Grooming new talent is always a necessity for Rays

The perception around town is that the window of opportunity is closing on the Rays, that once left fielder Carl Crawford and first baseman Carlos Peña leave for bigger contracts, the Rays' chances of competing in the American League East are cooked.

In truth, that is correct.

And also false.

Yes, the Rays' chances of battling the Yankees and Red Sox for the division title or the wild-card spot are much better with Crawford and Peña.

But, no, the organization won't be stripped of talent after this season when vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman begins cutting more than $30 million from the payroll.

The Rays will still have Evan Longoria, Jason Bartlett, B.J. Upton and Ben Zobrist. They also will control each member of the rotation.

Maybe that won't be enough talent to compete for a postseason spot in 2011, but it could very well be the base of the another playoff team.

The reality that surrounds a small-revenue team like the Rays is that eventually its star players get too big for the market. The Rays can't afford to give Crawford $15 million a year. The Yankees and Red Sox can.

Think the team will be able to pay Longoria after his contract expires in 2016? Or Bartlett once he hits free agency?

That's why Friedman says player development is the lifeblood of the organization.

The Angels could afford to give the Rays prospects Sean Rodriguez, Alex Torres and Matthew Sweeney last August in exchange for Scott Kazmir and his big contract. The Angels don't depend on the player development end of their business like the Rays do, and they wanted Kazmir because of his success against the Red Sox and Yankees, the teams the Angels eventually faced in the postseason.

The big spenders in the major leagues can pay to fix a hole or answer a need, while the Rays have to live with a slumping Pat Burrell.

Kazmir was dealt with an eye on the future. Rodriguez should be an impact player beginning this season. Friedman thinks Torres can be an impact pitcher, but not for a few more years. By then, the young left-hander might replace David Price.

Desmond Jennings will replace Crawford in the outfield. Or, maybe Crawford's replacement is Leslie Anderson, the Cuban defector who reached an agreement in principle on Thursday.

Jeremy Hellickson could eventually replace James Shields.

There's a kid playing AAU ball right now who is not on anyone's radar but will someday replace Hellickson.

"We're always going to have to operate with one eye on the present and one eye on the future," Friedman said.

His job is to not let the window close completely. Talent will leave, but the trick is to have replacements. Jennings to follow Crawford. Reid Brignac to follow Bartlett, and Tim Beckham to follow Brignac.

"I'm not a window guy," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "We're always going to be described that way in one way or another. It's who we are. I accept that. We understand that. One is (looking at) 2010 and this other eye is on '11, '12 and '13. That's just who we are. I honestly think we're doing it right by the way we're paying so much attention to scouting and development, knowing our next set of really good players have to pretty much be grown by us, not somebody else."

It will be a sad day for Rays fans when Crawford leaves the organization, just as it was a sad day in Minnesota when Johan Santana left the Twins. But it doesn't have to mark the end of the winning, just the end of one era. The idea is to have enough talent in the organization to force that window open.

"One of the most important jobs that we have is to ensure that we don't fall off the proverbial cliff," Friedman said. "If that happens, it can take seven, eight, nine years to rebuild."