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No Big Deal For Rays

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 1, 2008

Updated:

TORONTO - The Rays will have the same 25 players on their roster for tonight's game as they did when they last took the field Wednesday, and they don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Despite a flurry of conversations Thursday leading up to the 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline, Tampa Bay ended up standing pat - but not without some drama. At one point in the final hour, MLB.com reported a deal had been completed that would have sent Pirates outfielder Jason Bay to the Rays for a package including Reid Brignac and Jeff Niemann.

Not only did that not happen, but Bay ended up going to division rival Boston in a last-minute blockbuster in which Manny Ramirez got shipped to Los Angeles and the rebuilding Pirates collected four young players.

So the Rays were left to carry on in an unprecedented season with essentially the same cast of characters that has brought them this far. The complexion of their roster figures to change a bit during the coming month, with Rocco Baldelli possibly rejoining the team as soon as this weekend in a reserve role and the potential of David Price coming up to shore up the pitching staff.

But there will be no big-ticket acquisition, and Executive Vice President Andrew Friedman insisted Thursday he wasn't the least bit disappointed about it.

"We had conversations that went right down to the wire, and whenever you have that, obviously, you feel like there's a chance, but it takes two teams," said Friedman. "By definition, trades are difficult to make. We worked extremely hard the last couple weeks to try to find a fit and improve the team, but at the end of the day we didn't find something that lined up for us."

Friedman declined to get into even the barest of details - he didn't mention Bay, the Pirates or any other team or player during a 15-minute conference call - but it is not believed the two teams even discussed a deal that included Brignac and Niemann. Word from Pittsburgh is the Pirates most coveted Double-A pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, one of the players the Rays weren't inclined to give up under the circumstances.

The Rays did make some adjustments to their offer, but it wasn't enough to tip the balance. The Pirates ended up adding three players they got from the Dodgers and Red Sox - infielder Andy LaRoche, outfielder Brandon Moss and reliever Craig Hansen - to the major-league roster immediately.

"We had a very interesting market for all of our players and we were talking on multiple fronts all at the same time," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington told reporters in Pittsburgh. "It made life interesting and challenging."

Tampa Bay's discussions weren't limited to the Pirates. The Rays also made some headway with the Reds regarding slugger Adam Dunn but didn't get to the final stages on that front. And they were one of the teams poking around a bullpen market everyone figured to be much more active than it was.

In the end, the Rays declined to part with what they considered their elite prospects in the belief that the likes of Hellickson, Price and Wade Davis will be the next wave of players to sustain the success Tampa Bay has found this season. And they don't believe that decision will affect them in the short term.

"We're in first place on July 31 - we control our own destiny," said Friedman. "I feel like we have the talent on hand to continue what we've done through the first two-thirds of the season."

While the Rays stood pat, the hard-charging Yankees were aggressive in pursuing upgrades. New York shored up its outfield and bullpen last weekend by acquiring Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte from the Pirates last weekend, then came out of nowhere to nab catcher Ivan Rodriguez from the Tigers on Wednesday.

As for the Red Sox, Bay reasonably can be expected to match Ramirez's offensive production and is guaranteed to be less of a headache for Manager Terry Francona and the Boston front office. So, while the Red Sox may have held serve in a statistical sense, removing the distraction that was Ramirez from their clubhouse could give them a boost.

The bottom line in the Rays' lack of movement is that any improvement from an offense that has been mired in a nearly all-encompassing slump will have to come internally, and Friedman is banking on that happening. He said he feels "the exact same" about the Rays' chances of making the playoffs now as he did before the wheeling and dealing began.

"I think our pitching and defense is going to remain our strength, but I feel like offensively ... there's a lot more to come," he said. "We have guys who have fairly established watermarks and levels of performance, and as a nine-person unit, we feel like we're going to score more runs. We feel very strongly about that."

Thursday's deadline doesn't mean the end of player movement around the game. Players change addresses in August every season, but everyone involved in a deal must clear waivers first, which makes any trade far more complex and deals for high-impact players all but impossible. Those who clear waivers usually aren't very desirable commodities or have unpalatable contracts their teams wouldn't mind dumping.

"We didn't necessarily leave any conversations today that we felt like would be viable in August, but you never know," said Friedman. "Things pop up all the time and it's an even more difficult environment to get a deal done. We'll monitor the market very closely and follow it and be involved in what's going on, but I would say the chances are remote."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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