X-Rays Spex

A Below Average Rays Fan Blog

A petition is making the rounds: Pull back Stu Sternberg’s sister city proposal

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Consider this a throwback to the time just after Stu Sternberg’s ownership group purchased the Rays.

I get random things sent to me all the time because I write a blog. More often than not, someone will reach out to me with an article idea that I have zero interest in publishing because it, frankly, has nothing to do with the Tampa Bay Rays, or anything pertinent to X-Rays Spex. Last night was different, however, because someone sent me an online petition regarding Stu Sternberg’s sister city proposal, which we here at the blog are adamantly opposed to. And while I may not agree with everything within, I cannot say that I disagree with the overall tenor of the appeal that was made.

The author made the mission of the petition clear:

Why create a petition? The answer is simple. We are fans of the team, yet we are not being heard. Many in the local media appear to be more interested in helping Sternberg play the leverage game than they are holding him accountable by asking tough questions. In an ideal world, the viral nature of the internet will give us a volume that cannot be ignored.

— Sam McGreavy

Per the petition, the intended audience is Major League Baseball, the commissioner’s office, and the ballclub. As a concerned fan of the Rays, I signed it and thought I’d pass it along to you to do the same via this medium. Are you restless like me? Then click here for a link to the change.org petition, and spread the word.

The schadenfreude that is the Rays press conference, on Tuesday

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The Dali Museum: Site of a truly surreal public unveiling of a controversial proposal by Stu Sternberg on Tuesday.

We’ve come to the end of the road of the Tampa Bay Rays “Stadium Saga” … at least that’s what the proselytizers, tasked with helping the team to build leverage in this situation, would lead you to believe. On Tuesday, Stu Sternberg, flanked by team presidents Brian Auld and Matt Silverman, will hold a press conference at the Dali Museum, where they will pitch a twin-city proposal wherein the Rays would split their season in St. Petersburg and Montreal ― a surreal proposition befitting the location of the press conference.

The reality, however, is much different than the echo chamber, that is the local media, would lead you to believe. Noah Pransky, a former investigative reporter for WTSP Action 10 News ― who has reported on the “Stadium Saga” for a decade ― was quick to remind everyone that the longshot plan is one of at least a half-dozen major “non-threat threats” Sternberg has delivered over the last nine years.

Pransky detailed five of the most recent “non-threat threats” extending back to June of 2010:

― June 2010 – Sternberg says the only way “for this asset to be preserved” is a new stadium, and if not, there are “five markets” that would be better homes for the team.

― Oct. 2011 – Sternberg says MLB will “vaporize” the Rays within 9-12 years without a new stadium (it hasn’t).

― Jan. 2013 – Sternberg suggests to Hillsborough Co. commissioners the league would move or contract the team if a new stadium wasn’t built.

― Dec. 2014 – Sternberg says team is “doomed to leave” without a new stadium, he was done re-negotiating with St. Pete (alas, he wasn’t), and he’ll sell the team by 2023 if he doesn’t have a new stadium.

― May 2016 – The Rays will have to leave Tampa Bay if businesses don’t step up and spend money on MLB.

He was also quick to note that each non-threat threat resulted in headlines, news reports, opinion columns, and countless hours of sports talk speculation. Sound familiar?

None of the above-mentioned threats produced much to any tangible progress on the situation though, and it would appear that this proposal, in particular, is a lot of sizzle with little steak. After all, Sternberg would need to get permission from the mayor of St. Petersburg in order to play any home games outside of Tropicana Field, per the terms of the Rays stadium use agreement. And that is just one of many hurdles standing in his way.

Hours after news of Sternberg’s proposal was leaked out into the ethereal plane, Mayor Rick Kriseman poured cold water all over the brazen proposal, saying:

I want to be crystal clear: The Rays cannot explore playing any Major League Baseball games in Montreal or anywhere else for that matter prior to 2028, without reaching a formal memorandum of understanding with the City of St. Petersburg. Ultimately, such a decision is up to me. And I have no intention of bringing this latest idea to our city council to consider. In fact, I believe this is getting a bit silly.

― Rick Kriseman

Let it be said and known, if Sternberg’s intent truly is to move the team to Montreal before the 2028 season, at least in part, this idea is dead in the water. Let’s call this what it is: A leverage ploy.

My priority remains the same, I am committed to keeping baseball in Tampa Bay for generations to come. I believe this concept is worthy of serious exploration.

― Stu Sternberg

Expect to hear a lot of vague, general saber-rattling Tuesday afternoon as Sternberg attempts to whip up a frenzy within the Tampa Bay business community. Pay attention to the verbiage in Sternberg’s statement (above), especially “I believe this concept is worthy of serious exploration.” Exploration of the concept does not an exploration of Montreal make. It is an amorphous comment that can be retracted at such a time he gets what he is looking for; in this case a new stadium for the Rays.

