Players Targeted
Tampa Bay has been connected to the Dodgers, Rangers, Pirates, Marlins and Red Sox among others, with the possibility of acquiring infielders Jurickson Profar or Joey Gallo (Rangers), outfielder Austin Meadows or 1B/OF Josh Bell (Pirates), and catcher Austin Barnes (Dodgers).
Jurickson Profar
Like former Ray Ben Zobrist, Profar boasts versatility across the diamond. The switch hitting infielder also posses great range and instincts. What Profar lacks in pop, he makes up for with quick hands, a good OBP and wOBA (.363 and .357 respectively), and the ability to make consistent contact, thus spraying the ball all over the field — something Tampa Bay could use in spades.
Source: FanGraphs
Should a deal be made, Tampa Bay would receive a player with three years of team control remaining.
A caveat: while there doesn’t appear to be opportunity for Profar to get consistent playing time up the middle because of Elvis Andrus and Roughned Odor, with the season ending injury to DH Prince Fielder, the Rangers may instead decide to hold on to the 23 year-old infielder who could slot into that role.
Joey Gallo
Like Corey Dickerson and Steven Souza Jr., Gallo has a huge power potential. In 299 plate appearances with the Rangers Triple-A affiliate, the 22 year-old infielder put up a .381 OBP/.557 SLG/.938 OPS/.311 ISO/54 wRC slash line with 19 homers. Yet also like Dickerson and Souza, his low batting average and 30.4% strikeout rate aren’t too appealing.
As with Profar, there really isn’t a spot for Gallo on the active roster, so in Triple-A he’s sat for most of the season. Gallo plays both corner infield spots, but as Dan Slaubaugh (DRaysBay) noted, he doesn’t play first to third particularly well:
Second, Gallo plays both corner infield spots, and neither particularly well. At 3rd base for the Rays, Longoria is slugging the ball, and should bring legitimate productivity to the team for at least another 4 years if they choose not to part with him. At 1st base they have Connor Gillaspie and Jake Bauers in the pipeline, both of whom are very promising prospects, waiting in the minors for their turn in the big leagues and far better defenders.
Given the Rays penchant for defense, that likely relegates Gallo to DH duty, a role already occupied by Corey Dickerson for the foreseeable future. His roster spot is not clear.
Austin Meadows
Viewed as the heir apparent to Andrew McCutchen (once he becomes a free agent in 2018), the hard hitting Meadows is polishing off his Minor League career in advance of a future promotion to the bigs. Meadows made the jump from Double-A — where he slashed .311 BA/.365 OBP/.611 SLG/.976 OPS/.299 ISO/.419 wOBA/36 wRC with six homers and eight triples, and a paltry 16.8% strikeout rate — to Triple-A this season.
According to the FanGraphs scouting report, Meadows has a good amount of physical development left in his future, likely taking his plus raw speed down closer to average, though he projects to be an above-average defender with a fringe-average arm. If he can improve on the accuracy of his arm, the young outfielder could very well develop into a five-tool player.
Josh Bell
Hitting .317 BA/.405 OBP/.515 SLG/.920 OPS/.198 ISO/.407 wOBA/69 wRC with 13 homers in Triple-A this season, it’s a wonder that Bell hasn’t yet received a full-time promotion to the bigs. The switch hitting 1B/OF exhibits more power from the lefthand side, though he possesses something that a fair number of Rays do not: plate discipline (11.7% K% in 2014, 10.3% K% in 2015, 15.1% K% in 2016). Tampa Bay will need a first baseman next season, and Bell is controllable through the 2022 season season. He also won’t be arbitration eligible until the completion of the 2019 campaign.
Fun fact: Bell hit a pinch-hit grand slam in just his second big league at-bat.
Austin Barnes
The scouting report on Barnes, courtesy of Carson Cistulli (Fangraphs):
Attempting to identify a weakness in Barnes’ game is like attempting to find a weakness in a player who doesn’t possess any weaknesses. In roughly 2,200 minor league plate appearances, he’s recorded a walk-to-strikeout ratio above 1.0. He’s exhibited nearly average power. He plays catcher. Both Steamer and ZiPS project him to record over two wins given a full season’s worth of plate appearances. He even seems to run well, producing a 12-for-14 stolen base record and 5.4 speed score (where 5.0 is average) last year at Triple-A Oklahoma City. What Barnes lacks most immediately is a spot on a major league club — the Dodgers currently roster starter Yasmani Grandal and former starter A.J. Ellis. Given an opportunity, Barnes is likely to give back at least a league-average rate of wins.
In short, Barnes is an intriguing prospect at a position the Rays could desperately use. His .299 BA/.383 OBP/.454 SLG/.837 OPS/.375 wOBA in 288 plate appearances in Triple-A this season truly makes the acquisition of Hank Conger look like a regrettable memory. The fact that Barnes is a backstop with the misfortune of working for the Dodgers,* who already employs two other well-established league average catchers, could make him a plausible target for Tampa Bay.
In Conclusion
It’s fun to dream about who the Rays could receive should they decide to move a pitcher at the deadline. However, according to Jerry Carsick (ESPN), it appears that Matt Silverman will stand pat and act during the winter, when the Rays can engage with 29 MLB teams rather than a handful making playoff pushes.
I think they’ll take it to the offseason, said an official with a club in the starting pitcher market. They’ll get a lot of information now. They’ll find out who’s really serious, and then they’ll take the month of August to really scout that organization and see who they have a good fit with. There’s no urgency for them to do stuff now. They can set a price, and if they don’t get it, they’ll take it into the offseason and go from there.
Whether the above mentioned players will still be available during the offseason remains to be seen. Whatever the case, as I mentioned Wednesday, it’s incumbent upon the front office to to look for smart acquisitions if it hopes to shake the Devil Rays moniker any time soon. A few smart moves here and there could easily find the Rays in the postseason next year.
*The Dodgers could also use a starter now that Clayton Kershaw has been shelved due to an injury.