The Tampa Bay Rays have started up their offseason, and there are some critical decisions to be made regarding what the franchise is going to look like in 2026. 

It has already been a busy start to the winter for the Rays, who are trying to reshape their roster a bit and improve some areas of need. So far, Tampa Bay appears to be a team that will seek some help in the outfield, catcher, and also in the starting rotation. There is a potential need at shortstop, but that figures to be at the bottom of the list, with the hope that Carson Williams will emerge. 

Due to the payroll for the team likely not going up significantly in the first offseason with new ownership, the team has had to be creative to free up some money. With multiple needs, it is going to be hard for the team to achieve all of their goals, but one move the team recently made was pretty shocking. Perhaps it is also going to be the wrong one. 

Jorge Castillo of ESPN recently wrote about Rays’ former closer Pete Fairbanks being in line for potentially a three-year contract this offseason. 

Fairbanks’ Situation is PuzzlingTampa Bay Rays pitcher Pete Fairbanks

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It came as a bit of a surprise that Tampa Bay elected not to pick up the team option on their closer earlier this offseason after the strong campaign that he had. Fairbanks totaled 27 saves and had an ERA under 3.00. While his success resulted in some escalators in his deal going up, he seemed like a likely trade candidate after they exercised the option. 

However, that ended up not being the case, and Fairbanks is now a free agent with likely a plethora of suitors. If he does end up landing a three-year deal or really any multi-year commitment, it would appear like the Rays made a mistake and misjudged his market. 

If he does end up getting a deal like that, it is hard to imagine that Tampa Bay wouldn’t have been able to get a prospect in return for him this winter in a trade. Monitoring the situation will undoubtedly be interesting for the Rays, as they might have made a potential mistake. 

Overall, while Tampa Bay still has a lot of talent in its bullpen to use its closer-by-committee strategy, it would have been nice to get something in return for Fairbanks. If he ends up with a multi-year deal, the franchise likely misjudged his market. 

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