The Tampa Bay Rays are genuine playoff contenders, but are working on a smaller budget and don’t want to sell the farm. Still, they’ll be looking to add over the next two and a half weeks.
Rays senior vice president Chaim Bloom said Saturday that the team wants to “responsibly” improve the current team, feeling that the players have performed well enough that they’re owed reinforcements.
“What we think of this group and the way they’ve played so far it certainly motivates us to want to help them out however we can,” Bloom said, via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. “We want to make sure we do that responsibly, that we’re staying true to our goal of competing sustainably and be able to do this consistently over a number of years. Anything we can do to help them out is something we’re certainly going to look at.”
In other words, the Rays are cautious buyers. That makes their plan similar to that of the Cincinnati Reds. At 54-40, the Rays are wild card leaders, though the Yankees’ dominance may be too much to overcome in the AL East. Given that they start the second half in a playoff spot, upgrades are worthwhile.
