So…slightly hectic few weeks in the bowels of the Trop.
The 2014 Rays had very good starting pitching. 22 shutouts on the season, most in the AL since the start of the DH. The bullpen was a dumpster fire to start the season and stabilized towards the end as McGee and Boxberger settled into their roles in the late innings. Offense left a bit to be desired. The team was total crap for 2.5 months then totally great for 2 months and then settled into mediocrity.
There are zero free agents leaving this offseason. The team already exercised their options on Zobrist and Peralta. Below are the current contracts for 2015. Everyone not listed (Myers, Odorizzi, Guyer, Franklin, etc) is on a pre-arb minimum deal. Sternberg has been making lots of noise that the BLOATED $77m payroll of 2014 is going to be trimmed back for 2015 to a more Ray-appropriate level.
Players Under Contract
2014 Salary
2015 Salary
Evan Longoria
$7.5 million
$11 million
James Loney
$7 million
$7 million
Grant Balfour
$5 million
$7 million
Yunel Escobar
$5 million
$5 million
David DeJesus
$4.25 million
$5 million
Ryan Hanigan
$2.75 million
$3.5 million
Jose Molina
$1.75 million
$2.75 million
Matt Moore
$1 million
$3 million
Chris Archer
$0.5 million
$1 million
Players with an Option
2014 Salary
2015 Option
Ben Zobrist
$7 million
$7.5 million
Joel Peralta
$3 million
$2.5 million
Arbitration Eligible Players
2014 Salary
2015 Expected
Matt Joyce
$3.7 million
$4.9 million
Jeremy Hellickson
$3.65 million
$3.9 million
Sean Rodriguez
$1.475 million
$2 million
Jake McGee
$1.45 million
$3.8 million
Cesar Ramos
$0.75 million
$1.3 million
Alex Cobb
$0.5 million
$4.5 million
Desmond Jennings
$0.5 million
$3.2 million
Drew Smyly
$0.5 million
$3 million
Logan Forsythe
$0.5 million
$1.2 million
Starting Rotation:
A bit crowded right now. Cobb, Archer, Odorizzi, Smyly, Hellickson. Moore coming back. Colome and Karns knocking on the door. Sounds like Hellickson is on the block, which won't be any great loss. Should continue to be the strength of the team in 2015. For all the noise about Price, Smyly out-pitched him after the trade.
Bullpen:
McGee and Boxberger stepped up as the season wore on. Peralta was pretty shitty, but not completely atrocious. Balfour was a big f'n australian joke. We'll see if they can dump Balfour's salary on someone willing to take a gamble on a rebound year. The bullpen really sank them early in 2014, so if McGee and Box can stay in form and they can scrape together some middle relief this could be an area for huge improvement.
Lineup:
Infield is basically set with Loney, Zobrist, Escobar, Longoria and Franklin prob starting to be worked in. Sean Rodriguez still around, too, although wouldn't be surprised to see him traded. They all just need to do better. Well, except Zobrist…he's always good.
There's a glut of outfielders. Kiermaier and Guyer emerged over the course of 2014. Joyce was Joyce. Jennings was not young Carl Crawford and it doesn't look like he ever will be. Dejesus is still around. Zobrist and Rodriguez play a lot of outfield, too. Probably will see Joyce moved this winter, maybe Dejesus, maybe both.
Manager:
Everyone knows the saga. Interviews starting this week for Maddon's replacement.
Front office:
Silverman should be a pretty seamless transition as he was very involved as part of the Wall St triad with Sternberg and Friedman. Chaim Bloom is the next boy genius Yalie that some big market team will be overpaying 7 years from now. He will start to play a bigger and bigger role under Silverman.
Should make for an interesting offseason. If the offense rebounds a bit and the middle relief gets sorted out, this could actually be a pretty good team in 2015.
The 2014 Rays had very good starting pitching. 22 shutouts on the season, most in the AL since the start of the DH. The bullpen was a dumpster fire to start the season and stabilized towards the end as McGee and Boxberger settled into their roles in the late innings. Offense left a bit to be desired. The team was total crap for 2.5 months then totally great for 2 months and then settled into mediocrity.
There are zero free agents leaving this offseason. The team already exercised their options on Zobrist and Peralta. Below are the current contracts for 2015. Everyone not listed (Myers, Odorizzi, Guyer, Franklin, etc) is on a pre-arb minimum deal. Sternberg has been making lots of noise that the BLOATED $77m payroll of 2014 is going to be trimmed back for 2015 to a more Ray-appropriate level.
Players Under Contract
2014 Salary
2015 Salary
Evan Longoria
$7.5 million
$11 million
James Loney
$7 million
$7 million
Grant Balfour
$5 million
$7 million
Yunel Escobar
$5 million
$5 million
David DeJesus
$4.25 million
$5 million
Ryan Hanigan
$2.75 million
$3.5 million
Jose Molina
$1.75 million
$2.75 million
Matt Moore
$1 million
$3 million
Chris Archer
$0.5 million
$1 million
Players with an Option
2014 Salary
2015 Option
Ben Zobrist
$7 million
$7.5 million
Joel Peralta
$3 million
$2.5 million
Arbitration Eligible Players
2014 Salary
2015 Expected
Matt Joyce
$3.7 million
$4.9 million
Jeremy Hellickson
$3.65 million
$3.9 million
Sean Rodriguez
$1.475 million
$2 million
Jake McGee
$1.45 million
$3.8 million
Cesar Ramos
$0.75 million
$1.3 million
Alex Cobb
$0.5 million
$4.5 million
Desmond Jennings
$0.5 million
$3.2 million
Drew Smyly
$0.5 million
$3 million
Logan Forsythe
$0.5 million
$1.2 million
Starting Rotation:
A bit crowded right now. Cobb, Archer, Odorizzi, Smyly, Hellickson. Moore coming back. Colome and Karns knocking on the door. Sounds like Hellickson is on the block, which won't be any great loss. Should continue to be the strength of the team in 2015. For all the noise about Price, Smyly out-pitched him after the trade.
Bullpen:
McGee and Boxberger stepped up as the season wore on. Peralta was pretty shitty, but not completely atrocious. Balfour was a big f'n australian joke. We'll see if they can dump Balfour's salary on someone willing to take a gamble on a rebound year. The bullpen really sank them early in 2014, so if McGee and Box can stay in form and they can scrape together some middle relief this could be an area for huge improvement.
Lineup:
Infield is basically set with Loney, Zobrist, Escobar, Longoria and Franklin prob starting to be worked in. Sean Rodriguez still around, too, although wouldn't be surprised to see him traded. They all just need to do better. Well, except Zobrist…he's always good.
There's a glut of outfielders. Kiermaier and Guyer emerged over the course of 2014. Joyce was Joyce. Jennings was not young Carl Crawford and it doesn't look like he ever will be. Dejesus is still around. Zobrist and Rodriguez play a lot of outfield, too. Probably will see Joyce moved this winter, maybe Dejesus, maybe both.
Manager:
Everyone knows the saga. Interviews starting this week for Maddon's replacement.
Front office:
Silverman should be a pretty seamless transition as he was very involved as part of the Wall St triad with Sternberg and Friedman. Chaim Bloom is the next boy genius Yalie that some big market team will be overpaying 7 years from now. He will start to play a bigger and bigger role under Silverman.
Should make for an interesting offseason. If the offense rebounds a bit and the middle relief gets sorted out, this could actually be a pretty good team in 2015.