Following the winter meetings, the Tampa Bay Rays got extremely active in the trade market with two significant deals that have changed the roster quite a bit as of now. 

It was a busy Friday afternoon for the Rays, who traded two key players in about an hour span. First, it was announced that they were doing a three-team deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros that was most notably sending Brandon Lowe to the Pirates. 

In return, they were able to acquire two top 10 prospects from the Astros, with Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito coming to Tampa Bay. Getting two top 10 prospects coming back in the deal that featured Lowe is a good return for the team. 

Furthermore, following that deal, it was arguably an even better one by the Rays. With the Baltimore Orioles needing help in their rotation, they elected to trade four prospects and a draft pick to Tampa Bay in exchange for Shane Baz. 

This appears to be quite the haul for the Rays, who made significant improvements to their farm system in both trades. However, the Baz deal was arguably the better of the two, and that was recently recognized. 

David Schoenfield of ESPN recently gave the Rays an excellent grade of an ‘A’ for their decision to trade the right-hander to the Orioles. 

Tampa Bay Gets Excellent Value