AL East Round Up: Big Surprises Edition

Tamp Bay Rays

Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

BIG SURPRISE: Andrew Friedman

The GM of the Tampa Bay Ray surprised me. Considering the deal he pulled off for James Shields previously, I thought he’d get a bigger package for David Price. Drew Smyly and Nick Franklin are good gets, but come on. We’re talking about David Freakin’ Price. I would have expected Friedman to ask for the moon…and get it.

Price is one of those studs that just don’t come around every day. He’s one of a handful of pitchers that EVERY team wishes they had. Maybe that is part of the problem. If they Rays kept him, he’d PRICE them out of their spending abilities. (See what I did there?) They just couldn’t afford the PRICE tag (Oops, I did it again). David Price is eventually going to command in the neighbourhood of $20M easily. The Rays just simply can’t pay that. So, they HAD to trade him.

That weakens any asking PRICE (Man, I’m on fire!). The situation turns to a buyer’s market. If Detroit is getting David Price, they can afford to give up Drew Smyly and Austin Jackson. Seattle has been rumored to be shopping Nick Franklin for a while. Or, at the very least, listening on him. So, is it just me, or did every team in this deal get something that they were VERY comfortable with? And, they all gave up something they were very comfortable with.

Maybe Andrew Friedman is a genius! You decide: