No deal: Rays play waiting game

Rays vice president of baseball Andrew Friedman sounded confident Monday he would make a deal or two before leaving the winter meetings, but aside from picking up a minor-league pitcher in Thursday's Rule 5 draft, Friedman headed home empty-handed.

He did say he had meaningful talks with other general managers and representatives of a number of free agents on the market and sounded confident Thursday morning that a few of those talks will lead to deals down the road.

One could be the trade of shortstop Jason Bartlett to the Padres for left-handed pitcher Cesar Ramos and right-hander Adam Russell.

The teams appear close to a trade, but nothing is finalized. The sticking point might be Bartlett, who is in his last year of arbitration and wants a multi-year deal if traded.

The Rays did pick up left-handed reliever Cesar Cabral from the Red Sox farm system during the Rule 5 draft. The 21-year-old has not pitched above Single-A, but will have a chance to make the Rays' bullpen this spring.

"Risk/reward it's absolutely worth it for us to get him in, work with him and see if he has that competitive makeup to help us in 2011 and potentially help us a lot beyond that," Friedman said. "He's got the raw ingredients. The competitive makeup and almost unique ability to go from A ball to the major leagues, we don't know if he possess that."

Cabral was 2-0 with a 0.29 ERA in 17 games at Single-A Greenville in the South Atlantic League, and 2-0 with a 5.81 ERA in 28 games at Salem in the Single-A Carolina League. His fastball tops out at 93 mph, according to Rays farm director Mitch Lukevics.

"His stuff can play," Lukevics said. "Command, youth, they're all going to have to blend in that together when he comes into big-league camp."

The Rays lost right-hander Aneury Rodriguez to the Astros in the major-league portion of the Rule 5 draft. In the Triple-A phase, they lost righty Heath Rollins to the Royals and lefty Justin Dowdy to the Giants.

Toronto claimed infielder Roan Salas in the Double-A phase of the draft.