What would the rays look like without the trade of Evan Longoria?

It's impossible to rewrite the story, but wondering what life would look like without Evan Longoria's trade adds some intrigue as the Rays walk into Oracle Park in San Francisco this afternoon.

At the time of the publication of this article, a legend of the franchise will bypass the players of the Rays as the course of the national anthem, but this moment was it necessary?

In December 2017, the trade of Evan Longoria sent back Denard Span, Christian Arroyo and two minor league weapons to the Rays, accompanied by a salary relief. To understand what the Rays would look like in 2019 without this trade, we must start with 2018.

While you might be tempted to trade Evan Longoria's broken hand against 0.4 War of 2018 for Matt Duffy's War 2 season last year, it's important to remember that without the Longoria trade, the Rays would always need a left defensive player.

This is Matt Duffy, who, if he was not put away now, would have trained in the left field during the spring training. But it is also possible that Matt Duffy occupies the second base to start the year. The left field player is Joey Wendle. Or maybe one of them finds his way to a short stop. It's a little pick your own adventure, but let's say Duffy is the left defensive player, because it's the path of least resistance.

The Rays scored Denard Span's 0.1 WAR, Johnny Field and Rob Refsnyder in the left field before their trade against Tommy Pham, totaling about 450 appearances at the plate. If you think Duffy finds a way to get the other 90 from his AP by 2018 until the end of the season, and you could say that the Rays are probably an equal team in terms of talent, if not better, in using this system. the logic of the towel.

In my opinion, if Longoria is never traded, Tampa Bay is still a club with 90 wins. As for the ripple effects, I suppose there's a different comeback for Alex Colome, but I'm willing to bet that Brad Miller's exchange against Ji-Man Choi is still over.

What about 2019?

Given the Ray's contentment to allow Yandy Diaz to have his first-base representatives on the South Paws, we can assume that the Rays would still have pulled the trigger for Jake Bauers' contract this season, and that he would win a little more time at DH instead of managing the hot corner.

On the list of 25 players, the presence of Longoria eliminates Guillermo Heredia or Avisail Garcia from the current reality of the team, but if you say that the Rays always sign Garcia and Heredia has an option, the payroll of the team climbs to baseball at $ 60.4 million. at $ 72.4 million, which … still be the lowest in baseball. Using the totals compiled by Sportrac, the Marlins' payroll is $ 72.449 million, while the Ray's payroll is $ 72.445 million.

Huh.

Another consideration: the Rays paid a high price when they treated Longoria in terms of a brutal reaction from supporters. It is therefore possible that another change in this alternate universe would be a club with 90 wins that would not address the goal. sell the opening day for 2019 as well.

In total, we do not know what benefit the Ray received from Longoria's trade … for the moment. Perhaps the Rays have found a jewel in the former former hopeful, Christian Arroyo, who is with the club this week replacing an injury. Maybe Andrew Moore will become the next ace of the Rays. I do not see the future, but I can see the present, and so far, Longoria's trade still does not seem necessary.

Do you disagree? Let me know in the comments.

RF – Austin Meadows *
LF – Tommy Pham
DH – Ji-Man Choi *
3B – Evan Longoria
2B – Brandon Lowe *
1B – Yandy Diaz
CF – Kevin Kiermaier *
SS – Willy Adames
C – Mike Zunino

C – Michael Perez *
INF – Joey Wendle *
INF – Daniel Robertson
OF – Garcia Notice