Tampa Bay Rays were in on Terrance Gore before he signed with the Royals

Prior to signing with the Kasnas City Royals in December, Terrance Gore thought he would end up with the Tampa Bay Rays.

According to Jerry Flanagan’s article on MLB.com, the speedy outfielder spoke about the path that took him back to Kansas City:

There was interest in Gore last fall from the Cubs, Yankees and especially the Rays.

”My agent thought Tampa Bay was set in stone for whatever reason,” Gore said. “And I live in [Florida], so it seemed nice, the idea of training down there. But then out of the blue before the Winter Meetings I got a text from [Royals assistant general manager] Scott Sharp.”

Gore is one of baseball’s fastest runners, but there is not much more to his offense. Indeed, across five seasons with major league service time, he has logged just 19 plate appearances. When he gets called to the show it is for his speed. Gore has swiped 27 bases; not many players have more successful steals than plate appearances.

The Rays had likely considered bringing in Gore in to compete for the fourth outfield spot, along with Guillermo Heredia, whom the Rays acquired in the Mallex Smith trade in November.

The Royals gave Gore a MLB deal that will pay him $650,000 while in the majors with the opportunity to make $100,000 more in performance bonus. If Gore is in the minors, he will be paid $350,000.