Well, it was disappointing to lose the World Series, but still an achievement to win 106 games and get there as anything can happen in a short series. So now on to build a team for 2025. The good news is most everyone is back, with a few key exceptions. Unsurprisingly, Rafael Devers and Walker Buehler opted out of their current contracts and decided to become free agents. Also I had kind of forgotten Jose Alvarado had a player option on this year's contract and he opted out too. Speaking of Alvarado, his running mate Nick Anderson is a potential free agent as well and I offered him a 2-year, $14M extension as it would be tough to lose them both. Alvarado is probably is a lost cause as he wants a 4-year deal. If Anderson takes my offer, I probably don't give Alvarado the one-year qualifying offer to get a pick as he might take it. I will get a supplemental pick for Devers, though.
As for replacing Devers, the plan is still to go with Triston Casas at 3B. His defense is adequate if not as good as Devers' and he should be a 30-35 HR guy (especially now that I'm going to juice the ball back to 2023 standards after dejuicing it too much in 2024). Still I have concerns about him hitting LHP, so I'm thinking about signing a right-handed hitting 3B, a Rylan Bannon-type (but not Rylan Bannon - the White Sox just signed him to an extension). I'm eyeing a guy I've eyed before, Marwin Gonzalez, for this role. He's a free agent but he shouldn't be too expensive. Buehler won't be directly replaced, of course, but a Glasnow-Manning-May-McClanhan-Lynch rotation ain't too shabby and we'll see what else the offseason brings. Asa Lacy is a starting possibility as well, and we'll see if any minor leaguers can make a run at it. I'll be on the lookout for a lefty reliever as well.
Some contract news:
(I'm having problems with imgur, so I'm going to have to type this out)
Keibert Ruiz has received a 5-year contract extension, through the 2029 season. We're buying out two years of free agency, giving him what he would get in arbitration the next 3 years and just adding 2 more years of what he'd get in year 3, so it's a total of 5/66.8 with the following salaries:
2025: 10.5
2026: 12.5
2027-2029: 14.5
We do have a lot of catching in the system, but Ruiz is the rare catcher who can handle a staff, hit over .300 and hit for power, he's probably the AL's best. Speaking of the position, while Meibrys Viloria did well as Keibert's caddy, I'm thinking it's time for Chris Betts. He has legit 35 HR power and should be more productive offensively than Viloria. He is a bit of a defensive sacrifice but we're only talking about 40-50 games a season.
Among our arbitration-eligibles, Ruiz of course was the big one, but close behind is Vidal Brujan, whom we're expecting to jump from the minimum to $7.2M, and Brandon Marsh, who will jump to around $4.8M. Going to non-tender Ian Hamilton as I don't want to pay him the expected $7.2M, and Dany Jimenez was great at Durham but I'm not sure I want to pay him $2.6M. Those two alone would clear almost $10M we can spend elsewhere. Stu Sternberg gave me a payroll budget of $150M, and if Anderson takes his offer, we'll still have about $33M to spend. Everyone currently on the team can be back in 2026, except a big one: Austin Meadows, whose contract runs out this year. I'll give another extension a shot but he will cost a fortune.
November 14: Re-signed Nick Anderson to a 2-year, $14M contract extension.
One of these years Anderson (who's 34) is going to lose his fastball, but I'm betting 2025 or 2026 isn't one of those years. He remained dominant last year with 14 Ks per 9 innings and showed no second-half tail-off. It's not a huge amount of $ in case it does go south.
November 15: Austin Meadows wins the AL Platinum Stick Award for RF.
November 18: OK, Imgur is working again, big honors incoming:
You know who the idiot was that didn't make the award unanimous? Yeah, it was me, I voted for Walker Buehler as his WAR was basically Manning's equivalent plus he had the great first month with LA. Sandy Alcantara won in the NL, going 14-10, 2.75.
November 19: MVP! MVP! MVP!
Wander becomes the first-ever Tampa Bay Ray to win MVP, and #2 in the voting was Austin Meadows. Vidal Brujan finished fifth. Ozzie Albies won the NL MVP.