While this is a shot across the bow of the business community and fans, both of which need to step up their support for the team, there are far better, more constructive ways to compel business leaders to step to the proverbial plate. Again, this is a non-threat threat constructed to build leverage.

Joe Henderson (FloridaPolitics.com) is correct, Mayor Kriseman’s quick response to Sternberg’s bizarre arrangement should put this “multinational lunacy in the rearview mirror where it belongs so serious people can work on solving this problem.” As context, Henderson listed the many time’s other club owners (Seattle, San Francisco, Texas, Chicago White Sox, and Minnesota) used St. Petersburg as leverage, much in the same way that Sternberg recently used Tampa and will use Montreal.

However, I don’t agree with Henderson’s assertion that Sternberg only wants a modern stadium in Tampa because it’s the center of the market, and that if he does not get that, the team will move to Montreal, at least partially. Remember, Stu knew of Tampa’s dire financial situation when he proposed the ill-fated $892-million facility in Ybor City. Tampa still doesn’t have the money now. Furthermore, Sternberg still hasn’t approached Mayor Kriseman about an addendum to the use agreement, which would let the team look for a new stadium within the region. Rather Sternberg wants a stadium wherever it can be built with a minimal contribution on his behalf.

So much has changed it seems nothing ever changes.

― A Wishful Puppeteer, by the Lawrence Arms

The quote above hits the nail on the head. While the perception is that we are in a dire situation, the reality is that Sternberg is in a dismal place ― one in which he feels the need to gain leverage in the Stadium Saga.

And So it goes.

Times: The Rays launch a Montreal missile. Don’t let it divide Tampa Bay.

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  • (Photo Credit: X-Rays Spex)

It isn’t often that I agree with anything from the Tampa Bay Times, on the subject of the Stadium Saga. And, accordingly, much of what has graced the pages in recent days has done little-to-nothing to further the issue, rather it comes off as clickbait sensationalism to the nth degree. If it’s up to Martin Fennelly, the team has been all but lost to our northern neighbors. However, the Times printed an anonymous editorial piece on Friday that runs counter to the beat and is an important centering argument that everyone should read.

At risk of having to take it down later, the editorial appears below in its entirety.

The announcement that Major League Baseball has given the Tampa Bay Rays permission to explore splitting home games with Montreal increases the urgency for this region to decide how badly it wants to remain in the big leagues and whether and where to build a new stadium. There are many unanswered questions about the Rays’ proposal to have two homes. What is not in question is that it will require a united front and a cooperative regional spirit to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay under any scenario.

At the moment, there is understandable frustration on all sides. The Rays have a competitive team but continue to rank near the bottom in attendance at outdated Tropicana Field. In Hillsborough County, a promising proposal for a $1 billion stadium in Ybor City collapsed late last year in part because the Rays would not commit to a reasonable investment in the project. In St. Petersburg, Mayor Rick Kriseman has been patiently waiting this summer to hear about the Rays’ interest in a new stadium on the Trop site and understandably did not react favorably to Thursday’s Montreal missile.

But the collective frustration cannot become counterproductive to Tampa Bay’s efforts to remain in the big leagues. This region spent decades building support for a franchise, fighting over competing stadium plans and courting existing teams before the Rays started to play in 1998. It’s no longer 1986 when the St. Petersburg City Council voted to build the dome. Fighting among ourselves now would send the wrong message to Major League Baseball, to Montreal and to other cities that now see an opening to snatch the franchise outright.

Yet the sniping already had started this week before the Montreal news. Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan attacked Kriseman and criticized St. Petersburg’s refusal to allow further negotiations between Hillsborough and the Rays, and he took some more shots on talk radio Thursday. Kriseman’s office initially responded in kind. None of that his helpful to Tampa Bay’s cause or sends a positive message to other team owners.

Kriseman immediately rejected the Montreal proposal, which he said already had been privately pitched to him by the Rays. And the team cannot play anywhere else besides the Trop without St. Petersburg’s approval before 2028. But there are issues to publicly explore the concept of splitting Rays’ home games between Tampa Bay and Montreal. Principal owner Stuart Sternberg told the Times he remains “committed to keeping baseball in Tampa Bay for generations to come…I believe this concept is worthy of serious exploration.’’ It will take time for the many complicated questions to be answered.

