Now that the excitement surrounding the Winter Meetings has faded away, we Rays fans find ourselves in a very familiar, yet rather irritating, place. That place? The annoying one between the Winter Meetings, and when Andrew Friedman seems to come alive, prior to the reporting of pitchers and catchers.
We’ve seen it before, and we know that Friedman is most active in January. The Rays are still in need of a DH and 1B, regardless if they choose to re-sign Johnny Damon and Casey Kotchman, or if they choose to err on the side of non or former Ray players. It’s all but certain that “the process” will work itself out, and that we need to, as we’ve heard on multiple occasions, “trust the process”, regardless of how frustrating it may seem be to do so. We know that by the time Spring Training rolls around, our uncertainty about whether those open slots will be filled, will have melted away. Until then, sigh…
Today, MLBtraderumors posted a list of the 12 remaining free agent power hitters. It’s an interesting list (to say the least), filled with a who’s who of former Rays players. Carlos Pena and Johnny Damon have been under the magnifying glass of interest, as potential candidates to plug the DH and 1B holes. Some of the listed players are obviously out of the question for Tampa Bay. That is to say I highly doubt that we’ll see the likes of a Cody Ross or Prince Fielder and time soon. I’m also certain, and thankful, that we’re not going to see the return of Pat Burrell or Johnny Gomes.
- Prince Fielder – .267 ISO
- Andruw Jones – .247
- Carlos Pena – .237
- Jason Varitek – .203
- Jonny Gomes – .180
- Derrek Lee – .179
- Pat Burrell – .175
- Raul Ibanez – .174
- Wilson Betemit – .169
- Cody Ross – .165
- Jorge Posada – .163
- Johnny Damon – .156
None of the players listed represent any long-term DH or 1B solutions for the Rays, nor does the list offer any long-term (or short-term) solutions to the Rays catching conundrum. It does, in a sense, narrow the list of potential short-term DH candidates down to two: Pena and Damon, especially if Tampa Bay is serious in their talks with Kotchman. Keep in mind, too, that there are other 1B options out there. One option: San Diego Padres first base prospect Anthony Rizzo.
With the Padres recent acquisition of Yonder Alonso, the possibility of a Wade Davis/Anthony Rizzo trade is out there. Though Rizzo hit .141, with only one home run and 46 strikeouts in 128 at-bats in 2011, Rizzo has been ranked as the Padres top prospect by Baseball America for his patience and power potential. Rizzo also represents a younger player at first, something that the Rays are looking for. A Davis, or Jeff Niemann, trade also opens up a slot for Matt Moore in the starting rotation.
I know that I may be jumping the gun by a year, but I’m just not that excited for the prospect (post Molina) of either Robinson Chirinos or Jose Lobaton leading the way as the Rays primary catcher. The acquisition of Molina may buy the Rays a little time, however it’s incumbent that the Rays sort things out, the sooner the better.
Finally, on December 25, the St. Petersburg Times posted the surprising results of a Times/Bay News 9 poll, about the future of the Rays in the Tampa Bay area. Of the 508 Tampa Bay area citizens (cough, not just Pinellas County citizens) polled, about 55 percent said that they’d prefer Major League Baseball to remain at Tropicana Field or at a mid-Pinellas location in the Gateway area, about 30 percent said that they’d prefer a Hillsborough site. 49 percent of the Hillsborough County respondents would prefer a new stadium in their county, but 33 percent want to keep baseball in Pinellas, where Pinellas County citizens taxes would pay for the stadium. According to the Times, what really stands out is that, “About 27 percent favor the fairgrounds at Interstate 4 and U.S. Highway 301, compared with 17 percent who like downtown and 5 percent who prefer the West Shore area.”
Not that I subscribe to the idea that the free market should determine the destiny of any given thing, in this instance the fans have spoken and it’d be wise to follow that wisdom. Though it’s been drilled in our heads, from a myriad of sources, that the Rays only option to remain viable in this market is a move to Hillsborough County, the results of this poll show, if anything, that the fans would prefer the Rays to stay on the west side of the bay. To be fair, the poll has also shown that Hillsborough County residents are warming up to the idea of having the Rays on that side of the bay. I’d think it would be fair to assume that Mayor Foster’s handling of things may be driving that warming to some extent.
So the question begs: where do we go from here? I’d have to think Mayor Foster, the city council, and the Rays organization should use these results to help drive things in a manner of speaking. These results need to be used as a means to compel the mayor to do more than he has, and it’s now more imperative than ever for the St. Petersburg city council to light the match and hold the flame to the feet of those that seem to be doing nothing.
