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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Waiver Wire Wonders?

It appears the Rays are going to be prime players on the waiver wire at the end of spring. GM Andy Friedman has made a habit of taking other teams trash and turning it into gold. Just ask Carlos Pena, Ty Wigginton, Al Reyes, Brendan Harris etc. As the search for a 5th OF continues, I decided to take a look at the outfielders who are out of options and may become available. Thanks to mlbtraderumors.com for providing the list.

This is not intended to be a deep analysis of the players or insinuate the Rays have had an eye on them, but just a brief look at who maybe available. The most logical choices I see for the Rays are Delwyn Young, Nathan Haynes and Chris Snelling. They can play the three OF spots, all have the ability to bat LH, and are prime candidates to be placed on waivers due to their current teams OF situations.

3 comments:

Robert Rittner said...

I have read that Young is an impossibly terrible outfielder, the equivalent of Ryan Braun at 3B. If that is so, I doubt he is an option for the Rays.

I would be shocked if Ankiel were released. He may be out of options, but I am pretty sure he is a guaranteed starter for the Cardinals.

I think Werth is also expected to play an important role with the Phillies in 2008.

Tommy Vercetti said...
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Tommy Vercetti said...

I never really considered Werth or Ankiel real options as they both have spots on their teams. Also with guys like Gross and Gathright they maybe available in a trade only. I just wanted to include all the OF who were out of options on the list.

Delwyn won't be an improvement over anyone we have defensively, but offensively I'd rather have Young over Weber or Rodriguez.

The names I'm looking at besides Young are Haynes, Snelling, Jeff Baker. Also the Cleveland OF is something to watch for with Gutierrez. Choo is also out of option for Cleveland, but is coming of TJ surgery and may have to enlist in the Korean military. Fred Davis may be avaiable depending on what the Giants do.