AL East Round Up!

The Tampa Bay Ray

Nov 3, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; (Editor

The Tampa Bay Rays finished last season in fourth and despite this finish they elected not to make any substantial alterations to the current roster.

Really, the only thing that’s different about the Rays is that they have lost a lot of what made them as the team they were, the front office.

This occurred in a domino effect starting with Andrew Freidman, President of Baseball Operations, leaving for the Los Angeles Dodgers which consequently allowed Joe Maddon to opt out of his managerial contract. The legendary manager did just this as he opted out and signed on with the Chicago Cubs. It’s difficult to quantify the exact value of a good manager like Maddon but it’s hypothesized the value of a manager of his stature is between 2-3 WAR per season so the loss of Maddon will certainly be felt even if it’s to a degree immeasurable with today’s current analytics.

The other loss they’ll have to deal with is the release of supreme framer Jose Molina. Given how poorly he played last year, the Rays shouldn’t really miss him and will be better off with a combination of Ryan Hanigan and Curt Casali behind the dish.

Kevin Cash, former Toronto Blue Jays catcher, will take over as acting manager of the club with no definite direction for where they are going. With a young core replacing their former ace David Price the rotation, they still have plenty of potential to compete, they just might be in the wrong division to do so.