up to Triple-A Durham this season but was limited to 47 games due to a back injury, hitting .269 with a .889 OPS, 8 homers, 13 doubles, 27 RBIs. Over four minor-league seasons, he has hit .277 with .812 OPS, 72 doubles, 23 homers, 164 RBI in 333 games. He was playing in the Arizona Fall League but a broken hand ended that assignment after 13 games, as he hit .239 with a .745 OPS, 1 double, 3 homers, 8 RBI.

His season was kind of derailed some by injuries, but when he was healthy he really showed a very well-rounded skill set. Good defensive contributor both in the outfield and at first base. Big, physical guy who can hit the ball out of the ballpark. Just a good hitter who knows the strike zone really well. But also a good athlete who plays really good outfield, very instinctive baserunner, smart player, just a very well-rounded player who had a chance to be a good big-league player for a long time.

OF Jesus Sanchez, 20

Mlbpipeline.com prospect rank: 4; Baseball America rank: 6

Is the Rays top outfield prospect, earning his fourth straight team MVP award after hitting .301 with a .793 OPS, 10 homers and 64 RBIs in 90 games for the Stone Crabs, and earning Futures Game and FSL All-Star selections, before an Aug. 3 promotion to Double-A. He didn’t fare well with the Biscuits, hitting .211 with a .627 OPS in 27 games for an overall line of .282 with a .757 OPS. 32 doubles, 11 homers, 75 RBI in 117 games.  A Baseball America poll ranked him as the best batting prospect in the FSL. Over four minor-league seasons, the free-agent signee out of the Dominican Republic has hit .306 with a .824 OPS, 84 doubles, 21 triples, 37 homers, and 241 RBI in 351 games.

His name is I think probably, arguably the most familiar of any of these given how much hype he’s gotten, and rightly so, for his place on the prospect lists. His upside I think matches or exceeds just about anybody that we have. He’s always been able to hit since the day we signed him. As he’s grown into his body and gotten more physical I think some of the power has started to come. He profiles as a middle of the order hitter. Obviously he’s still progressing through the system, still has a ways to go to reach that upside. But the upside is so great that this is really a no-brainer for us to protect him.

Rays hire Rodney Linares as third-base coach

The team announced they have hired Rodney Linares as their third-base coach. He will step in for Matt Quatraro, who took over the bench coach position when Charlie Montoyo left to become the new Blue Jays manager.

Linares has been a long presence in the Houston Astros organization, functioning as the Triple-A manager last season. He, however, has not served on an MLB staff.

It would appear that Linares will eventually be joined by another new addition to Kevin Cash’s staff, with Rocco Baldelli departing to take the helm of the Minnesota Twins.