Rogers Hornsby was famously quoted as saying, “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
That may have worked for the Rajah, but here at The Athletic, we are going to spend the winter talking about baseball.
With the Boston Red Sox claiming their fourth World Series title of the millennium, the 2018 season has come to a close.
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This offseason should be an interesting one for the Tampa Bay Rays. The club (surprisingly) won 90 games this year and has the majority of its roster under its own control moving forward. That doesn’t mean they will just roll the same players over to 2019, but it does mean the Rays can be creative in what they do — or don’t do — this winter.
For the the next few weeks, as the embers begin to burn on the hot stove, I will be breaking down the roster in segments, taking a look back at 2018 and a look forward to the year to come.
First up we have team’s catchers:
Wilson Ramos began the season as the Rays’ primary catcher and regained his All-Star form after missing much of 2017 due to injury. In 78 games, he was on his way to one of the best hitting seasons ever by a Tampa Bay catcher, slashing .297/.346/.488. He was selected to the All-Star Game, but an injury caused him to miss both the game and an additional month of time.
During that time, Ramos was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he hit even better (.337/.396/.483) down the stretch. The 31-year-old is a free agent and left on good terms. There is a chance he could resign this winter, but with younger, cheaper options available, he is likely to cash in on his success elsewhere.
By all accounts, Jesus Sucre is a good guy and a great teammate. He has a huge smile and the respect of both his pitching staff and coaches.
Those are about all the positives he brings to a baseball team.
Choose your preferred metric for wins above replacement (WAR) and Sucre, 30, had a negative impact on the field. With a .209 average and a .500 OPS, he was one of the worst offensive performers around.
Defensively, Sucre rated as average or slightly below. Still, he received praise for his handling of the staff. That reputation should earn him a minor-league contract somewhere to start 2019; perhaps even back with the Rays. Meanwhile, as an arbitration-eligible player, the club would likely cut him loose and let him test the waters as a free agent before any reunion would happen.
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I will skip over Adam Moore since he was a non-factor as a player, but his lack of a passport to enter Canada in September did open a roster spot for former first-round pick Nick Ciuffo. The club’s top selection in the 2013 draft started the season with a 50-game suspension for a failed drug test. He would work his way back onto the field with the Durham Bulls before finally making his debut in Toronto when Moore could not join the club as the third catcher.
Ciuffo is a legit major leaguer in terms of defense. He has a top-shelf arm and made strides in other defensive areas since being drafted. On the offensive side, he flashes above-average raw power from the left side. That said, he does not hit the ball consistently enough for it to be much of a factor at this point.
Entering 2019 as a 24-year-old with six seasons of professional experience, the Rays are likely to give Ciuffo a chance to win a roster spot in the spring. As mentioned, he a bona fide big-league defender. If he can hit like Jesus Sucre, he is still worthy of a roster spot as a backup. If he can improve with the stick, he has enough pop and potential to warrant regular playing time.
As of right now, Ciuffo’s chief competitor come camp is Michael Perez. Acquired in a July trade from the Arizona Diamondbacks, the native of Catano, Puerto Rico, received regular playing time behind the plate almost immediately in Tampa, starting 22 games before a left hamstring injury ended his season prematurely.
Known for his glove work with the Diamondbacks, Perez made sizable improvements in his offensive numbers over the past two seasons. In August, he credited a simple pre-game routine as helping him turn around his fortune at the plate to go with his stellar work behind it. Perez hit .284/.304/.392 in 80 plate appearances for the Rays prior to the leg injury.
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Looking ahead to the future, the Rays are likely to roll with youth in 2019. Having two left-handed hitting catchers is not exactly optimal, but the club has invested in both Ciuffo (draft pick) and Perez (trade). It will make for an interesting time-share, but I think the Rays will see what they have in both heading into next season.
They will certainly add a veteran like Sucre or any number of available free agents to fill out the organizational depth chart, but with Ciuffo and Perez ready now, along with Ronaldo Hernandez working his way through the system, a big splash or long-term pact is not likely this winter.
(Top photo of Nick Ciuffo and Chaz Roe: Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports)