The Tampa Bay Rays have started up the offseason and will be looking to make some improvements to key areas this winter.
Coming into the offseason, the Rays were always going to be a team to watch. Tampa Bay is no stranger to making moves and trades to try to improve their team, and they are already shaking things up in free agency when they elected not to pick up the team option for Pete Fairbanks.
The star closer of the Rays is now one of the best free agent relief pitchers on the market, in what was a surprise turn of events. Many believed that Tampa Bay was going to pick up the option of Fairbanks and then trade him this winter. However, his market obviously didn’t develop early on, and the team likely wanted to allocate that money into other areas.
One position that the team will be seeking upgrades for is at catcher. Currently, the position appears to be the greatest weakness of the team, and it is going to be challenging to improve that. However, there is one potential option on the trade market that could be available.
Ryan Phillips of Sports Illustrated recently wrote about Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman being a potential fit for the Rays this offseason.
Rutschman Makes Sense