As they look to reduce payroll and perhaps rebuild this offseason, the Rays will be open to trading most of their high-paid players – including third baseman and franchise icon Evan Longoria – Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Longoria hasn’t yet reached 10-and-5 status, meaning he doesn’t have full no-trade rights, but the Rays would likely only deal him with his blessing, according to Topkin. The 32-year-old will rake in $13.5MM in 2018 and up to $94MM through 2023, depending on what happens with a club option in the final season of his deal. In addition to Longoria, right-handers Chris Archer and Jake Odorizzi, closer Alex Colome, catcher Wilson Ramos, outfielder Corey Dickerson, infielder Brad Miller and shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria stand out as potential trade candidates, Topkin observes. Colome seems particularly likely to go, Topkin suggests, and has already drawn reported interest from the Cardinals. He’s projected to earn $5.5MM in 2018, his first of three possible arbitration years.
More on Tampa Bay and two other AL clubs:
- While the Rays may spend the coming months subtracting veterans, there will probably be mutual interest between them and free agent first baseman Mike Napoli, per Topkin. The Florida native continued his power-hitting ways in Texas last season, swatting 29 home runs and posting a .235 ISO, but he still batted an ugly .193/.285/.428 across 485 plate appearances. As a 36-year-old coming off a career-worst campaign, he’ll be in the Rays’ price range.
- With the Rangers in desperate need of starters, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News lists several bargain free agents who might be worthy of their attention on the open market. Two of those players, Miguel Gonzalez and Miles Mikolas, bring past Rangers experience to the table. Recent Tommy John surgery recipient Michael Pineda, John Lackey and Jhoulys Chacin could also land on the club’s radar, Grant writes.
- Aside from switch-hitters Victor Martinez and Jeimer Candelario, the Tigers don’t have lefty-capable regulars on their roster at the moment. General manager Al Avila is looking to change that this winter. “We’re very right-handed, so left-handed anything — infield and outfield — would be very handy for us as far as somebody that could help at the Major League level in 2018,” Avila told Jason Beck of MLB.com and other reporters this week. Given that the Tigers are in rebuilding mode, any move(s) they make to balance their lineup will be small, Beck notes.
Would be really weird to see Longo in another jersey. How likely is it that Archer will be dealt? He’s gotta be crazy expensive considering control, cost, age and talent level.
I think the window closed on Longoria being able to generate a decent return has closed. Highest OBP in the last four seasons is. 328, and two straight sub. 320 seasons – any team looking to take him and his contract on has to know his best is in the past.
Yeah, idk if I could actually see the Rays trading him away…
A declining all-star and the face if the franchise, fans may expect to get more back for him…Or it may just be perceived negatively if they basically trade him away for a lackluster return…
I think it would most likely be best for the Rays to just hold on to Longo for the remainder of his career..Well, unless, they are able to get a decent return for him, but I’m just not seeing that return out there for Longoria…
Hopefully, he’s able to rebound during the first half of the next season, rebuild his trade value, and then the Rays can get a decent package for him, while sending Longoria off to a real contender..That would be the most ideal scenario…
Wouldn’t mind seeing Atlanta figure out a way to get Longoria and some pitching from the Rays. If the compensation were fair to both sides.
Was thinking the same. Hope AA can start some action.
Here’s a creative/fanciful(?) idea:
Kemp/Camargo/Adams for Longo.
Camargo plays 3B or all over the IF if needed. Adams is the 1b/LH DH. Kemp is RH DH.
Dodgers are paying part of Kemp’s salary, so TB would be taking on some payroll ($4.5mm from Kemp plus whatever Adams gets in arb and Camargo’s minimum), but only for 2 years. Then Kemp is gone.
ATL gets Longo at a reasonable rate long enough to see if Riley is a long-term answer at 3B or LF.
ATL may have to take on some money or add a prospect, but this solves problems for both teams.
That’s insane. Tampa Bay is trying to shed salary and get younger. No way they have any interest in Kemp or Adams. The Braves are stuck with Kemp. He’s practically untradeable.
Oh boy, I don’t even know where to start. This solves no problems for the Rays
If the Rays trade Longoria they pretty clearly aren’t going all in on 2018. The whole point of trading Longoria would be for the team to get younger and cheaper and add some prospects to the system, not to add an average first baseman in a market flooded with average first basemen and a washed up corner outfielder.
Matt Adams has no trade value, Matt Kemp has negative trade value, and Johan Camargo is a utility infielder, which the Rays already have in spades. Unless that prospect the Braves “may have to add” is a Top 100 prospect, you’re getting laughed off the phone
Matt Adams has trade value. Braves could likely fetch a top 30 organizational prospect or two for a team needing a first base
Matt Adams has one year left before hitting free agency, and MLBTR has him projected for a $4.6M arb salary. I can’t imagine a team trading one of two of their prospects for the opportunity to pay Matt Adams $4.6 million dollars when they could just go sign Mitch Moreland, Lucas Duda, Mark Reynolds, or Adam Lind for around the same price and keep their prospects.
Angels need a third baseman. Longoria is from So. Cal. As long as Tampa doesn’t get too greedy, I can see a possible trade partner that Longoria would probably give his blessing to.
The Angels have the most barren farm system right? Hard to imagine them getting him, but I would imagine he’d love playing there.
Yeah I don’t think the Angels are a good match but when you put two and two together….. you’ll see the Angels mentioned on just about every available third baseman.
Longoria’s California’s state tax would be 13.3% while his Florida state tax is zero. I don’t imagine him wanting to leave Tampa to play for the Angels for that specific reason.
There might be many reasons why he doesn’t want to leave Tampa but I don’t think what his tax rate may be will be a deciding factor.
