Recapping the Rays Winter Meetings
No trades, but they did make a free agent signing
A week ago, as the Tampa Bay Rays prepared to leave for the Winter Meetings, there was speculation that they could be among the most active teams. Several of the team’s core players were being brought up in persistent trade rumors.
Just last weekend, reports were surfacing on the Rays were looking to find a suitor for talented young players like outfielder Randy Arozarena and third baseman Isaac Paredes. And Tyler Glasnow rumors have been a constant buzz among baseball media.
However, with the meetings now concluded, the Rays have made just one alteration to their big league roster, and it’s a familiar name: they signed veteran hurler Chris Devenski to a two year deal. The Rays also brought back Erasmo Ramirez on a minor league deal.
The only other transactions the team was involved in came during the Rule 5 draft, both during the Major League and Minor League phases.
In the MLB phase, the Colorado Rockies selected 21 year old pitcher Anthony Molina from the Rays Triple-A Roster. Later on in the Minor league phase, the Rays lost former second round selection John Doxakis to the Gaurdians and outfielder Alexander Ovalles, whom the Rays acquired as part of the Nate Lowe deal, to the Reds.
The Rays did made three selections during the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 draft, taking the following players:
- Michael Gomez, RHP - New York Yankees
- Roelmy Garcia, RHP - Pittsburgh Pirates
- Blake Brown, RHP - Philadelphia Phillies
The meetings didn’t produce much in ways of speculation or news that weren’t already known beforehand, but the Rays trade talks continued to develop. Rays President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander indicated the team was under no pressure to make anything happen right now.
“We had plenty of conversations, but there’s no deadlines, there’s nothing. These events, they do serve as a catalyst for discussion. There’s a lot of information exchanged leading up to this week. And then those discussions are going to stall out or continue to mature through this week. So that’s going on.”
And despite reports that the Rays HAVE to trade Tyler Glasnow and his $25 million salary, Neander indicated that the team is ‘OK’ with the current payroll.
As of writing this, there are now 79 days until the Rays take the field for their first game of Spring Training, so still plenty of agonizing time for the team to make any franchise altering transactions.