The Tampa Bay Rays have entered the offseason with the franchise already making a number of important decisions and some corresponding moves as well.
To start the winter, the Rays sent a bit of a shockwave to the league when they elected not to pick up the team option on closer Pete Fairbanks. While he was expensive for them, many believed that he was going to be traded this winter after they exercised the option. That ended up not being the case, likely due to the team hoping to allocate that money elsewhere to make improvements.
With a number of needs for the team, freeing up some money does make sense, but where they will allocate it has yet to be determined. One potential area could be to improve their starting rotation. However, they might have other plans with a young arm seemingly ready to join that rotation, and hopefully the return of their ace from injury.
Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report recently predicted what the starting rotation for the Rays would look like on Opening Day. With a couple of surprises, young southpaw Ian Seymour was projected to be a starter.
Seymour Fills in For Injured Ace