We Hit Dingers: MLB Offseason Preview

Friday, October 21, 2016

Tampa Bay Rays

American League	East Division
68-94	25 GB of Division Lead
Manager Kevin Cash	GM Matthew Silverman
AAA affiliate Durham Bulls	AA affiliate Montgomery Biscuits

Traded OF Brandon Guyer to Cleveland for Nathan Lukes and Jhonleider Salinas
Traded SP Matt Moore to San Francisco for Matt Duffy, Lucius Fox, and Michael Santos

Evan Longoria is the longest-tenured Ray and was arguably the team's best hitter last season and, in my opinion, the most valuable player on the team. Longoria had his best season since 2013 and had a career high in home runs, hits, and total bases. He also played in all but two games, which is remarkable for a veteran who plays the hot corner. Although baseball-reference has Kevin Kiermaier as the Rays' best player in terms of WAR, fangraphs actually had Longoria as such.

Failure - The 2016 Tampa Bay Rays were, in my opinion, a relative failure after looking at all areas of the team. Off the field, they were actually able to trade a way two valuable assets in Matt Moore and Brandon Guyer and got important pieces back for their near future. On the field, however, the Rays were a disaster, finishing 25 games behind first place in the AL East. They have declined considerably from the teams managed by Joe Maddon when they were playoff regulars and even appeared in the World Series in 2009. This year's team finished near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories and slugged their way to wins, similar to the Baltimore Orioles. Their pitching was the area that really let them down. Although their starters finished 11th in ERA, ace Chris Archer was a major disappointment for them, a year after having his breakout season. Archer actually pitched slightly better than his surface statistics show. Although he had an ERA of 4.02, his fielding-independent pitching (FIP) was 3.81, indicating that he was better at preventing the events that he had control over (hits, home runs, and walks) than when it came to relying on the team's defense. Overall, the Rays were expected to finish with a better record, or at least be closer to the rest of the division, than they did.

Perhaps the worst part of the how the Rays season went is the fact that they don't really have a clear direction for their future. They do have a solid group of pitchers, both in their starting rotation and in the bullpen, and it appears that it is through them that the Rays will build towards the future. Outside of a few position players, their offense is rather weak, and the fact that they are a small market club doesn't help them. They will never be a big budget team and can't afford to spend money on large contracts in free agency, and thus will have to build internally. I think that there is potential for them to trade Chris Archer this offseason, who would yield the Rays a great return.

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, espn.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com