John Romano | Rumors persisted that Tampa Bay was in the running for the 1B, though it was always hard to imagine. And sure enough, L.A. snapped him up.
PORT CHARLOTTE - Once upon a time, the Reese flirted with the idea of signing Bryce Harper.
This was back in 2019 when spring training got underway and Harper was still a free agent on the open market. There was no chance the Rays would come close to making an offer of $330 million over 13 years, which Philadelphia ended up paying, but that's not the point.
The Rays were spitballing in a scenario where Harper didn't get the mega deal he was looking for, and they could tempt him with a big one-year offer on a competing team.
Obviously, that didn't happen. It's possible that it never went beyond random music.
So why is it relevant today?
Because Freddie Freeman's escape feels like deja vu.
Rumors of Tampa Bay's involvement in the Freeman Sweepstakes were, predictably, high, according to ESPN, with the former National League MVP agreeing to a six-year, $162 million contract with the Dodgers.
Landing Freeman was always going to be a long shot for the Rays, but the idea gained traction on social media early Wednesday after the Yankees (signing Anthony Rizzo) and the Blue Jays (trading for Matt Chapman) made other moves. started, which seemed to carry them out. To run
Suddenly, the Rays were inexplicably dropped into a small group of bidders that included the Dodgers, Red Sox and Padres.
"Those rumors are terrible," manager Kevin Cash said Wednesday morning with a big grin.
Still, it was never a realistic possibility that the Rays would overtake Los Angeles, even if it appeared that the market had softened. Not when Freeman turned down the Braves, when he was reportedly offered $135 million over five years.
History says that rays do not sink into free agents of that magnitude. They often invest heavily with their own players who are in control of the team – such as Vander Franco, Evan Longoria, Kevin Kirmeyer, James Shields, Ben Zobrist and Blake Snell – but not free agents.
Since Stu Sternberg took control of the team in 2005, the most expensive free agent deal the Reese signed was a two-year, $30 million contract with Charlie Morton. The idea is that free agents have too much leverage to drive up prices, and Rays can't put a lot of money in a pot.
But was it possible that the Rays were working on a plan—a la Harper scenario—where they were willing to pay a jumbo-sized salary in the short term if Freeman didn't get the deal he wanted?
Now that, I guess, would have been totally plausible.
Even if it is not likely to happen.
No matter how willing Ray was to break out of his own salary structure, it was still hard to imagine that he could outdo the Dodgers even on a small deal. Not to mention, Freeman grew up in Southern California and the Dodgers are one of the few teams that have better World Series odds than Tampa Bay.
So why did the Rays get so much love nationally in the Freeman extravaganza? Part of this may have been an industry-driven effort to make it appear as though Freeman had a much more serious boyfriend than him.
Not only will this help Freeman negotiate, but it will also help rival teams that want to see LA spend as much as possible on one player.
But there was some truth in the rumours. Ray may not have had much of a chance to sign Freeman, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be ready if circumstances took him on his lap.
In that sense, Rays general manager Pete Bendix and baseball operations president Eric Neander are the Boy Scouts' version of baseball: always ready.
"I say it all the time: I trust people," Cash said. "Pete and Eric are going to do everything they can to make our club better. And I agree with what Eric said at the press conference yesterday, we're lucky we can set that bar very high. Because we are so talented.
Usually, when it comes to large contracts, rays do more for subtraction than addition. Even team-friendly deals can be changed to bring back more value down the road.
The Freeman rumors were funny as long as they lasted.