The Tampa Bay Rays’ offseason strategy is always hard to pin down. They historically engage in buying and selling at the same time. Only this franchise would trade Blake Snell in the same offseason after they made a surprise run to the World Series. They will trade Tyler Glasnow for a ton of prospects in the same offseason when they should have been taking the next step.
Then they’ll surprise everyone and boldly trade for someone like Nelson Cruz. No amount of playoff success (or lack thereof) alters the Rays’ fundamental operating strategy. That doesn’t stop baseball writers from trying to assign a label to their offseason activity.
Why The Rays Aren’t Rebuilding
This time of year is filled with people trying to summarize the past year and predict the future. To that end, The Athletic’s Chad Jennings recently wrote an article in which he classified teams as adding, rebuilding, or running it back. The Rays found themselves in that middle category alongside the other obvious victims. Do they really belong there?
MLB offseason tiers: Which teams are loading up, which are rebuilding, which are running it back? https://t.co/LljpjUZTyp
— Yong-Sik,Yun 🇰🇷🇮🇪🇺🇸 (@holland1507) December 24, 2025
This latest roster maneuvering really doesn’t feel like a “rebuild” in the strictest sense of the word. First, how effective are rebuilds anymore when they don’t guarantee you the chance at the top overall pick in the MLB draft? The days of the Baltimore Orioles or Houston Astros intentionally constructing rosters to lose games to secure the top draft spot are long gone. With the implementation of the MLB Draft Lottery, the odds of a team receiving a top pick are subject to the whims of a ping pong ball.
The Rays aren’t currently positioned to tear it down. They need to surround their young talent with established veterans. If they don’t adequately protect Junior Caminero in the lineup, then how can you accurately evaluate Caminero? They need to add depth to the rotation so that they don’t ask too much from their younger pitchers. These are all things that new ownership needs to understand as they make their first impressions in the community.
Some clubs are less fortunate.
The Washington Nationals are mentioned in this article as a team in the middle of rebuilding. That makes sense for an organization that fired both its manager and general manager last season. It was time to turn the page and start from scratch with a new regime that can help them compete in a loaded National League. The Nats taking offers on players like MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams makes sense for a club that won’t be contending during those respective players’ windows of club control. The Nats are even trying to copy the Rays with their hiring of former Rays Senior Director of Player Development Blake Butera as their new manager!
Or consider the St. Louis Cardinals, who are finally breaking it down after years of dithering around the mediocrity level. Former Rays employee Chaim Bloom is running the show and likely wants to build the Cardinals in the same way the Rays did. More clubs are trying to emulate the Rays’ strategy because of their success.
Rays are still adding talent.
The Rays have been extremely busy lately. They made a few notable trades that imported a ton of young talent. Two faces of this recent era of Rays baseball are gone. Still, the Rays have a strong farm system that these trades will further supplement.
In fact, the Rays have actually added free agents. Steven Matz represents a bold attempt to replace Shane Baz in the rotation next season. Cedric Mullins will help restore calm to an outfield that is always in disarray. The Boston Red Sox haven’t signed a single MLB free agent to this point. Of course, the Red Sox have been involved in a lot of high-profile free agent pursuits. Still, it shows how difficult it can be to pinpoint a team’s offseason moves.
The Rays have been doing this dance for a long time, and it’s essentially working. The picture will become clearer, but fans should trust that this organization knows what it is doing.
Main Photo Credits: Kim Klement-Imagn Images