The Rays are supposed to be the team quietly gutting its own roster for prospects around this time of year, and instead they’re the team apparently trying to buy the whole division.
A rival executive told Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic that “I think the big surprise will be Tampa buying big,” adding that “they’re everywhere scouting.” That’s a front office turning over every rock in baseball ten days before the Aug. 3 deadline, not hype tied to one specific name, and it lines up with everything they’ve actually been connected to since.
Case in point: the Rays have expressed trade interest in Angels shortstop Zach Neto and Mets right-hander Freddy Peralta, with Tarik Skubal still floating around as the pitching fantasy nobody actually expects to happen. Peralta is the low-cost version of this plan: a 30-year-old rental with a 4.99 ERA and a career-low strikeout rate, an arm you buy for pennies and hope levels out down the stretch.
Neto is the one that makes this a real story.
He’s hitting .235/.326/.440 with 19 homers and 13 steals, on track for a third straight 20/20 season, and he’s controllable all the way through 2029 while making just $4.15 million as a Super Two player. That’s not a rental. That’s a shortstop you build a lineup around for half a decade, which is a different acquisition entirely than “arm depth for a division race.”
The Red Sox want him too, and that’s the part that actually makes this fun.
Boston is pursuing Neto as well, and because these two teams play each other 13 times a year in the same division, this isn’t a normal trade negotiation between strangers. It’s Tampa and Boston bidding against each other for a player one of them will then have to face every summer for years. Boston’s shortstop shopping list has needed an upgrade for a while now, and that’s exactly why they’re not stepping aside just because a division rival wants the same guy.
The reported trade packages tell you how real this is. Tampa’s side reportedly starts with Carson Williams, Nathan Flewelling, Brody Hopkins and Anderson Brito. Boston’s would be built around Franklin Arias, a top-five prospect in the entire sport. Nobody offers that package for a player they’re lukewarm on.
https://twitter.com/AriA1exander/status/2081516372274610425
Ari Alexander’s reporting matches everything else out there this week, with the Angels telling teams they’ll at least listen and Neto’s name coming up whether the front office admits it publicly or not.
The complication nobody wants to say out loud: the Angels haven’t actually done anything yet. They’ve set an asking price high enough that league sources doubt they move him before Monday at all. Mozeliak all but admitted the Trout era is over, but admitting it and acting on it in five days are two different exercises, and this front office has a track record of neither.
The Rays enter deadline week with the best record in the American League. The rotation still needs both bodies and depth, with McClanahan working back from Tommy John and Rasmussen’s own injury history looming over every fifth day, and the front office wants to solve all of it at once instead of settling for one modest upgrade.
I’ve bet real money on dumber premises than “the Angels blink first.” I still wouldn’t put my rent on it.