November 26: Non-tendered Ps Joe Ryan, Ian Hamilton and Dany Jimenez. Offered P Jose Alvarado the 1/15 qualifying offer.
Ryan was going to be jettisoned from the 40-man after an awful season at Durham. Maybe he bounces back this year, maybe he doesn't. As mentioned before Hamilton is too expensive at $7.2M for a middle man, and Jimenez at a projected $2.7M is too much too for a guy who spent the year at AAA. The Alvarado QO was a tough choice, if he accepts I'm thrilled to have him back but it puts a big crimp in the money available and might necessitate a trade. Of course since he's looking for 4/42 he probably turns it down and we get another comp pick.
November 27: Jose Alvarado accepted the 1-year, $15M qualifying offer.
Welp. As I just said, it's great to have him back and my bullpen security blanket remains intact. On the other hand, that's a huge amount of money to pay a reliever.
So here's the payroll. Anyone you don't see listed who was cut off is making the minimum. The payroll right now is $134M, and we have 6 40-man spots open so add about another $3-4M to that. So that leaves us $12-13M to add in salary on the $150M budget Stu gave us, so there won't be any big free agent signings.
December 8: Walker Buehler signed a 6/133 contract with the Giants in the first big free-agent signing of the winter. "The fan interest almost crashed", eh another 100-win season and they'll be fine. Meanwhile, the Red Sox might be our biggest competitor this season, and they went and traded a couple of minor leaguers for Didi Gregorious, still going strong at 34. In a somewhat puzzling move, though, they also then signed C Yasmani Grandal who had a great year for Detroit last year (more a great first half) to a 2/33 contract. I found it puzzling because the Sox have Pierson Gibis, a top-10 MLB prospect and a power-hitting catcher who played for them in September last year.
December 10: Ramon Laureano, who's developed into a premier OF with Oakland over the last few years, signed a 6/146 contract with Arizona.
December 11: Traded minor-league SS Yordys Valdes to the San Francisco Giants for minor-league 2B Connor Kirkley.
I feel fairly confident Valdes will be taken in the Rule 5 draft given his 80 glove and experience playing at the AAA level, so with no room for him on the MLB level (some guy named Wander), I dealt him to the GIants for Kirkley, who was the #2 overall pick in 2022. He obviously hasn't lived to that draft position so far but remains a 2B with some pop, and potential to be better, maybe a Nick Gonzales-type (which means he'll end up blocked in AAA in a couple of years).
December 15: Our old friend Chris Paddack signed a 2-year deal with the Cubs just shy of $20M. I wish him luck there. Speaking of the Cubs, they signed SS Amed Rosario to a big deal as he was underutilized with the Mets and the emergence of Ronny Mauricio, and the Phillies signed SP Dakota Hudson to a 4/45 deal.
Meanwhile, I'm mulling over a pair of deals of some import. Considering sending Seth Beer and Mebrys Viloria in exchange for a impact RH bat who plays a key position, and if that deal goes through, I'm considering dealing Keston Hiura, who's really a luxury on this team, for a front-line starting pitcher. The first deal would also free up a 40-man spot, and in both deals I'm eyeing getting a decent pitching prospect thrown in. I still need to do some more due diligence in the next few days.
