Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

What's upside to Gathright putdown?

By GARY SHELTON
Published April 15, 2005

Finally, we have discovered the problem with the Rays.

Turns out, they just had too many fast, exciting players who were hitting .350.

The Rays fixed that Thursday. You know that if Joey Gathright kept running the bases, eventually some team was going to throw him out. Who know it would be his own?

In the only move that seemed faster than he is, the Rays shipped Gathright, too fast, too furious, back to the minor leagues. Of course they did. The message is this: Next time you're up, kid, you had better hit .400. Or else.

This is why the Rays are the Rays, and why the rest of us lack the special eyesight it takes to be in charge of a big-league club. Most of us might have been fooled by Gathright's average. Some of us might have been duped by the havoc he creates on the base paths. A few of us might have been distracted by how popular he had become with the crowd, such as it is. That happened fast, too.

Silly us.

Even in a batting order this mighty, we might have found room for Gathright.

Not the Rays, who needed room on their roster for Alex "Make a Muscle" Sanchez, who is returning from his suspension for use of a performance-enhancing substance. Nor could the Rays bear to part with Chris Singleton, a nice story of spring training but hardly a key element in the much-discussed future of the franchise.

Frankly, either player seemed more expendable than Gathright, a kid who leaves skid marks on the basepaths. He led his team in hitting, and in another week, he would have led in stolen bases. Maybe applause. As for the argument Gathright needs to play every day, I agree. He needs to play every day ... here.

Consider this: At the exact moment the Rays demoted Gathright, he was hitting at a .350 clip. They were winning at a .375 clip. Go figure.

Okay, okay. Gathright still needs to learn his way around centerfield. No one much admires speed when it is chasing after a ball that bounded over his head. Gathright needed work on his rough edges.

On the other hand, it isn't as if prospectors are mining for gold in Sanchez's glove. The very reason Sanchez is a Ray today is because the Tigers found his defense lacking.

That said, if the Rays really like Sanchez, why not keep them both? With the exception of Aubrey Huff, the Rays' outfield lacks power. Why not embrace speed? Can you imagine a lineup with Carl Crawford, Gathright and Sanchez? Just the thought is enough to make a catcher take Dramamine.

Why did the Rays send down Gathright? Partially because it was the easy thing to do. He has options left, and this way, the franchise can keep all three players. And, perhaps, part of it is the team's preference to keep its young stars' arbitration dates as far into the future as possible.

Of course, part of the reason they call it an "option" is that a team has the right to make a different decision. This time, the Rays could have kept the kid. They could have turned him loose and dared him to keep it up.

Maybe the team will do that.

You know, tomorrow.

Ah, yes, tomorrow. Anymore, the way the Rays say it, it sounds like a swear word. Yeah, yeah. Everyone knows the Rays are promised to the future. Yeah, yeah. Everyone knows their prospects are off-limits, even to themselves.

That said, how much more ready does a kid have to look than Gathright did? A year ago, it was hard to be sold on Gathright, who looked like a very good minor-league player caught in the headlights. At the time, he was just another speedster who could run faster than a ball can hop, and eventually, the major leagues catches up to those.

This time, he looked more mature, stronger. There will never be power in his bat, but there was enough pop. He looked like a guy who had grown up.

You wonder. Would the Rays have made this move if Gathright was hitting .425? What about .400? What about .375? What exactly did Gathright have to do before being embraced by a team that needs all the reinforcements it can get?

It would be nice to know, particularly if you are a prospect in the Rays' employ. What kind of message did this demotion send to B.J. Upton? To Delmon Young? To all of the others at work on the farm? If hitting .350 and running the bases on fast forward won't keep you with a bad team, then what will?

The Rays need to realize that, eventually, tomorrow comes. When a player does everything he's supposed to do, with the exception of a fly ball or two, it's bad business to send him away. After all, there is a charge for today's tickets, too.

(For the Rays, of course, this counts as progress. On this team, who ever argued against a demotion before? It always sounded like such a good idea.)

In some ways, it is easy to understand why Gathright was so popular with fans. Once he was on the basepaths, he seemed so darned impatient. Maybe the fans, a little weary of the wait themselves, found a kinship in that. Maybe they liked a little electricity from a darkened franchise. On a team that has never gone anywhere, maybe they liked the kid in a hurry be somewhere else.

Again, maybe it all would have changed. Maybe the pitchers would have caught up to him. Maybe the catchers. Maybe not.

Either way, it would have something to see.

On this team, that would be someplace to start.

[Last modified April 15, 2005, 00:48:13]