Someone stop the leak from the Cardinals front office. With duct tape. Now.
One concept kicked around in at least one corner of STL organization: pursue Price&Longoria. But 0 indication actually being discussed w/TB.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 21, 2014
I get the feeling someone sent Buster a Snapchat of the war room in St. Louis, and somewhere on a white board was the name Longoria.
Olney dutifully reported earlier today that the Cardinals, Mariners, and Dodgers are best positioned for a David Price acquisition, before then tweeting the above, noting:
...one executive involved in the conversations with Tampa Bay believes that, ultimately, it's the potential buyers that will clarify the choice for the Rays with the quality of their offers.
"It all comes down to which team decides to be aggressive, the Dodgers, Cardinals or Mariners," said the rival official. "Maybe none of them will be."
The rest is behind the paywall, where Olney notes that the Cardinals and Dodgers are only getting older, while the Mariners don't look up to snuff for the playoffs.
Combine those sentiments with the Rays actually playing some real baseball, and coming up on a crucial stretch of baseball to conclude the season that could completely alter the AL East...
From Aug. 22 to Sept. 15, #Rays play 26 straight games vs. AL East teams.
— Dave Haller (@HallerDave) July 21, 2014
... and you have to wonder why the Rays would make a move.
The answer, of course, would be that the prospect is there for the taking, if the Rays don't see themselves being in contention 10 days from now. Unfortunately, how the year will play out in the division is still unclear, and none of the contending trade partners have yet to lay their best cards on the table.
St. Louis or LA or Cleveland or Chicago or maaaaaybe Seattle would have to make exactly who the Rays want available. Then, just maybe, the Rays say yes to dealing Price. But under no circumstances are the Rays pulling Le Grand Orange out of Montreal's storied, horrible play book of baseball trades.
Evan Longoria is the face of the franchise and signed to eternity on the cheap. He likes being here, we like having him here. End of story.