But that kind of analysis is also extremely uninspired. It’s been done before. I’d be interested to hear from a player who would never want to play for the Rays because it likely means uprooting your entire life if you’re any good by like, your arb 1 year.
I'm not looking to inspire anyone. I'm just saying the only reason to care one bit about the Rays is to see what packages they are able to get for their players, to help gauge the trading market.
And we all know hardly any player would want to play for the Rays, if they can help it. But I doubt it has much to do with uprooting their life, since baseball players pretty much expect that to happen at a few points in their career. More likely it deals with having to play your home games in front of virtually no fans and the Rays' reputation for signing guys to team-friendly pre-arb extensions. They do get to live in Florida though, which may be a bonus for some guys.
I think it’s a much bigger factor than you make it out to be. And at least for a fair amount of players, when they do move, they have some degree of control over where and when. The Rays it’s essentially a certainty that if you are any good at your job, you will be gone.
But we will never actually know because we will get the same boring analysis year after year.
What value is there in knowing that young players wouldn't want to play for the Rays, whatever the reasons may be? It isn't like they have much of a choice, other than choosing not to sign after being drafted.
I think you are overestimating the kind of roots players put down in their early years. They just got done jumping around the minors for a few years. It isn't like they rush out and buy a house the minute they get called up to the big leagues. Most young players buy a condo, find a trophy wife, and worry about which cars they want to buy.
There is value in it because it’s a story that is fresh. Maybe there are guys who do want to play for the Rays! That has value too! I’d rather hear that than “The Rays are run like a hedge fund” for a 5th straight year by people who still feel it’s a revelation every time they say it.
Yeah, that revelation is only slightly more worn out than pointing out that owners are cheapskates year after year.
What we did just learn in the past 48 hours is that players who would normally net at least two top-100 prospects are netting less. That bodes well for what it might take for the Cardinals to acquire Lindor or Arenado, if they are actually interested in doing anything this offseason.
Yeeting any contracts of girth that the Cards have, and playing almost exclusively young players with little to no service time is just about the only way I'll find the 2021 season entertaining.
I’m not completely sold on Snell being an ace caliber pitcher. Obviously he had an outstanding 2018 season. Other than that he has been more in the range of #2-3 starter type performance. To my knowledge he has not had Tommy John surgery yet, so there is always that ticking time bomb for a pitcher. The contract is obviously good.
He's won as many Cy Youngs as the entirety of the Cardinals organisation has in the last 40 years.