Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Rays

Positions wanted? Well, come on down!

By GARY SHELTON
Published March 24, 2005

I hear they are hiring down at the plant. From what I hear, the wages aren't bad.

Oh, there are drawbacks. You have to work nights and weekends, and you have to wear a uniform. Travel is involved. From time to time, the boss has been known to raise his voice.

Still, the job pays like a winning Lotto ticket, and you get all the free bubble gum you want.

Sure, the guys hiring want a little experience. Doesn't everyone? What is more important is that you be able to hit two-bucks-fifty and find the occasional cutoff man. Every now and then, they would like it if you would chase a fly ball, although when you remember the way Ben Grieve used to do the job, I'm not certain that's a requirement.

Go ahead. Fill out an application. Oil your mitt. Stonewall a senator.

You, too, can be a Devil Ray.

Alas, our desperate, disparaged desperados. One day, the Rays are minding their own business, preparing furiously to defend their first fourth-place finish, and the next, someone has misplaced two of their starters (and much of their offseason).

Say this much for Roberto Alomar and Danny Bautista: They may have wanted to play baseball, but evidently, not in the worst way. Evidently, the sight of so many retirees having so much fun was just too much of a siren's song for either of them.

Amazing, isn't it, how bad luck seems to find bad teams? Then again, when you shop in the clearance bin, sometimes you get broken merchandise. You measure the cost not in money but in bother.

Here the Rays are, then, shopping for Easter. There is much about the spring that is meant to inspire hope, but the sight of a franchise scrambling for starters 11 days before the opener isn't one of them. To paraphrase Bud and Lou, Who is on second and I Don't Know is in right.

It's hard to blame either Alomar or Bautista. Yeah, Bautista could have worked it into the conversation that he was considering retirement, but this is better than watching him limp through a season and cash checks. At least this way, the Rays get a mulligan on his paycheck.

It is a vexing time for the Rays. For one thing, the legend of Bautista seems to grow by the day until you think he may join Alomar in the upcoming Hall of Fame debates.

The truth is that Bautista was one of those nice-but-invisible players who would have played here for a year without anyone noticing. That the Rays can be this gobsmacked over his loss says more about the team than it does the player.

Granted, losing two starters over a weekend would be a problem for any team. With some, however, it might be more easily repaired. The Yankees could lose a second baseman and an outfielder and reload before lunch. It's easy when you're rich. You absorb a contract, you move a backup at a fat position, you surrender a prospect.

The Rays? They have neither spare change nor spare parts. They do have prospects, but evidently, players such as Delmon Young and B.J. Upton are off limits, even to themselves.

That said, the Rays still need to figure out where to go from here.

Option One: They can wait to see who falls out of the sky.

Somebody will. Teams soon will make their final roster decisions, and they'll end up with players who have run out of options and players who have run out of chances. Say this about reclaimed freight, it's a cheap way to go.

Put it this way: There are 29 other teams in major-league baseball, which means there are 87 starting outfielders. Throw in two backups per team, and you're at roughly 145 jobs.

Speaking directly to No. 146, the Rays are all over you.

Unless, of course, you are Ben Grieve.

Option Two: They can swallow hard and promote one of their tomorrows.

This is tricky, because the Rays don't want to rush Young, and they want Upton to learn how to play short, and they don't want to hurry the day that either is lining up for arbitration. When you're staring at 70 victories, what's the rush?

Still, there is something about having more untouchables in the minors than in the majors. It's like keeping your best golf clubs in the closet.

Here's the deal. What about the other players in the minors? If you really believe in Joey Gathright or Jonny Gomes, for instance, maybe you give one of them a long look.

Hey, you can't wait for everyone to arrive all at the same time. Eventually, fans are going to start chartering buses from St. Pete to Durham, just to see the real stars of this franchise.

Option Three: They can make a tiny trade. The Rays seem caught between their untouchables and their unmentionables, and as a result, they have very little to offer. Still, they have a few arms that look intriguing. They could swap Lance Carter, two years removed from the All-Star Game. They could trade Jorge Sosa or Trever Miller.

Does that get you a player like Wily Mo Pena from the Reds? Who knows? Personally, none of us knows Wily Mo from Curly Joe, but it's a star's name, and you have to start somewhere.

Option Four: They can get creative and aim higher than you might expect.

Maybe they package Carter and Gathright. Maybe Sosa and Gomes. Maybe they even swallow hard and talk about moving closer Danys Baez.

That way, the Rays could demand a little more in return. Maybe they could wind up with a player who could help for a couple of seasons to come.

It's a more difficult way to deal, because it demands that a team be smarter. Still, the payoff could be greater.

Option Five: They could go to Japan and bring back a player they flirted with over the winter.

Just wondering: If Tony Batista were to replace Danny Bautista, would it make a noise in the forest?

[Last modified March 24, 2005, 01:20:20]