The full set of details is still emerging from baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement.
But from what Rays President of baseball operations Matt Silverman has seen so far, he doesn’t feel it’ll be too beneficial to the team.
“I’m not optimistic about the collective bargaining agreement in terms of helping us as a lower revenue club,” Silverman said. “We’ve been working with the league for over ten years now. This is our third collective bargaining agreement. And what we’ve seen is competitive imbalance continues to grow.”
Silverman says he feels the Rays are a team playing with "a deck stacked against them".
He was hoping the new collective bargaining agreement would provide small market teams additional access in the amateur draft and through international avenues to shrink what he calls "imbalance".
Silverman wants "a more level playing field" for teams like the Rays to compete with organizations that have deeper pockets to spend from.
“Our goal is to work within our constraints to put a playoff club on the field,” Silverman said. “And to do that, we have to be creative. We have to be willing to make big deals and willing to take… I don’t want to say risks, but calculated risks in terms of the trades that we make.”
The Rays will likely be active in the offseason.
But manager Kevin Cash is focusing on how the team can improve with the core players that are already in place.
“We didn’t accomplish some things that we thought that we should,” Cash said. “And if you have that in the back of your mind, I think- I know all of our players are working towards accomplishing those goals and winning some more games this upcoming season.”
Silverman says nothing is off the table in terms of a potential trade, meaning Evan Longoria and Chris Archer’s names will continue to come up in rumorville.
Silverman would like to have both of them back, but he says whatever is best for the club will be how the team proceeds.