The Tampa Bay Rays have been busy to start the winter, with the franchise making a number of moves and roster decisions already to begin to shape how things will look in 2026. 

With free agency and the offseason rolling right along, the Rays are a team to keep an eye on with a desire to improve and be a contender in the American League East. It won’t be an easy task for them to achieve that in a challenging division, but there are some good things in place for the team. 

As they hope to make some improvements, the team is going to have to be creative in order to be able to do so. Their payroll isn’t expected to increase much this winter, and recent moves further indicate that is going to be the case. 

At the non-tender deadline, the team made a couple of decisions that were to be expected, but they parted ways with a young player for whom they certainly had high hopes. Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the San Diego Padres being a potential landing spot for recently non-tendered outfielder Christopher Morel. 

Rays Letting Morel Go Was Understandable