Sports Illustrated - USA (2020 - Spring)

46

IT SOMETIMES FEELS as if the thrifty Rays,

trading and trading and trading in an endless

quest for incremental improvements, are

trying to win an episode of Flea Market Flip

just as much as the AL East.

They made three of the winter’s more

interesting deals. First they sent outfielder

Tommy Pham to San Diego for outfielder

Hunter Renfroe (33 homers in 2019) and

high-A shortstop Xavier Edwards, 20, with

prospects filling out the deal. Tampa Bay

not only got younger but also turned

Pham’s one remaining season of control

into Renfroe’s four. The Rays then sent a top

pitching prospect, ’18 first-rounder Matthew

Liberatore, to the Cardinals for outfielders

José Martínez, 31, and Randy Arozarena, a

25-year-old from Cuba. Finally, closer Emilio

Pagán went to the Padres for centerfielder

Manuel Margot, 25, and a prospect.

While these deals crowd the Rays’ roster

(even with the addition of a 26th spot,

pitchers are capped at 13), they create platoon

options for a team whose lefthanded batters

need help. Against lefties last year, first

baseman Ji-Man Choi (.629 OPS) and second

baseman Brandon Lowe (.674) struggled,

while centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier has a

.298 career OBP against southpaws. The

model here might be the ’14 A’s, who made

the playoffs while platooning at four spots

(the most possible with 13 position players).

Whoever fills out the Rays’ outfield, their

defense should be elite. Kiermaier is one of

the best of his generation; Margot, in three

seasons in the majors, has been a vacuum in

center; and Renfroe gunned down 13 base

runners from the corner spots last season.

Tampa Bay pitchers also had the second-

best strikeout rate and third-best walk rate

in baseball last year. With full seasons from

top-line starters Blake Snell and Tyler

Glasnow, the Rays could well allow the

fewest runs in the AL.

|WANDER FRANCO| 2B | A huge fan favorite in Charlotte since

the Bofas (never open up naming to a fan vote) moved to town in

’28, Franco has the AL’s lowest strikeout percentage each of the

last three seasons. Toss in the double-digit homers and .300-plus

batting average and you have one of the best players in the game—

and the signature superstar the Bofas never kept when they were

in Tampa Bay. When you lead the league in attendance three years

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2030 PREDICTION

MCKAY

| -0.1 WAR

KEVIN

| 2.3 WAR

As great

as Kiermaier is

in centerfield,

he has hit .223

with a .666

OPS since the

start of ’18.

He turns 30

in April, so his

defense may

tail off, too.

RAYS

AL EAST

MITCHELL LAYTON/GETTY IMAGES

Their defense should be elite,

and with full seasons from Snell

and Glasnow, the Rays could well

allow the fewest runs in the AL.