Evan Longoria and Logan Forsythe were teammates on the Tampa Bay Rays for the last three seasons, and Longoria feels blindsided that their tenure together ended so abruptly.
On Monday, Longoria expressed his shock and sadness at the Rays’ decision to trade Forsythe away.
“I’m surprised and upset at losing a player, clubhouse presence and friend like Logan,” Longoria said, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. “He’s a rare player.”
Forsythe was dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this week in exchange for top right-handed pitching prospect Jose De Leon.
Trading a steady 30-year-old glue guy with two more years of team control for a high-upside 24-year-old potential ace with six more years of team control makes sense from a pure baseball standpoint. It’s especially so considering that the Dodgers had already been expressing interest in Forsythe. But the move has to have the 31-year-old Longoria wondering if Tampa is embracing a youth-based rebuild that could claim him as its next victim.
