Trade Deadline Preview: Tampa Bay Rays

Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

With a potential sale, what could the Rays be looking for? If their three biggest needs were to be listed, they could be summed up as offense, offense and offense. However, let us be a bit more specific. Should the Rays be sellers at the deadline, there are specific areas that they are likely to look for.

1. Young power hitters: Remember when the Royals sent Wil Myers to the Rays as part of a package for James Shields and Wade Davis? If the Rays are to move Price, chances are they will look to add a similar type of player to the outfield to pair with Myers.

2. Starting pitching: For years, the Rays have been an assembly line when it came to cranking out young starter after young starter. Now, for the first time in years, the Rays are actually lacking depth in the rotation. The state of the young starters who are at least close to major league ready is bad enough where 35 year old Erik Bedard, whose arm is held together with string and duct tape, has made 13 starts. Remove Price from the equation, and it only gets worse.

3. Shortstop: Yunel Escobar is still a wizard defensively, but his OPS+ has decreased by ten points from last year. In fact, aside from the improved batting eye, Escobar is hitting like the shortstop that was run out of Toronto at the end of the 2011 season. With former top pick Tim Beckham out for the year due to a torn ACL and Hak-Ju Lee struggling with the Durham Bulls, shortstop could be a concern in the next year or two.