The Rays Tank: The Trading Wade Davis And David Price Edition

MLB Chatter

There were a couple big pieces of news yesterday, although none of them directly or indirectly touched upon the Rays. The Royals traded Melky Cabrera to the Giants for Jonathan Sanchez, and the Twins fired their GM Bill Smith. Sanchez isn't a great pitcher, but then again, Melky Cabrera isn't necessarily a great outfielder. For my own sake, I hope this doesn't preclude Brandon Belt actually getting in the Giants' lineup (he's one of my keepers), but I'm sure it probably will.

Also, the Twins fire Bill Smith after only four seasons? That seems like short time frame to get a handle on a GM, especially when this was the only poor year under his tenure. Twins fans seem quite happy about the news, though, so I probably just haven't looked at Smith's transaction log long enough.

In other news, everyone on the internet seemingly went goo-goo eyed over Cuban prospect Yoennis Cespedes yesterday morning. The scouting video provided by Kevin Goldstein (BPro) got taken down, but I'll be sure to post it if I see another copy. In the meantime, here's a bit about Cespedes. It appears the Marlins are the front-runners to get him.

Bill Petti from Beyond the Boxscore interviewed MLB Network's Brian Kenny yesterday about a new show he's hosting called Clubhouse Confidential. The show's supposedly going to take a saber-slant, and I found the interview rather interesting.

An underappreciated part of player salaries: taxes. Certain states have higher or lower income taxes, and it's worth noting that Florida is one of three states that doesn't impose a statewide personal income tax. That means players retain more of their salary if they primarily play in Florida, which is a fact I hope Friedman has used in negotiations. 

Rays Talk

John Gregg over at Rays Digest is posting a three-part interview with prospect Mikie Mahtook, and the first part is already up. Gregg runs a fine site over at RD and he asked Mahtook some great questions, so I'd be sure to check it out.

Yesterday, I wrote about David Price's potentially exorbitant arbitration cost, and why the Rays might decide to trade him as early as next offseason. It's not a fun scenario to imagine, but we'd better start getting used to the idea.

The most recent Rays-related rumor suggests that the Rays would prefer to trade Wade Davis this offseason instead of James Shields. I could definitely see this happening -- trade Davis, hold onto Shields and Price for one last go-around together -- although the Rays obviously would get a weaker return package. If they trade Davis, how do they fill their current roster holes?

Here's a heartwarming story about Reid Brignac helping out in his local community. There's so much gossipy stuff written about athletes, but I wish stories like this would get more attention.