Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander recently held his end of season press conference, where he indicated that the club figures to prioritize improving behind the plate after an 80-82 season that saw them stave off elimination from postseason contention until the final week of September despite engaging in a major sell-off prior to the trade deadline. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relayed some of Neander’s comments from the end of season presser, where he discusses the decision to sell over the summer and the club’s future headed into 2025.
When discussing his decision to sell off key, controllable pieces like outfielder Randy Arozarena and third baseman Isaac Paredes at this summer’s trade deadline, Neander readily acknowledge the possibility that the club may have been able to cobble together enough extra wins to sneak into the postseason had they decided against selling. With that being said, Neander offered a major sign for optimism headed into the coming winter: After cutting more than a third of the club’s expected payroll commitments for 2025 off the books over the summer (with Topkin suggesting that $45MM in 2025 dollars came off the books prior to the deadline), the Rays now have a healthy amount of financial flexibility with which to operate this winter.
It’s a major change from just last offseason, when the club had to part ways with expensive veterans Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot in order to get payroll within the club’s small market budget. This winter, not only is a similar cost-cutting sell off not necessary, but Topkin suggests the club will have some room to make additions this winter. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Tampa’s 12-man arbitration class to make a combined $25.6MM in 2025. Even if Tampa retains each of those players and exercises Brandon Lowe’s $10.5MM club option for next year, RosterResource suggests that would leave them with just under $75MM on the books for next year. That’s $14MM below the club’s 2024 mark, $4MM below where the club ended up in 2023, and $11MM below their 2022 figure.
That should be more than enough payroll flexibility for the Rays to address their stated priority this winter of improving behind the plate. Ben Rortvedt figures to remain in place as a member of the catching tandem after a decent season where he posted a wRC+ of 87 while playing solid but unspectacular defense behind the plate. Finding a right-handed catcher to complement the lefty…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at MLB Trade Rumors…