Tampa Bay Rays news and links: The Orioles get their man

We finally have the free agent news we’ve been waiting for in this bizarre, slow offseason. Alex Cobb signed with the Rays’ division rivals, the Orioles, so we’ll get plenty of opportunity to see him back in the Trop. Normally it’s a bad thing to see good free agents sign within the division, but in this case there’s a silver lining.

The draft pick compensation the Rays were set to receive depended on the size of the deal Cobb signed. By holding out and refusing to take a deal below what he saw as his value Alex Cobb crossed the $50 million threshold, and ended up with $57 million over four years. Jeff Sullivan wrote about the signing, and how Alex Cobb’s patience payed off. If Cobb had taken a smaller, shorter deal, like Lance Lynn did, the Rays would be losers in the transaction.

As Bill Chastain explains, the Rays will now receive a second pick (they already had one) before Competitive Balance Round A, meaning they’ll have the 31st and 32nd picks of the draft.

Meanwhile, one of the lead contenders for Bullpen Day, Ryan Yarbrough, was on the mound against the Red Sox.

Yarbrough was fine, but the Rays as a whole struggled, and manager Kevin Cash didn’t sound too happy with the effort.

Rays Links

• Bill Chastain wrote about Kevin Kiermaier, “Tampa Bay’s most dedicated Purdue fan.”
• The Rays signed Curt Casali to a minor league deal.
• Here’s the Rays event schedule in the week leading up to opening day.
• The FanGraphs shortstop power rankings predict that Adeiny Hechavarria will get traded to Jacksonville.
• Behind the paywall, but Martin Alonso used BP’s tunneling statistics to show . . . instances where “good tunneling” didn’t fool the batter. Logan Morrison feature.
• Steven Souza Jr. only knows one way to play: hard. Heres’s hoping it’s not serious, but it may have bitten him in the preseason (h/t @TBTimes_Rays).

Other Links

• There’s a section in the government spending bill that will squash a current lawsuit alleging that minor league baseball players are paid below minimum wage. I’m sorry baseball, but this is slimy. Do not tell me that paying young pro athletes for their actual time is going to shut down the minors.