{"id":285507,"date":"2025-11-15T21:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/285507\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T21:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:50:09","slug":"rays-prioritizing-outfield-upgrades-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/285507\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Prioritizing Outfield Upgrades – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Rays map out their offseason plans, the front office has an area of the roster they\u2019re highlighting as the priority. \u201cThe outfield is three spots we\u2019ve got to get right. \u2026 I\u2019d probably lean toward the outfield being the area that we\u2019re spending the most time and energy, just trying to make sense of how to best put it together for next year,\u201d president of baseball operations Erik Neander told Mark Feinsand of MLB.com at the GM Meetings (relayed by MLB.com\u2019s Adam Berry<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say all three positions will be filled externally. Neander said the club needs to both \u201c(assess) the players we have\u201d while keeping an eye outside the organization for upgrades. They\u2019ve already shuffled the mix in the first two weeks of the offseason. Kameron Misner<\/a> was traded<\/a> to Kansas City, while they\u2019ve taken fliers on\u00a0Ryan Vilade<\/a> and\u00a0Jake Fraley<\/a>. It\u2019s still not a lock that Fraley will be tendered an arbitration contract, which MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects<\/a> to land at $3.6MM.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay has a lot of semi-interesting outfielders but no one locked into an everyday position.\u00a0Chandler Simpson<\/a>,\u00a0Jake Mangum<\/a>, Jonny DeLuca<\/a> and Josh Lowe<\/a> would probably get the majority of the playing time as things stand. Simpson is the sport\u2019s best base stealer and has elite contact skills, but there\u2019s zero power and he probably doesn\u2019t have the defensive feel to play a good center field. Mangum has a similar contact-only offensive profile. He\u2019s a very good base stealer in his own right and a more natural defender than Simpson, but he feels more like a fourth outfielder than a regular.<\/p>\n

DeLuca is yet another speed and defense outfielder with minimal power. He has a little more pop than Mangum provides but has a similarly aggressive approach. DeLuca lost most of the \u201925 season to right shoulder and left hamstring injuries. Lowe has a typical right field profile and hit 20 homers a couple seasons ago, but he\u2019s coming off a career-worst .220\/.283\/.366 showing across 435 plate appearances. He\u2019s entering arbitration and projected at $2.9MM.<\/p>\n

Richie Palacios<\/a>,\u00a0Christopher Morel<\/a> and\u00a0Tristan Peters<\/a> all occupy 40-man roster spots as well. Palacios bounces between second base and the outfield corners. He was limited to 14 MLB games by a knee sprain. Morel has been a disappointment since coming over from the Cubs in the\u00a0Isaac Paredes<\/a> trade. He\u2019s a poor defender who has hit .208\/.277\/.355 in 495 plate appearances with Tampa Bay. He\u2019s projected for a $2.6MM arbitration salary and could be traded or non-tendered. Peters is a 26-year-old rookie with four MLB games under his belt and unspectacular numbers in Triple-A.<\/p>\n

The front office needs to decide whether anyone from that group projects as a long-term everyday player. Rays outfielders hit .251\/.306\/.356 last season overall. They were last in MLB with 35 home runs. It\u2019d be a surprise if they didn\u2019t add someone who can provide more stability via free agency or trade, even if Neander indicated the heavy lifting probably needs to come internally. \u201cYou\u2019re banking on the group you have \u2014 a little better health, a little more performance, and then maybe it\u2019s supplemented from the outside,\u201d he told Feinsand.<\/p>\n

Neander touched upon two other uncertain positions: shortstop and catcher. He told MLB.com that the club will keep an eye on both markets but broadly expressed confidence in the internal options, especially behind the plate. The Rays are well-positioned defensively at both spots but have limited offensive ceilings.<\/p>\n

Taylor Walls<\/a> and\u00a0Carson Williams<\/a> are set to compete for the shortstop job. Walls is well established as a plus-plus defender who isn\u2019t going to provide anything at the plate. Williams, 22, is one of the organization\u2019s top prospects. He\u2019s highly regarded defensively and certainly has more power upside than Walls, but it\u2019s an open question whether he\u2019ll make enough contact to be a regular. Williams struck out at an untenable 34% clip in Triple-A this year and fanned in 44 of his first 106 MLB plate appearances. He hit .172 over 32 games and should probably begin next season in the minors.<\/p>\n

Neander said they\u2019d look for ways to make that \u201ca little bit stronger competition than we (have) now.\u201d It\u2019s a weak free agent class, though. They\u2019re obviously not signing\u00a0Bo Bichette<\/a> or bringing back\u00a0Ha-Seong Kim<\/a>. They\u2019re left with mostly glove-first utility types like Walls behind that. There aren\u2019t many obvious trade candidates available either, but it\u2019s possible they\u2019ll look to waivers or minor league free agency to at least bring in another depth piece.<\/p>\n

Nick Fortes<\/a> and\u00a0Hunter Feduccia<\/a> are lined up behind the dish. Neander praised Fortes as a defender and expressed confidence there\u2019s more in the tank with Feduccia, who hit .151 in 36 games after being acquired from the Dodgers as part of the three-team\u00a0Zack Littell<\/a> deadline deal. The 28-year-old Feduccia is a career .278\/.387\/.452 Triple-A hitter who never had an opportunity behind\u00a0Will Smith<\/a> in Los Angeles. It\u2019s not surprising the Rays aren\u2019t moving off him after two bad months in his first real look against big league pitching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can find a way to be better at that position, we will, but those are two guys we appreciate. If we roll into next year and that\u2019s where we are \u2014 a lot of players, we\u2019re counting on development from where they were, and that certainly applies to those two and [we] think that they can give us more than they did this year,\u201d Neander said.\u00a0J.T. Realmuto <\/a>and\u00a0Victor Caratini<\/a> are the only real options on the free agent market, assuming they don\u2019t bring\u00a0Danny Jansen<\/a> back. Trade candidates include\u00a0Jonah Heim<\/a>, Luis Campusano<\/a>\u00a0and J.C. Escarra<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Rays map out their offseason plans, the front office has an area of the roster they\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,52174,29115,462,28160,82,52179],"class_list":["post-285507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carson-williams","tag-hunter-feduccia","tag-mlb","tag-nick-fortes","tag-sports","tag-taylor-walls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}