Tampa Bay Rays: Five options to upgrade the lineup

The Tampa Bay Rays were unable to reel in free agent slugger Nelson Cruz, but there’s still quite a few players out there that can help the team make a playoff run in 2019.

On Thursday, ESPN’s Enrique Rojas reported that veteran slugger Nelson Cruz is headed to Minneapolis, having signed a one year deal $14 million deal with the Minnesota Twins. The deal also includes a $12 million team option for a second year, which very realistically could get picked up.

This is great news for the Twins, who had a disappointing 2018, and bad news for the Tampa Bay Rays, who had hoped to add Cruz’s consistent offensive production to their line up. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported that the Rays were hoping to sign Cruz for something closer to $10 million, so it appears that they were simply outbid.

With Cruz off the table, the Rays will need to look for a strong bat elsewhere if they hope to compete in the AL East. Last year, the Red Sox and Yankees ranked first and second respectively in runs per game, and both teams will retain their strong offensive cores heading in to 2019.

Luckily for the Rays, there are still some good options available, but they might want to act fast or risk losing another potential free agent to a team whose willing to outspend them, which, knowing the Rays, could be just about anyone.

$10 million seemed to be their limit for Cruz, but it’s not outrageous to think that they’d be willing to spend a little more on a younger player that carries less risk moving forward. We’re not going to see them come out of nowhere and spring for Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, but there’s still some guys they could pick up from the current pool of free agents that could turn a few heads while fitting their budget. Let’s take a look at a few.

Asdrúbal Cabrera

Asdrúbal Cabrera wouldn’t bring the Rays the same power as Nelson Cruz, but he would bring a them a decent bat with much more defensive flexibility.

Cabrera had a kind of weak ending to 2018 after starting the year strong, finishing the season with a slashline of .262/.316/.458. This isn’t necessarily anything to write home about, but it’s certainly not bad, and he was able to add more value to his teams by putting in time at shortstop, second base and third base. He wasn’t an elite fielder at any of these positions, but he got the job done.

Since 2011, Cabrera has never played less than 135 games in a season, so durability isn’t something you have to worry about with him, especially if he’s given the chance to occasionally DH. Last year Rays DH Ji-Man Choi really struggled against left handed pitchers, so platooning him with Cabrera, who fairs slightly better against lefties than righties, could be a good way to keep Cabrera healthy while maximizing Choi’s upside.

Another thing that makes Cabrera an interesting choice is that last year he hit the ball harder than he ever has in the Statcast era, with an average exit velocity of 89.5 MPH compared to 86.7 MPH a year prior. If this improvement sticks and Cabrera is able to supplement some time in the field with DHing, he could improve even more, which would upgrade his offensive value. Cabrera made $8.25 million last year, so he’s likely in the Rays price range.

Jed Lowrie

It’s not often that someone has the best season of their career at the age of 34, but Jed Lowrie did just that in 2018, finishing the year with an impressive 120 OPS+ and a 4.8 bWAR. Making this even better is the fact that Lowrie’s second best season came the year before; like fine wine Lowrie has gotten better with age.

Right now, out of available free agents only Manny Machado had a higher bWAR last year than Lowrie. However, some are hesitant to pick him up because of his age, despite the fact that literally half of his 17.6 career bWAR came over the last two seasons. These worries aren’t totally unwarranted, as Lowrie has had injury problems in the past, but the last two years make the risk worth it.

If the Rays were pursuing Cruz, it means that they’re probably looking more for a DH/3B guy than a middle infielder, which actually might work in Lowrie’s favor. A 35 year old third baseman is a better bet than a 35 year old middle infielder, and Lowrie has had some experience there in the past. Add some DH time on and you can mitigate the downsides of his aging while taking advantage of the upside of what appears to be an improved bat.

Mike Moustakas

Over the past few years, Mike Moustakas hasn’t been able to recapture that 2015 Kansas City Royals magic, but that doesn’t mean he should be overlooked as a valuable addition to your team.

Moustakas would be a bit of an offensive downgrade from the desired Cruz, but he would be a major defensive upgrade when used at third base. He’s above league average in almost every defensive category when playing at third, and can also play first base if the need arises.

His power took a dip in 2018, but not so much so that faith in it’s return should disappear. He still hit 28 home runs, and has the potential to hit 30+ again like he did in 2017. According to Statcast Moustakas hit the ball harder in 2018 than 2017, and he had more barrels and a better launch angle, so it’s not entirely clear why the homeruns went down.

With some adjustments, Moustakas might be a sneaky player as far as power is concerned heading into next year.

Matt Davidson

OK, so as a substitute for Cruz this would be dumb, but I just really want a team to pick up Matt Davidson. He’d be so cheap that you could pick up Davidson as well as any of the guys above and it wouldn’t even be an additional drop in the payroll bucket.

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Most of this is because he seems kind of dedicated to trying to be a two way player next year, and I’d love for him to get the chance. Wasn’t this fun?

As a batter Davidson projects to hit around 20 home runs next year while slashing .229/.299/.423, which isn’t going to cut it as far as being an impact player on offense. Those projections are in 492 plate appearances, so it’s possible that he could be a 30+ home run guy if given the chance to be an every day player (which is a chance he probably shouldn’t get).

So again, he can’t be the only move. But he could be a move. His fastball is in the low 90s, which is ridiculous for a position player, and his breaking ball drops down to the low 70s which is a pretty good differential.

All I’m saying is pick him up for a minor league contract and see what happens. Could be fun, and a two way player would be a great way to draw some Tampa Bay Rays fans out of the woodwork.