TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Rays Productive During Winter Meetings

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 11, 2008

LAS VEGAS - If the Rays end up completing what would be one of the most significant free-agent signings in their history sometime in the next two months, they likely will point to the winter meetings as the venue that got the ball rolling in that direction.

Executive vice president Andrew Friedman and the rest of the Rays' contingent left the Bellagio Hotel for the airport Thursday afternoon having made one trade and discussed countless others and feeling confident about where they stand in the free-agent market.

The Rays aren't believed to have made any concrete offers to their top targets, a group led by Jason Giambi, Milton Bradley, Bobby Abreu, Adam Dunn, Pat Burrell and Raul Ibanez. But they have made their intentions known and are prepared to wait out what could be a slow-moving path to adding another slugger.

"We're still going through a methodical process," Friedman said. "We've conveyed to certain agents that if something picks up on their end, we can move quickly, but our resources are somewhat finite. So I think it's unrealistic for us to come over the top and blow the top off the market and preempt the market to get a deal done.

"But I think we'll be competitive. I expect that we will be with at least a couple of guys. It all depends on the overall interest out there and how competitive the market gets and that's something that I don't think has really crystallized thus far."

It could take until mid-January or later for that to happen, but the Rays remain confident they'll find a solution. Particularly after Wednesday night's trade for outfielder Matt Joyce, it seems increasingly likely that the Rays will reserve their big dollars for a designated hitter type along the lines of Giambi and Bradley rather than a full-time outfielder like Abreu.

But the important thing to them is that they're in not just one but several productive conversations toward that end. Rays officials acknowledge that they remain unlikely to prevail in any all-out bidding war for that kind of free agent, but they believe someone from that group will be interested in taking a hefty sum from them for the chance to compete in the AL East.

"Obviously what we have done opens up the opportunity to have these kind of conversations with a Bradley or a Giambi or an Abreu," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "If you talk to guys like that, of course they want to make money, but they want to win first. … So if you haven't done that or haven't shown a chance to do it again, they're really not going to speak to you all that much or with any kind of sincerity."

As the Rays continue to see that process through, they remain active in trade talks with other teams as they look to fill in around the edges.

"There's a couple relievers that we like that we're having some conversations about," Friedman acknowledged. "There's also some minor-league players that we like that we're also having conversations about."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT