[Art Deco]

With the 2024 version this is the first time I've taken over a mediocre team in a Rays save so it's going to be a bit of a challenge. While there are some good players in the pipeline and the staff should be better next year with everyone back from injuries, the bullpen is pretty bad and the offense is going to be a work in progress.

First of all, according to the email I got from Stuart Sternberg he wants the payroll slashed to $75M. What I've noticed in OOTP 25 is that despite what the owner says I should have for payroll it appears that under "money for free agents" it shows availability up to the full budget amount. Nevertheless I'm still going to try and honor Stu's wishes and keep the payroll in the $75-80M range. The options of Phil Maton ($7.5M) and Chris Devenski ($2M) were not picked up, and we're going to non-tender Tyler Alexander, Colin Poche, and Taylor Walls which should save a combined $6M. With that in mind, here's how things shake out position-by-position:

C: Outside of Mike Zunino's career year in 2021 this position has been a black hole for the franchise ever since it famously took Tim Beckham ahead of Buster Posey in the 2008 draft. It's not quite horrible as midseason acquisition Luis Campusano and holdover Rene Pinto give us a halfway-decent combo. The two combined for 19 HR and 67 RBI and 1.3 worth of WAR. Down the road we could hear from Dominic Keegan, who hit 312/410/566 with 26 HR at AA Montgomery. Keegan's only a 40-rated catcher with 45 potential though, so he's a true bat-first guy.

1B: Yandy Diaz's 3-season run of 12.6 WAR is one of the best at the position in baseball and the 33-year-old is slated to make $10M in 2025 which makes him a big-money guy on this team. While it would give us some financial flexibility to deal him (he has a 2026 $12M team option so he wouldn't be a rental), I hold out hope we can at least contend for a wild card in 2025 so Yandy will stay. His heir apparent though is one of our top prospects, Xavier Isaac (ranked #23 overall by OSA), who hit 43 homers between A+ and AA last year and has potential 70 power. So if things go badly in 25, we deal Yandy and if they go well, Isaac takes over in 2026.

2B: Although he's not a great fielder at the position, 2B looks like the domain of our top young player Junior Caminero. Junior had a literal up-and-down season in 24, hitting well after a late May recall then slumping so badly he was sent back down in July, only to return red-hot in September. He still managed 19 HR and 51 RBI in 88 games at the MLB level, so he's up to stay now.

SS: Jose Caballero and Nick Loftin played the position for us in 24 and were kind of a weak link with neither spectacular defensively and the way this team is built we need good SS play. Fortunately it just so happens we have the overall #4 prospect in baseball hopefully ready to take over in Carson Williams. He should relegate Caballero and Loftin to utility roles after a season which saw him hit 302/391/598 with 32 HR at Montgomery and add 6 more homers at Durham for good measure in 67 at-bats (albeit with a .209 average). His defense is way above average, and if he can hit .230 or better with 25-homer power at the big-league level, he'll be valuable indeed with a ceiling higher than that.

3B: Team MVP Isaac Paredes mans the position, and he'll be getting a raise to $8M but is well worth it, after a 5-WAR, 36 HR, 109 RBI year.

IF: Caballero, Loftin, and Richie Palacios (2B) are in the mix, as is Curtis Mead, who can play 1B, 2B and 3B but not that well but he has the best bat of the lot (still considered MLB's #46 prospect) and could figure in at DH. Palacios plays the OF so his versatility and good eye make him a likely roster candidate.

LF: Brandon Lowe was moved here to make room for Caminero at 2B and the one-time MVP vote-getter has fallen off due to injury the last few years. He's a prime candidate to be dealt as he'll make $10.5M next season. Consequently, we'll be looking for someone to man this spot.

CF: After we picked up Parker Meadows mid-season he platooned with Jose Siri. They're both outstanding defensive CFs but neither can hit much above the Mendoza Line. They did hit 23 HR and steal 45 bases between them so they're not total offensive zeroes at least.

RF: Josh Lowe had a breakout year in 2023 but injuries set him back last season and he ended up 245/320/401 last year. Some of the reduced numbers were due to playing more against lefties but we're going to need him to bounce back next year.

OF: One of Meadows/Siri will be on the bench and we also have Jonny DeLuca, who also hit well after coming back up late in the season and can spell J.Lowe against lefties in RF and play some in LF.

DH: Yet another guy who hit a lot better in his second call-up was lefty-swinging Jonathan Aranda, but he needs a platoon partner at DH. This is where Mead could come in, but we only have so many roster spots.

Others: I haven't even mentioned Spencer Torkelson, acquired from Detroit and who had a miserable season which concluded in Durham. He'll be in the mix again for the LF job if B.Lowe is dealt, but he's going to have to hit a lot better to overcome his poor defense. C Alex Jackson hit 36 homers at Durham but is rated a poor 35 behind the plate so he's really an emergency option. OF Kameron Misner is similar to Siri & Meadows with good D but iffy contact.

Rotation: This could be a strength next season as we welcome the return of Shane McClanahan, one of the game's better pitchers. Of course after Tommy John surgery we have to be careful to see if he's downgraded in his ratings, including stamina. Ryan Pepiot and Zack Littell had solid seasons, although Pepiot was somewhat homer-prone, Taj Bradley was very good in his first full season after missing most of April and May with a muscle injury, and then we have Jeffrey Springs and Drew Rasmsussen, who were great in 2022-23 and had mixed results after returning in the second half of 2024. Both are still rated well and hopefully will be a better a year further removed from surgery, so we have potentially six starters and that's not including Shane Baz, who was a mixed bag in his return from injury and spent much of the season at Durham. Further down the depth chart are a couple of guys we acquired in trade, Randy Vasquez and Reese Olson. Vasquez pitched in long relief and probably will return to that role while Olson likely starts the year at Durham to give us depth.

Bullpen: The pen was horrible last year, although closer Pete Fairbanks did his job and will return. It's getting to him that's the problem. We'll likely give his erstwhile setup man Jason Adam another shot, he still has good ratings including 65 stuff but had a terrible year (5.62 ERA, 11 HR in 56 IP). Maton had taken over the primary setup role and had a good season, but $7.5M was just too much to pay for him. Garrett Cleavinger is a solid option from the left side, but with Poche being shown the door the next lefty up is Jacob Lopez, who looked good at times and is more a multi-inning guy. After that though it's a jumble of mediocrity with righties Luis Contreras, Nic Enright and Kevin Kelly all options but all with their warts. It's possible we try to turn someone who's out of the rotation like Baz into a power reliever and we'll definitely need to add a quality arm or three. Unlike on offense where we have some elite prospects, the once-legendary Rays pitching pipeline has run mostly dry, except for 2024 first-rounder Hagen Smith, who struck out a whopping 69 men in 45 pro innings between low and high-A ball but was also touched for a whopping 12 homers in those innings. He'll need some refinement.

So in short the goals for the offseason are

*Trade some more salary, likely B.Lowe
*Find an impact OF bat if possible
*Get some quality arms for the bullpen