Yet the clock is ticking. Thanks to Kriseman’s political courage and regional vision, Hillsborough County had three years to work out a stadium plan and could not get it done before that window closed at the end of the year. It’s reasonable for St. Petersburg to take another shot and hold serious stadium discussions with Sternberg before deciding how to proceed. But the Rays’ agreement to play at the Trop expires in 2027, and it’s clear from the Montreal announcement that the stadium debate needs to be resolved soon.

The Rays deserve a public analysis of their Montreal proposal and a prompt regional response. St. Petersburg deserves a clear answer from the Rays about whether the team is interested in partnering on a new permanent home in the city. If that answer is no, Hillsborough County deserves another shot.

Ultimately, the Rays have to decide whether they want to remain in Tampa Bay significantly and invest in a new stadium. And Tampa Bay has to remain united in making its best pitch to remain in the big leagues for generations.

— Anonymous

Rays officially terminate stadium negotiation window

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The 86 acre Tropicana Field site, home of the Tampa Bay Rays … at least until 2027.

The Tampa Bay Rays formally closed the three-year negotiating window that permitted the team to search both Pinellas and Hillsborough and counties for a new stadium site.

The team sent a two-sentence letter, drafted by Senior Vice President of Administration John P. Higgins, to St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman which was similar to the announcement made by Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg last week at Major League Baseball’s winter meetings in Las Vegas. You can read the text of the letter below.

Dear Mayor Kriseman:

This letter shall serve as the “Decision Notice” [as that term is defined in that certain Memorandum of Understanding between Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Ltd. (the “Rays”) and that City of St. Petersburg (the “City”) dated January 15, 2016 (the “MOU”)]. Please be advised that, as required by Section 9.B. of the MOU, the Rays hereby notify the City that the Rays will not attempt to negotiate the “New Agreements” (as that term is defined in the MOU) or prepare a “Termination Agreement” (as that term is defined in the MOU).

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Very truly yours,

John P. Higgins

The team — which stands to net 50% of the development rights at the Tropicana Field site — remains silent on its future, although there is far more money available for the Rays if they choose to renegotiate in St. Petersburg. In fact, when asked by Noah Pransky (WTSP) if Sternberg would sign away the developments rights at the Trop in July, the answer was pretty clear: “no.”

At the moment, St. Petersburg can contribute $100-million+ in county bed taxes, $75-million+ in county infrastructure funds, and $40-million+ in general revenue funds.

St. Petersburg City Council Chair Charlie Gerdes said it’s time to make sure the team stays here for the long haul.

I don’t have a sense of relief, said Gerdes, who said he’d rather see the team find a long-term home in Pinellas County, but would also rather the team stay in the Tampa Bay area than leave altogether. It’s not time to be relieved, it’s time to make sure they stay here for a long time.

I want them to find a place where they can keep ‘TB’ on their hats for a long time.

The Rays decision to pull out of the Hillsborough County stadium proposal not only marks the second time the team hasn’t seen a proposal through in a decade but has also stoked local sportswriters dire warnings that if you don’t build it, the team will leave. That, however, is patently false in most cases, yet many people continue to believe it. That narrative has been driven home by those sportswriters, not the team which up to now has been very clear that it remains committed to finding a new stadium in the Tampa Bay area.

Neil de Mause (Field of Schemes) attempted to quell the fears of Rays fans, saying:

Look, Tampa Bay is, it has now been well established, a middling MLB market, but that’s still better than most non-MLB markets, since they are non-MLB markets precisely because they can’t even manage to be middling. All things being equal, would Stuart Sternberg make as much money running a team in Montreal as in Tampa Bay? Maybe! Would he make more? Probably not, all things being equal. Could all things not be equal, like if Montreal throws the kind of money at Sternberg that Tampa Bay is so far refusing to? Conceivably, but that didn’t go so well the last time, and the current Montreal mayor sounds at least somewhat skittish about promising piles of cash — saying “We need to evaluate what kind of participation, how we will collaborate, but so far, so good” and “if it comes to asking Montrealers for money, for example to build a stadium, yes, I will ask Montrealers” — so probably won’t to the degree that this is likely to turn into an international bidding war.

It is absolutely important to remember at all times that sports leagues have a monopoly on franchises, and can use that as leverage — but it’s also important to remember that there are only so many cities with the population (and TV eyeballs) to enable a pro sports team to make fistfuls of money, and cities can use that as leverage, too. Romano is right about one thing: This is a business negotiation, and team owners are just trying to maximize their profits (plus maybe their egos), and will use any advantage they can to do so; but there’s nothing stopping elected officials from doing the same. Right now, the Rays and Tampa/St. Pete are still in the staring-each-other-down phase of negotiations, so there are likely at least a few more summers of baseball left before anybody starts storming off and slamming doors.

