| David Price (above) |
The past couple days has had the Rays front office hearing a
ton of negative reaction for the return on their big lefty David Price.
However, as a small market team, everyone should have seen this coming.
Since the offseason all the chatter has been that Price
would be on the move at this year’s trade deadline if the Rays were out of playoff
contention. Well, after a terrible start to the year, the Rays had the poorest
record in baseball one day away from their half season mark with a 32-48 record
and .400 winning percentage. It seemed like there was no doubt that the Rays
were weeks away from swinging their ace lefty for a bundle of prospects.
As the weeks went on the Rays were playing amazing baseball
and were just two games under .500 with a 53-55 record and just six games out
of the second wildcard on the final day of the trade deadline. The thought of having
to still jump five teams with roughly one third of the season remaining to just
land the second wildcard berth must have seemed too much for the Rays to gamble
on.
When Rays fans heard Price was dealt as part of a three way
deal that ended in the former Rays prize starter being sent to Detroit, the
thought had to be that prying a stud like Price out of a playoff chase and who
is also under control for next year as well would have had to cost Detroit (and
the Seattle Mariners who were the third team in the trade) half their farm but
it did not.
Despite the criticism on the seemingly less than overwhelming
return, the trade is much better than many think. No, a boatload of prospects
weren’t sent over. What they did get though was two major league ready players
and one big prospect.
| Drew Smyly (above) |
The Rays receive lefty Drew Smyly from the Tigers and
infielder Nick Fanklin from the Mariners. Both players have the majority of
their major league service time remaining before they can become free agents
and have salaries that sit around the $0.5 million mark compared to
Price’s current $14 million salary which will likely rise to around $20 million
next year. Highly touted shortstop prospect Willy Adames who now ranks number
two in the Rays farm system according to the MLB.com prospect watch was also
part of the trade.
Are these guys superstars? With Adames, he is 18 years old,
so who knows? Too many “can’t miss” prospects never see the inside of a major
league dugout to say he is a star in the waiting but he very well could be.
This is why the Rays needed that major league ready talent in return.
Since 2012 Smyly has made appearance both out of the pen and
as a starter posting a combined record of 16-12 while having a very respectable
3.53 ERA. Being used solely as a starter this season, it appears that he will
likely slide right into that young Rays rotation. Statistically he is a better
reliever and can also be a big threat coming out of the pen if the Rays choose
to go that route.
The final piece to the puzzle, Franklin, seems rather
unimpressive at a glance but if you delve a little deeper
| Nick Franklin (above) |
Did this trade blow Rays fans away immediately? Doubtfully. The
most frustrating part of the deal had to be the timing where the Rays where
playing their best ball of the season but management surely saw it was still a
long shot to make any playoff appearance and the best move would be to get as
much for Price as they could. While this is not likely popular in the short
term, this could very well prove to be a great trade for the small market Rays who
need to continue to breakdown and rebuild their roster with younger, cheaper
players with high upside in order to continue to be a major force in the AL East.
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