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10. Is now the time for the Rays to revisit trade talks with the Cubs?
Ahead of the 2016 season, JT Morgan wondered if the Dexter Fowler signing would send the Cubs back to the Rays after a scuttled deal for Javier Baez never materialized. They wouldn’t, but it was well wished.
9. Revisiting The Wil Myers Trade
This article concluded with a poll voted on by more than 1,100 readers, where more than 50% concluded the Padres-Rays swap was better suited without the Nationals ever getting involved.
8. Rays Trade Target: Miguel Montero
This well written plea was surely popular with Cubs fans who clicked alongside our own readers. While not as likely of a possibility with the Rays signing of Wilson Ramos, this is not an impossible trade idea, and a well written article.
7. Rays to name Kevin Cash as player-manager
Our best executed April Fools article to date concluded with these quips:
With this move, Cash joins the long line of catchers who have doubled as managers in baseball history, including Connie Mack, Ivey Wingo and John Clapp.
In a corresponding move, to mitigate his reluctance to ever wear a uniform, Cash will change his jersey number from 16 to "2%" and will be permitted to play in pajama pants.
6. Building a Three-Team deal with the Cubs, Rays, and Rockies
Last January, I did my best to net the Rays both Javier Baez AND Corey Dickerson by inventing a three team deal that saw the Rays deal Jake McGee and Erasmo Ramirez, among other pieces. This was clearly a work of fiction, but selling high on both players a season ago seemed ideal.
5. Rays trade target: Cubs catching prospect Willson Contreras
If the Rays are indeed in the market for a Cubs catcher, going younger is the wiser idea. Again this article may have been helped by being about the Cubs...
4. Boston Red Sox Season Preview: Can David Price pitch every day?
“The "Seeing David Price in Red is Making Us Break Out in Hives" Edition of our Red Sox season preview”
3. Rays granted permission to look for new stadium in Tampa Bay
It’s been nearly a year now that the Rays were given free reign to look about the Bay area for a new stadium location, something that was previously contractually prohibited.
Once a new stadium location is found, the Rays can terminate their lease for a cost of $24 million beginning in 2018 -- a sum that decreases each year the team remains at Tropicana Field. The current lease expires after the 2027 season, but the proposal as written is limited to a three-year search window, but the team is unlikely to let that window expire.
2. Mapping out a Cubs trade for Alex Cobb
I’m telling you, Cubs fans love to click. In this article, we reasoned that Javier Baez was indeed the best return for Alex Cobb, should he be traded last off-season.
1. Tampa Bay Rays vs. Cuba National Team: How to watch, TV schedule, streaming information, and more
Rightfully so, this was the most viewed article in 2016, naming the time place and formats in which the Rays were honored to play in the city of Havana.
Honorable mention
Humerto Quintero nails Luke Maile in stomach with throw
For some reason unbeknownst to me, this article was perpetually visited throughout the year, even though it was more than a year old! Humberto Quintero, while an apparent scumbag for nailing a defenseless player, must also be a popular guy.
Mets fans clicked this en masse, and now it seems to have a level of longevity that could put it into the top ten if we didn’t use a 12/31/16 arbitrary cutoff. Perhaps Jay Bruce is the answer to the Rays attendance problem! Popular guy!