All of which is to say: Everybody take a deep breath, okay? I know it’s bad for clicks, but it’s good for making sensible policy decisions, and journalism is still about trying to inform people so they can make the world a better place — or at least that’s what the internet tells me.

The Rays previously said they had no interest in getting into the real estate business, yet they commissioned a study on real estate opportunities in Ybor City. It could be assumed that Sternberg could be coming around to the idea of property development since the study also identified downtown St. Petersburg and Mid-Pinellas/Carillon as two of Tampa Bay’s largest areas of growth.

Noteworthiness

— Per Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), the two-year, $30-million deal with Charlie Morton expected to be announced later this week. The Rays still have to make room on the 40-man roster.

In other news, the race is still on for catcher J.T. Realmuto. The Rays, Astros, Padres, and Dodgers are said to be in on the catcher.

Rays trade Jake Bauers to Cleveland for INF Yandy Diaz

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Meet the Rays newest utility player, Yandy Diaz, who comes over from Cleveland in a three-way trade involving Jake Bauers.

In the waning hours of the 2018 Winter Meetings, the Tampa Bay Rays made another big trade, sending 1B Jake Bauers to Cleveland to for INF Yandy Diaz and a minor-league pitcher, RHP Cole Sulser, as part of a three-team deal also involving Seattle.

Long considered a top prospect for Tampa Bay, Bauers seemed to be a key part of the Rays’ core of young players. Yet his late-season struggles across August and September changed the calculus a bit.

Senior VP of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) they did not sour or give up in any way on Bauers, but felt Diaz — with the versatility to play first or third — was a better fit.

Obviously, giving up Jake in this deal is not easy to do, Bloom said. We love Jake and feel really strongly about him, too. That was just the price we needed to pay to get Yandy. We thought, all things considered, it was the right thing for us to do. It’s good for our roster going forward.

According to Bloom, the trade was about getting a player the Rays like … one who gives manager Kevin Cash additional roster flexibility.

I think it’s premature to say we know exactly where he’s going to play, Bloom said. We’ll have to see how things unfold from here. But the versatility he has does give us more options and more possible paths for our roster to go.

Diaz hits right-handed, has good contact skills and a developing power profile.

Diaz posted .797 OPS figures at both the Triple-A (426 plate appearances) and MLB (120 plate appearances) levels last season. In 299 overall big league plate appearances, Diaz slashed .283 BA/.361 OBP/.366 SLG and put up a 97 wRC+, with a  10.7% walk rate and 18.1% strikeout rate.

In addition to having huge biceps, Diaz hit the baseball hard more consistently than almost anyone, according to Statcast™.

Of 504 players over the last two seasons, Diaz ranks 19th with a 47.6% hard-hit rate, and 22nd in exit velocity at 92.1 mph. It bears mentioning, three of the top 26 players have been acquired by Tampa Bay in the last six months:

Diaz (19th), 47.6%
Tommy Pham (23rd), 46.6%
Mike Zunino (26th), 45.9%

However, Diaz hit just one home run in 265 at-bats and boasts just a .087 ISO. The question begs, why is that?

As it stands, Diaz has the eighth-lowest launch angle (4.4 degrees), resulting in the 25th-highest ground-ball rate. Bloom said the team is hopeful they can get him to elevate the ball.

We like him as is, Bloom said, but any time you get a guy who hits the ball really hard, there’s always an additional upside, to the extent they can drive the ball a little bit. Even if he doesn’t do that, we think he’s a very polished hitter.

As JT Morgan (DRaysBay) wrote, the answer might not be to drastically alter Diaz’s launch angle.

On average, Diaz was tied with Wilson Ramos in launch angle. And though they have posted very similar numbers, Ramos has a couple mph of exit velocity on balls in the air, whereas Diaz’s launch angle is just under Duffy’s 4.6.

… Diaz doesn’t need to go all out on launch angle. It’s more likely that he needs to get more line drives overall to improve his power output. He looks the part of a guy who should hit for quite a bit of power and the exit velocity readings mostly agree.

Sulser, 28, has yet to reach the big leagues, although he could factor into a deep Rays relief corps after throwing 105 innings of 3.51 ERA ball with 12.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 at Triple-A over the past three seasons.

Noteworthiness

— No, thank you, Jake, it was a pleasure watching you become Rake Bauers!

— Per Topkin, Bloom said they “are still open to getting another hitter” and this isn’t the end of their offseason plans.

— I’d reckon it’s been a pretty, uhh … confusing 24 hours for the Rays front office.

— In the words of Danny Russell (DRaysBay), Charlie Frago at the Tampa Bay Times is reporting the stadium deal died in November of this year after key business leader Ron Christaldi attempted to broker a deal to finance the stadium with little transparency.

Then again…