Trade time:
So instead of the two deals I was considering above, I re-evaluated things and eliminated the middle man. The deals I considered were to send Beer & Viloria to the Cubs for Austin Riley, who hit .290 with 31 HR last year and is a RH 3B. But there were two catches with Riley: 1) he's a free agent at year's end, and 2) he's only a 45 contact hitter and the BA was a real outlier in the context of his career, he's been more of a .230-.250 hitter during his career. The other deal would have been to send Hiura to Oakland for Jesus Luzardo. Instead we kept Hiura, and added Mitchell White, and after looking into it more, I feel confident Hiura can play a passable 3B when we would need to either rest Triston Casas or bench him against a tough lefty. So anyway in a case of "if you can't beat 'em, trade for 'em" we acquired White who owned us in the World Series just passed. White put up sterling #s with the Dodgers last year, a .2.80 ERA in 170 IP with a 54/167 BB/K ratio. Those numbers will take a hit in the DH league and his FIP was 3.93 so I'm not expecting ace numbers but #4 starter stuff. He probably supplants Daniel Lynch in the rotation as I prefer Dustin May and Shane McClanahan. Speaking of May, this marks about the 5th trade in the last 2 years where I've acquired pitchers from the Dodgers (last year's May deal, the Buehler-Fried-Paddack deal, a minor league deal to pick up Jack Perkins and the deal for Mitchell Verburg). Just can't quit those Dodgers pitchers. And there's one more on the way (I think) in Chamberlain, who has filthy stuff as a reliever but is Rule 5 eligible. He barely pitched at AA last year so I'm expecting he gets ignored, but I'm not going to put him on the 40-man. The deal of Viloria as I've mentioned before makes Chris Betts the backup catcher, and I'll probably sign a good-defense vet to a MiLB contract come the spring. Beer was completely expendable with Spencer Torkelson taking an everyday job, taking Beer's job as the DH against righties.
December 18: In former Rays news, Ian Hamilton signed a 2-year, $6M deal with Colorado and Ty Buttrey, who helped our run to the WS in 2023, was traded by the Cubs to the Giants where he can hang out with former Rays Walker Buehler and Ryan Yarbrough.
December 19: Added C Noah Cardenas, 3B Tanner Witt, SS Alejandro Pie, Ps Dean Christidis, Luke Little, Jack Perkins, and Emerson Hancock to the 40-man roster.
Little was the last add: he's a power lefty for the bullpen who could be the successor to Alvarado. Cardenas I like the best of my catching glut, because he can play multiple positions and is a solid hitter, Witt is still the 3B of the future (although Casas is only 24), Pie is a power-hitting shortstop who can play the position, and Christidis, Perkins and Hancock are pitching prospects too good to lose.
Here's who I left off of note that I could lose to Rule 5: Cs Zach Britton, Logan Driscoll, Patrick Bailey, Enrique Romero, 2Bs Nick Loftin, Christian Knapczyk, OF Zack DeLoach, 3B Wyatt Langford, OFs Jasson Dominguez, Petey Halpin, Shane Sasaki, Ps CJ Van Eyk, Tommy Mace, Tyler Brown, Grant Gambrell, Colin Bosley-Smith, Christian Chamberlain, JJ Goss. It would probably be most disappointing to lose Langford (a power-hitting 3B but as not as good defensively as Tanner Witt), Dominguez (70 CF + power bat), Bosley-Smith (like the arm) and Chamberlain (another great arm who I just got in the Beer deal).
December 20: As always I spend way more time worrying about the Rule 5 draft than is justified given how few players are picked as we didn't lose anyone again this year. In 5 years the only guy I was lost that I was disappointed to lose was Tommy Romero, and well he really wasn't anything that special. I will have to put somebody on the current 40-man on waivers in a few months when Aaron Ashby gets healthy and comes off the 60-day IL.
December 27: Happy Holidays everyone! They're happy for Dany Jimenez, who just signed a 3/3.5M deal with Arizona, so we won't be yo-yoing him back and forth from Durham this year.
December 29: The Red Sox signed Yoan Moncada to a 7/64 deal, which is surprising on two fronts: 1) that's only about $9M/year and 2) they had already extended Abraham Toro after his big 2023 for them (in fact they're paying Toro more - $9.9M this year, then $12M from 26-28). Toro's numbers were down last year to a little better than what he did with the Rays in 2022 but a lot of that has to do with the tougher offensive environment. Now I guess Toro is on the block, because they already have Didi Gregorius at DH with Bogaerts at SS so I don't know where else they put him. Also Edwin Diaz, who has been a vagabond lately, signed a 1-year, $6.2M deal with the Cardinals.