With tonight being the last official night for teams to tender contracts to arbitration-eligibles, the Rays sudden lack of moves may not be for long.
Again, it's time for me to take a swing at playing GM. I figure that I can't be that bad as one, can I?
Here's a few possible "non-tenders" that'd I contemplate offering contracts to, if I were in charge of the Rays.
Mark Prior, SP- There's a very good chance at the Cubs dumping Prior into the Free Agency pile due to him not giving the Cubs a hometown-discount on a 2-year deal that were trying to offer him. With the Rays being good with incentive-laiden contracts and awarding production and longetivity with bonuses. What could it hurt for us to take this chance? If he says no, at least we tried. If he says yes, we won't be robbed because he'd earn his money.
Morgan Ensberg, 3B- With there being "chances", according to Topkin, that Longoria doesn't start with the Rays, we should look into a player or 2 that would either provide Evan with Spring Training competition or a big of a "stop-gap" at 3B. While Ensberg's glove ins't world-renowned and his bat appearing only on leap years, he'd be an upgrade over Joel Guzman.
Adam Everett, SS- According to fielding gurus, Adam was the best defensive short-stop in baseball. Ed Wade believes that replacing Adam with a better hitting SS will close the gap between the Astros and Cubs/Brewers. We currently have Ben Zobrist as our Utility Infielder right now. Why not Adam?
R.J.: Balfour is staying!