Losses aside, it's business as usual for Rays

You think you're mad about Carlos Peña becoming a Cub and Carl Crawford becoming a Red Sox, especially Carl Crawford becoming a Red Sox? Think of the guy who got his kicks out of writing their names in the lineup nearly every day of the season.

"I hate losing them," Rays manager Joe Maddon said Thursday. "Are you kidding me? I hate losing them."

And we hadn't gotten around to talking about Jason Bartlett.

Or Rafael Soriano.

"But," Maddon was quick to add, "the focus is on us."

The Rays plan to show up in 2011.

"If we can get some kind of a bullpen back together, that would make all the difference in the world. That would put us back in the 90-win area, I believe," he said during his turn with the media at the winter meetings in Lake Buena Vista.

Meanwhile, a few floors above at the Walt Disney World Dolphin resort was Rays vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, holed up in his room, meeting with opposing general managers and representatives of free agents, mostly free-agent relief pitchers.

"Right now we're an equal opportunity employer," Friedman said. "Quality and quantity."

That's the focus, getting enough quality arms for a depleted bullpen to give the Rays some sort of chance in 2011.

It will be difficult for the Rays to reach October, what with the Red Sox playing the role of the Yankees this offseason and the Yankees being, well, the Yankees.

That's not to say they won't try.

The rebuilding has gone slow, but that's more a product of the market. Blame former Ray Joaquin Benoit, who received a three-year, $16.5 million deal from the Tigers. It seems every reliever wants a multi-year deal.

The problem is Friedman doesn't give his relievers multi-year deals. A lot of GMs don't. So you have this glut of available relievers and this glut of available jobs, and nothing is happening.

There's a good chance the movement won't start until after the holidays, when the pitchers are into their offseason throwing programs without a team to throw for. That's when the desire for a multi-year deal takes a back seat to the desire for a job.

Friedman said last week that his goal is not to win the winter meetings. His goal is to assemble enough talent by the time pitchers and catchers report Feb. 15 for the Rays to remain competitive.

He's just as upset as you that he can't offer competitive contracts to his high-end free agents. Blame the economic disparity between large-revenue and small-revenue teams in baseball. Blame the small crowds at the Trop. Blame greed.

At the Trop, it's business as usual.

"We're going to continue to work hard, work smart and do the best we can to put our organization in position to win titles," Friedman said. "That's what we're motivated by. We can't forget who we are and how we have to go about our business to have success. It's the structure that's in place, and we've demonstrated before that we can have success in it, and we have to do it again."