Rays & Pirates
Submitted by: ShaquilleOatmeal
Rays
| Name | Age | Level | P1 | P2 | Availability | Years | AFV | Salary | Surplus | Low | Median | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oneil Cruz | 26 | Majors | OF | Low | 3 | 48.8 | 33.1 | 15.7 | 12.6 | 15.7 | 18.9 |
Total Value:
15.7
Pirates
| Name | Age | Level | P1 | P2 | Availability | Years | AFV | Salary | Surplus | Low | Median | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Lowe | 27 | Majors | OF | Low | 3 | 13.3 | 9.1 | 4.2 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 5 | |
| T.J. Nichols | 23 | Minors | SP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.9 | 3.9 | 4.9 | 5.9 | ||
| Brendan Summerhill | 21 | Minors | OF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8.2 | 6.6 | 8.2 | 9.8 |
Total Value:
17.3
Comments
4I thought you were in the rebuild camp. Trading Nichols and Summerhill for Cruz is going the wrong direction.
With the way TB develops and works with players nowadays I'm torn between a rebuild or "competing" cause pretty much the whole farm including the recent trade pieces have flopped so bad, if Williams had been called up just a little sooner he would have graduated and they would have 1 top 100 prospect after trading all those players and all the extra draft picks, that's pretty bad and hard to put faith in those guys to pull off a rebuild, the same FO that saw how bad Morel was flaming out, traded for him anyways thinking they could make him better, somehow made him even worse, then let him tie up a roster spot all year cause the nerds in the FO would have to admit they were wrong, those are the same guys expected to help O'Neal reach his full potential, its a rock and a hard place either way.
I can’t argue your main point. Player evaluation and development has been bad the past few years.
I'm not making this trade for 2025. I think Cruz has the best tools in baseball, but has no skill. The list of Pirates players who left as meh, and then earned $100MM is shockingly large. Perfect world: the Rays acquired Cruz for noone in their top 5, and turn him into $40MM of value.