Rays, make up your mind!

April 18, 2008 · Paul Raymond · Jump to comments

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The Tampa Bay Rays had a major news conference scheduled for this afternoon, many people thought this would be to announce a contract extension with up and coming star BJ Upton. Which would make perfect sense. But that was not the case, the conference was to announce the signing of rookie Evan Longoria to a deal that will span 6 years and possibly as long as 9. So the thought in my mind is this. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON! MAKE YOUR MIND, IS THE TAMPA SUN FRYING YOUR BRAINS TO MUCH?!?!?!?!?!

This team first sent Longoria to the minors to start the season cause they felt he wasn’t ready for the bigs. Second, they call him up after about 2 weeks to play third, even thou he was playing like absolute crap in the minors. NOW, they give him a VERY VERY long term deal, which guarantees he won’t see the minors again this season. It says what everyone thought, Tampa just sent him to the minors to guarantee they can hold his rights for an extra year. Luckily, that will all be avoided now and he only lost two weeks of his promising major league career.

Here’s the contract thou it works great for Tampa, absolutely wonderful. I will give them so much credit for that. He’s locked up for 6 years at just $17.5 million. This covers his first 3 years of forced contracts and 3 years of arbitration. So he’ll make more in those first 3 years, but the team will make out during arbitration. This kid could easily have made more in arbitration but its good to see he’s committed to helping build this franchise. The deal could wind up 9-years and $44 million if all options are exercised. The Rays hold a 1-year option for 2014, and then a 2-year option for 2015-16. So those extra 3-years, would essentially be 3-year $27 million, still VERY low for what a player of his caliber could be by then.

But all of this does protect him if injuries or he just winds up sucking. Hopefully for him 2015-2106 is a mutual option. Great deal for the Rays, but still WHAT THE HELL!?!?! Why can’t teams just tell the truth sometimes, we all knew he went to the minors because of money, just admit it!