ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Let’s talk about money. Specifically, let’s have a conversation about the $25 million the Rays just agreed to pay Tyler Glasnow to pitch one season of baseball in 2024.
This is obviously a huge lump of cash but, in baseball terms, it’s not exceptional. More than two dozen players around the league will earn at least that much this season.
What makes it fascinating is the logo on the paycheck.
These are the Rays we’re talking about. A team that has made it chic to win on a budget. That $25 million represents a 66-percent increase over the largest one-year salary the team has ever paid.
So what, exactly, does the Glasnow contract tell us?
Is it a change in philosophy? (Not really.) Is it a prelude to Glasnow being traded? (Not immediately.) Is it a clue that the Rays are excited about their chances in 2023-24? (Oh, yeah.)
“I think it’s a matter of recognizing that we have a very talented team,” Rays president Erik Neander said. “It’s recognizing that we’re still trying to get ourselves to win that last game of the season. And, you know, we’re close to that. That’s within our reach if things go our way.”
The Rays have always insisted they were flexible when it came to payroll size. If the player was right, if the time was right, if the price was right, they were willing to make a one-year expenditure.
Owner Stu Sternberg talked about a similar scenario in the winter of 2019, when Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rendon were on the free-agent market. The Rays had a talented team — in fact, they went to the World Series 10 months later — and Sternberg said he would be willing to immediately boost the payroll $50 million by paying each of them a $25 million, one-year salary.
But, of course, those players wanted long-term security. Cole signed a nine-year, $324 million deal with the Yankees and Rendon went to Anaheim on a seven-year, $245 million contract. And that’s where the Rays, and most other low-revenue teams, have a difficult time competing.
A one-year contract that turns into a disaster, for whatever reason, can be weathered by an organization. A long-term mistake is harder to absorb and can leave a team in ruins for years. Just ask the Tigers if they’d like a do-over on the Miguel Cabrera contract.
What we have with the Glasnow deal is a unique set of circumstances. He’s an elite pitcher coming off a major injury. Glasnow has been happy with the way the Rays have treated him in the past, and he’s comfortable working with pitching coach Kyle Snyder. All of that matters.
He was still under Tampa Bay’s control for 2023, so the $5.35 million he’ll make next season is in line with standard arbitration numbers. Essentially, Glasnow was willing to give up one year of free agency (if a $25 million salary in 2024 can be considered a sacrifice) to stay in a place where he was happy and with a coaching staff he was comfortable working alongside.
That gives him two years to get his career back on track after Tommy John surgery, and he’ll hit free agency in 2025 at age 31.
The deal also means there will be no chatter about dealing Glasnow this offseason or next July at the trade deadline. As for 2024, the Rays will need to make a calculation of how strong their chances are for October, but president Matt Silverman said the intention is to keep Glasnow in Tampa Bay.
While they have traded players in the past when their salaries have grown, they also held on to Charlie Morton until the end of his deal because they had championship aspirations.
“This contract shows we want to try to win with Tyler Glasnow,” Silverman said. “And there’s value to Tyler in the peace of mind of knowing that he’s coming back here next year. He wants to be here. He is choosing to be here.”
Meanwhile, the Rays get an All-Star-caliber pitcher without completely busting the bank. And they have enough younger players, who are not yet eligible for free agency, to keep the payroll in the low $100 million range while still competing with $200 million payrolls in New York, Boston and elsewhere.
For instance, Shane McClanahan will just be reaching his first season of arbitration in 2024, which means the Rays could have two Cy Young candidates for less than the Yankees will pay Cole that season.
“This is a move that recognizes where we are competitively, the talent we are likely to have the next few years and the chance to sync up a couple of proven front-of-the-rotation arms for longer than otherwise would happen,” Neander said. “There’s a cost to doing that but, given the quality and expectations of our group, we felt it was well worth the commitment.”
