Rays Heat Up The Hot Stove

So starting pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays Matt Moore signs a new deal with the rays. This makes his contract 5 years and $14 million, with options that could make the deal 8 years and $39.75 million. Now the Rays had control over this guy as he is still under his first deal and as you they generally don’t pay much of anything (as far as baseball goes). With this new contract though Moore, who impressed in his very brief major league work at the end of 2011, will be making more money, but he will also be locked up longer. He’s just 22 so the Rays could keep him under their watch until he’s 30 which would give him probably one big deal after this one ends. Definitely a good deal by the Rays, who are a team with a low payroll surviving off young players to get them wins. They made a similar move with Longoria signing him to a deal pretty much as soon as he got to the big leagues which would lock him up, but offer him a little more money immediately. It really is a smart move for the Rays as Moore has pitched well in his 4 minor league seasons and looks to have ace quality stuff. He isn’t too different from David Price being brought up young and having immediate success with the Rays. They could be a good duo to go along with Shields and Hellickson as well as Davis and Niemann. As far as Moore is concerned, making a little bit of extra money now and being with an organization that he seems to like is probably great in his mind. With six viable options in the Rays rotation we’ll see what happens, my guess is someone goes to the pen as I don’t see them trading one or sending one to the minors. Who the odd man out is, I have no idea. This deal seems kind of like a win-win to me. Especially a win for the Rays as this is what they do, draft well, develop, and lock them up quick. Congrats to Mr. Moore and good luck, he seems like a good man with a bright future in baseball.

The MLB Offseason Rolls On, Not Too Many Big Splashes Just Yet Though

To keep you up to date I’m going to quickly run you by some news in the MLB of late. Veteran 36 year old defensive stud Jose Molina signs a 1 year deal worth $1.5 million to play for the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays didn’t bring back Shoppach and traded Jaso, so this fills a need for them, Molina is not a great offensive player but will be a good fit for an always young Rays team who could use leaders like Molina, I think it’s a great fit. It’s been reported that the Phillies reached out to retired closer Billy Wagner to see if he had any interest in coming back and joining their bullpen. He said no, and they moved on signing Jonathan Papelbon. They could still probably use another solid veteran arm in their bullpen, but Madson could come back to them in arbitration, or they could add someone with free agency, there is still a lot of good value arms out there. They say it is not a necessity to bring in another vet to the pen, but I think if they don’t now it will continue to eat away their farm system because they almost certainly would need one or more at the trade deadline. Miami Marlins continue to make people believe they will spend money on some big name free agent this offseason as they had CJ Wilson visit today. Wilson one of the top, if not the top starting pitcher available in this year’s free agency is among good company in sparking the interest of the Marlins. The Marlins have been said to be interested in pretty much everyone on the market from Pujols to Buehrle to Reyes, and now Wilson. A lot of experts are saying they like Miami to land Reyes, which I can’t argue with the fact that it is a strong possibility. This would most likely end with Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez moving to 3B. Finally Johnny Narron was named Brewers hitting coach to replace Dale Sveum who recently became manager of the Chicago Cubs. Narron was a big part of Josh Hamilton’s reemergence to baseball relevancy when he came back with the Cincinnati Reds and when he was traded to the Texas Rangers. Let’s see what he does with what should be a very good Milwaukee lineup next season.