The CA tax rate of 13.3% taken from his projected 2018 salary would be a tax hit of 1,795,500 dollars. You don’t think that would be a key factor, if not deciding factor? I know that Longoria has the kind of special relationship with Tampa and St Pete that would make it tough for him to leave but we shouldn’t discount the added tax incentive to stay in FL and avoid places like CA as unimportant, if not critical factors that go into a players decision of where to go.
You’re overstating the tax hit, because you’re assuming no state taxes are being paid at all right now. MLB players pay state taxes to whatever states the games are held in, too. So, for example, when Tampa travels to the angels and A’s he’s already paying some to California. It isn’t a quick and easy calculation (because of the way nonresident and resident tax returns work) but the tax hit he’d receive is probably closer to $1.2MM. Which still isn’t insignificant, but players choose NY and LA over FLA teams all the time
FL teams aren’t usually major players on the free agent scene so it is hard to say players often choose NY and LA teams over FLA teams. The Rays have never made or attempted to make a splash. But when the Marlins have periodically opened their coffers like in the 1997 and 2003 seasons, they had great success attracting free agents. Data points are too small, but it seems to me like a no-brainer. Play in FL, TX, or WA and keep most of my money. Or play in CA, NY, or some other absurd tax environment and watch more of my money float away.
Your assessment of taxation is correct, but terribly misguided.
First, Longoria pays CA tax any game he plays vs Angels, A’s, Dodgers, Giants or Padres. While it is true that playing for the Angels would have more than 50% of his games played in CA, he still pays taxes on games played outside FL (and as a team in AL East, he plays plenty of games in NY, MA, and other high-tax states).
More to the point, Longoria has earned approximately $80M to date. It is doubtful he would choose to make a decision at this point in his career based solely on taxation. Even after management fees, other taxes and other charges, he’s made several lifetimes of income. What he might lose in taxes is mitigated by the opportunity to play for a team close to his ancestral home, and one with a better chance of postseason play.
You might recheck your thinking on taxation. It has to do with residency and how many days during the year they are in the state they play in. Kershaw, Texas resident-plays in California.
You’re still not calculating the tax correctly since state and local taxes are a federal deduction. And I don’t think players are paid per game — at the very least they are also paid for spring training time, travel days, etc.
No. Not when you’re making the kind of money that he’s making. $1.8 mil is nothing to a guy who’s earned tens of millions but has yet to win a championship.
Well Longo was an angels fan growing up so I’m guessing he’d be extremely thrilled to come back, especially now that he kind of sees how the rays have to operate. That said, in terms of trading the franchise face the rays kind of have to hit a hr. That really can’t be done with the the angels farm or young players. So that seems a bit of a reach.
Trout was a Phillies fan growing up. So I guess he will be thrilled to sign there when he’s a free agent in a few years.
It could happen. They have the money and should be rebuilt at that point.
Longo was not an Angels fan. Longoria was a Cincinatti Reds fan growing up.
I think trading the face of your franchise is the perfect time to be greedy
They should probably just keep him then because he is on the downside of his career and probably couldn’t fetch what they think he might be worth.
I think that’s a fair point and with the Halos starting to spend money like a drunken sailor again, a more cost controlled contract like EL offers would be advantageous on behalf of Anaheim as opposed to going Moose hunting which will cost about 5-6 million more on the annual hunt…
The Rays have given no indication that they are looking to shed any of their core players. Listen on, yes, but actively shopping has been the antithesis of what the GM said. Especially with Archer. A lot of this comes from low hanging fruit, slow news day stories from a few writers.
Rockies need to trade for Longoria. Move him to first.
Hes coming off a gold glove tho lmaoo
If they trade for Longoria , where they gonna put him with Arenado at third?
Longoria for Beede and Shaw?
Longoria isn’t going anywhere unless someone offers a ridiculous package for him.
Longoria isn’t going anywhere unless someone offers a trade that is acceptable to Tampa Bay. I doubt they will demand “a ridiculous package”. Fair seems to be the better adjective.
If the Rays have made the decision to rebuild, now is the time to take their best offer for Longoria while he cannot veto any trade. TB should have dealt him 2 or 3 years ago when his value was greater, but the window is still open, but it won’t be for long.
I could see the royals make a run at him. They haven’t gone full rebuild and he’d be much cheaper than moose. Plus they’ll snag a draft pick when moose signs somewhere else to make up for the prospect cost. That being said I don’t know if the Rays fans will get anything like they want, but still some top end prospects. Maybe similar to what the Rockies got for tulo (without the Reyes contract dump)
If the Rays decide to rebuild, they should go all in and deal all the players listed.
The Astros would be more than happy to pony up for Archer, as would other teams. The SP market this offseason is weak. Yu is suddenly suspect. Arrieta is a big decline candidate. And who else is available?
Now would be the time to trade Archer.
I wonder if the Rays could work out a deal: Longo and Archer for an impressive haul? Maybe not, but it’s a fit.
I would like to see a mega deal with the cardinals. Longoria, Odorizzi and colome for…. well, whatever they want basicly.
I always have been a Longoria fan and hoped at some point the Red Sox would trade for him.
I would trade Devers for Longoria and take on his entire contract. I would then cease talk about Stanton.
If the Sox are not going to extend Pomerantz IMO he should be packaged for a future need..
I seriously doubt they would do it and I don’t want them to but a case could be made that a Yanks and Rays deal might make sense for both sides.
Archer and Longo for Miguel Andujar, Chase Adams, Clint Frazier, Tyler Wade, Bryan Mitchell and Tyler Austin.
That’s one top 50 prospect, one 50-75 prospects, two 100-125 guys and two reclamation/fringy guys in Mitchell and Austin,
Thoughts? too much? Not enough?
wrong Miguel Gonzalez…