Tampa Bay Rays

My primary goal for the Rays was to find some offense. Moving Zobrist was a
no-brainer because of his $7.5 million option. In return, I was able to land a
versatile leadoff guy in Mookie Betts, who should be fun to watch and will join
Jennings and Myers in the outfield. He also could have started at 2B if I
hadn’t been able to sign Rickie Weeks. I had to part with Odorizzi to seal the
deal with the Red Sox, but I was happy to get a future front line starter
(hopefully) in Matt Barnes as well as Ryan Lavarnway. Lavarnway had grown long
in the tooth in Boston but I think he’ll add some value to the Rays as an
offense-first catcher who can also DH and spell Loney at first base. The
signing of Weeks should add elements of speed and power to the lineup which
should look something like this:

LF-Betts
CF-Jennings
3B-Longoria
RF-Myers
1B-Loney
2B-Weeks
DH-Lavarnway
SS-Escobar
C-Hanigan

Filling the Odorizzi void will likely be either Vogelsong or Nate Karns. The
pitching staff should get a boost in the second half with Matt Moore slated to
return from Tommy John surgery and a possible call up of Matt Barnes. The
opening day rotation should be Alex Cobb, Drew Smyly, Chris Archer, Jeremy
Hellickson and Ryan Vogelsong.

The bullpen appears to be in good shape after the performance of Jake McGee last
year as well as the emergence of Brad Boxberger as a dominant setup man. The
hope is for a rebound year from Grant Balfour who was signed to a two-year deal
last year.

Individual Salaries
Tampa Bay Rays