PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Kevin Kiermaier saw the post on MLB Trade Rumors and his ears perked up. The Rays are in on Freddie Freeman?
“I was like, ‘Hm!’” he said on Wednesday. “I didn’t expect to see that pop up!”
Were you shocked to hear that a franchise with a $77 million payroll last year is negotiating with a free agent who is reportedly seeking a six-year, $180 million contract? So were the Rays.
“I was surprised,” said Kiermaier. “But I love it.”
Tampa Bay’s largest free-agent deal came before the 1998 season, when the team signed lefty Wilson Álvarez to a five-year, $35 million contract. The organization has never signed a free agent for six years; only twice has it gone as many as four, both times before the iPod was invented.
Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports; Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
Kiermaier, a Gold Glove center fielder, is the beneficiary of one of the few big-money Rays extensions: a six-year, $53.5 million deal signed before the 2017 season. In November the team negotiated its largest outlay ever: an 11-year, $182 extension for 21-year-old shortstop Wander Franco.
Kiermaier dazzles in center and Franco could be a star, but Freeman, 32, is in a different class: a five-time All-Star, a three-time Silver Slugger at first base, a Gold Glover and the 2020 National League MVP. He led Atlanta to a championship last year. Other teams reportedly in on him include the Dodgers, the Red Sox and, until they signed first baseman Anthony Rizzo on Tuesday night, the Yankees. Can the shallow-pocketed Rays really outbid those big spenders?
Yes, said ace Tyler Glasnow, the team’s union representative. “I think it just depends on what you want to spend your money on,” Glasnow said. “Like, I obviously don't know the ins and outs [of the books], but I think if you look at the value of teams and just how profitable baseball is at this point, I'm sure you can.”
Tampa Bay reportedly receives somewhere in the neighborhood of $45 million per year in revenue sharing and is currently the subject of a union grievance accusing owner Stu Sternberg of pocketing that money; Glasnow is surely right that the cash exists. (Sternberg has denied the allegation.)
Still, an acquisition such as this one does not seem like a typical Rays move.
“That’s fair,” said manager Kevin Cash, who added, “Those [Freeman] rumors are awesome.”
Some Rays people joke about doing a car wash or bake sale to raise the money; players say they have not yet taken up a collection in the clubhouse. Outfielder Brett Phillips said he had not heard the rumor but now planned to advocate to the front office. “Now that I know this is a possibility—I’ll say you said so—I’ll tell them to make it work,” he said.
“You never know what can happen,” said Kiermaier. “I just know there’s other teams out there with a little more money to throw around and I know money talks.” He added, “It’s 2022. You truly never know. They just gave Wander [$182 million]; that came out of nowhere.”
Sign up for the Five-Tool Newsletter to get all our MLB coverage in your inbox every week.
In the meantime, the men who hope to be Freeman’s teammates are refining their non-monetary sales pitches.
“I think we’re good,” said reliever Pete Fairbanks. “We’ve been showing it for the past three years. Unfortunately he’s coming off a team that did better than us last year, so we can’t use that as a point on him.”
“Our team is very hungry to win,” said Glasnow. “I think we've been so close that it kind of drives us. So if you're competitive and want to win some baseball games and a World Series, come here and help.”
“Just the kind of fun we have on the field,” said lefty Ryan Yarbrough. “It’s contagious.”
“It’s 72 degrees every game,” said second baseman Brandon Lowe.
“Water,” said Phillips. “Whatever he needs. Sunblock. If he needs his shoulders lathered in sunblock—whatever this man needs, let him know that I will take care of him.”
Glasnow pointed out that this is the ideal time to make a splash: With the exception of Kiermaier, Tampa Bay’s entire core is under contract through at least 2023. And even if the Rays did pay Freeman $30 million per year, that would move them only from No. 22 in payroll to No. 17.
“I think it's a pretty high bar to upgrade the group we have based on—for better, for worse—our assessments here,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander told reporters on Tuesday. “But we're going to use the time to see if there's anything out there that makes sense.”
In the end, perhaps left fielder Randy Arozarena has the clearest outlook on the Freeman situation. “The Rays should sign him,” Arozarena said in Spanish. “He’s a good player.”
