The Shohei Ohtani market will be a hot one, to say the least.
While we surely know the big markets of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers will be of interest, there’s one team that could be in on acquiring the two-way phenom.
According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Tampa Bay Rays might be a “wild card” in the off-season for Ohtani.
“Their front office is not typically a team that would spend the kind of money and resource package,” Olney said Friday on The Dan Patrick Show. “But on the other hand, they had such a great first half before hemorrhaging ground towards the backend, leading into the All-Star break, and maybe they would be uniquely aggressive.”
The Rays set a franchise record this season with a 58-35 first half to top the American League, averaging 5.44 runs per game over that span. While they did lose seven of their last eight games heading into the All-Star break, as Olney pointed out, that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
They’ve put themselves in a nice spot in the division they’re in. It also appears the front office is willing to pay for talent should an opportunity present itself.
“The bottom line is it’s about winning,” Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said on Sirius XM’s MLB Network Radio. “We’ve been OK at that, but there have been some thieves that have taken that last win—we need to find a way to do that before we can put ourselves in that category with teams that have won World Series recently …”
“When it comes to trying to make that happen, we have, I think, an owner in my opinion, that couldn’t be any better for this situation we’re in, and our specific challenges, he really gets it and there’ll be room,” Neander added. “If we think there’s something that gives us opportunity, we think is worth it and we can be opportunistic and leverage things at the right moment, that’s always something that’s been there for us.”
Could we see the @RaysBaseball as big spenders at the August 1st trade deadline? 👀#RaysUp | #ErikNeander | @JimDuquetteGM | @JimBowdenGM pic.twitter.com/utT83Cl0gc
— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) July 16, 2023
“If it’s the right player, right player(s) at the right time, there’s an openness there, we have the full support from ownership,” Neander added.
[The Dan Patrick Show via MLB.com]
