Rays Say Sending Longoria To Durham Is For The Best

ST. PETERSBURG - Once again, the future will have to wait.

Sticking with their philosophy of bringing their most coveted prospects along at a sometimes painfully deliberate pace, the Rays told Evan Longoria after Monday's game that he would begin this season at Triple-A Durham.

The team knows the majority of its fans won't agree with the move, and some of those with a direct stake in the outcome felt the same way.

"It wasn't a unanimous decision," executive vice president Andrew Friedman admitted.

Nonetheless, it was something the Rays felt like they had to do as the final step in the 22-year-old's development. Neither Friedman nor Manager Joe Maddon disputed the notion that Longoria was the best third baseman in camp, but they were determined to focus on what they felt was best for him.

"This young man is special and he's going to be special here for many years to come," Maddon said. "So for us it's a difficult moment, but we had to do what we perceived to be the right thing to do right now and not what anybody outside this organization thinks is the right thing to do."

Longoria handled the decision as he has just about everything that has come his way - with an air of professionalism perhaps beyond his years.

He said he felt like he had done all he could to show the Rays what he was about on and off the field and was "a little bit let down" by their decision but not surprised.

"I didn't leave anything unsaid," was how he put it.

Longoria started Monday against the Pirates and went 0-for-3 to drop his spring average to .262. He hit three homers and drove in 10 runs in 20 games, trailing only Carlos Pena. He also walked more times (10) than he struck out (seven).

More importantly, he blended seamlessly into the Rays' clubhouse, an element of his adaptation to major-league life the team indicated it would be watching closely.

That wasn't enough to keep him from a return trip to Durham, where he played 31 games at the end of last season. No one would offer a timetable for when Longoria might return, but it probably won't be long if he performs as expected for the Bulls.

Keeping Longoria in the minors for the first few weeks of the season probably would make him eligible for free agency for the first time following the 2014 season, as opposed to after 2013 if he spent all of this year in the majors.

The Rays obviously would stand to benefit from that delay, but Friedman downplayed those considerations.

"It's something that for us is virtually irrelevant in this," Friedman said. "As we've demonstrated with Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli and James Shields and Carlos Pena, we are committed to signing our good young players long-term. We've demonstrated it in the past and will continue to demonstrate it. If and when that does happen, it would render that irrelevant."

Those discussions are a ways off. First, Longoria has to get here, and he hopes to be back from Durham soon.

"I'm confident that I can handle it down there," he said, "and the sooner I can become comfortable and show them I'm ready, the sooner I'll be here."