Despite their recent acquisitions, reports suggest that the Tampa Bay Rays are highly unlikely to trade center fielder Kevin Kiermaier.
The Tampa Bay Rays now have a plethora of options in center field, but Dan Hamilton of USA Today Sports reports that they are not inclined to trade Kevin Kiermaier. A club official told Hamilton that such a trade would be “very unlikely”.
Why the speculation? Well, just the other day the Tampa Bay Rays landed another center fielder Mallex Smith in exchange for Drew Smyly. Smith, who will turn 24 years old in May, brings a combination of speed and defense that is like that of Kiermaier’s. Another similarity is that both players will remain under the Rays’ control for the foreseeable future given their relative inexperience.
To compound the center field density, the Rays signed Colby Rasmus to a one-year contract worth $5 million earlier this off-season. Rasmus has formerly played for the Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, and St. Louis Cardinals. His performance has been a little inconsistent, with some seasons coming with exceptional value and others being roughly replacement-level.
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Kiermaier, on the other hand, has provided the Tampa Bay Rays with a tremendous amount of value over his time with the team. In close to three full seasons, he has been one of the best defenders in the game at a highly demanding position. In 2015, for example, he saved an incredible 42 runs for the Rays in center field. He won a Platinum Glove, a fan-selected award for the American League’s best defender, that season.
It is needless to say that rival teams would love to obtain such a valuable defender at a premium position. Better yet, the outfielder has provided all this defensive value along with average batting skills and plus base running. This combination has made him one of the most valuable players in the game.
Even more enticing, he comes with another four years of team control and is still relatively cheap. The arbitration process tends not to value base running and defensive skills as highly as their offensive and more traditional counterpart statistics. This means that Kiermaier is a highly valuable asset with team control that should be fairly underpriced. If the Tampa Bay Rays were to trade him, they would fetch a pretty sum in return.
This said, the Rays may be acquiring this level of depth in the outfield due to injury worries. After all, Kiermaier missed nearly two months last year. The team’s performance tanked in his absence. The Rays won 48 games against 54 losses when he was with the team but won just 20 games against 40 losses without him.
