Mark this down in the, "Who's surprised?" section:
Rays big leaguers B.J. Upton, Sean Rodriguez, Reid Brignac, and Wade Davis are drawing heavy interest, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, but the team's "preference is to use their prospect depth to land a hitter."
The Rays have one of the most stocked minor league systems in the minors, but I'm beginning to wonder if the Rays' wealth of top prospects and talented, cheap players is making it tough to strike a deal. Everyone has to know that the Rays would like to make a deal this season in order to stay competitive with the Yanks and Red Sox, but they have so much stockpiled talent, it might make some teams greedy and ask for the moon. If the Rays want another hitter badly enough, they don't have a lot of leverage to force the price lower and keep from overpaying. Other team will want the Rays to raise the stakes for all other teams involved, but if I know Andrew Friedman, he's not going to overpay.
Negotiations are a tricky thing and I expect that if the Rays do make a trade this year, it will be similar to the recent Angels-D'backs trade: unrumored and unexpected. The Rays work in stealth and if they don't make a trade, it's simply because they couldn't find the right player for the right price. The Cliff Lee trade set the bar high this trade deadline; let's hope it's not too high.