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No matter how far the Rays get this season, and no matter how many revenue-generating postseason games they host, that won't change principal owner Stuart Sternberg's plans to reduce the payroll - potentially significantly - from this year's record in excess of $70-million.

"No question. Nothing can change that,'' Sternberg said before Tuesday's game. "Unfotunately there's nothing that can happen between now and April that can change that unless Joe Maddon hits the lottery and wants to donate it, or I hit the lottery.''

Sternberg wouldn't say how low the payroll may go, though he said in spring training it wouldn't reach even the $60-million range. "I don't have a plan in mind what the lower (end) is,'' he said. "I just know it's going down.''

Sternberg also said:

* The Rays "can't come close" to turning a profit this year.

* He is "not optimistic" season tickets will rise much for 2011 based on this year's success.

* Having a large lead over the Red Sox for the wild card is the most surprising part of this season for him.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/cont ... going-down

Tough news. They re going to have to find a way to keep their best players or they will have to rebuild again. 60 million is way too low. The Jays are rebuilding right now, but unlike Tampa, they intend to spend to keep their players. That stadium has too many empty seats despite having a great team. Carl Crawford is gone for sure.

Who will likely become available?

darth_federer wrote:

Carl Crawford is gone for sure.

He is definitely available, I wonder where Crawford will end up.

What about Pena? I'd love him as Jays' 1B

Crawford is definitely gone then and i'm guessing so is Pena.

They'll be fine for a while. Their pitching is only gonna get better with Jeremy Hellickson joining the rotation, they'll lose Crawford but Desmond jennings will be a half decent replacement. Pena is easily replaceable, he has been a liability more than anything this year. Soriano is gone and they'll lose a couple of other guys in the pen but Tampa Bay is really really good at finding quality relievers of the scrap heap and i imagine that's what they'll do next year. They also have plenty of quality arms in the system to replace injuried starters or relievers.

What really is matters is they have Longoria and Price locked up for a while, and when you have two franchise corner stones like that, its easy to find ways to build around them.

Crawford, Soriano and Pena are all gone. Shields or Garza could be traded.

The whole problem with TB is their atrocious stadium is too far from their actual fanbase/downtown, no one wants to drive to it to see a game. It should be right downtown beside where the Buccaneers play.

They have enough young talent that hasn't reached free-agency yet that they won't fall off the cliff but you're not going to compete with the 2 evil empires with a $50 million (or less) payroll.

They will lose Crawford, Soriano, and Pena after this season. Garza ($3.35M in 2010), Bartlett ($4M in 2010), and Upton ($3M in 2010) are due arbitration raises. Shields and Zobrist are under long-term contracts. A bunch of their relievers are free agents too, although they have had success with getting relievers lately.

Jennings will replace Crawford. They could probably trade Bartlett to save money and move Sean Rodriguez or Reid Brignac to short. They could move Garza to make room for Hellickson (they’ll still have Price, Neimann, Davis, and Shields in the rotation). They certainly have options.

Tough to tell where Tampa will be. It is easy to say “Jennings will replace Crawford” and “Hellickson can jump into the rotation to replace a potentially traded Garza”, but young players do not always pan out. Crawford has a WAR of 4.6 right now. That is a load for Jennings to have to make up. That is just one example.

As a Jays fan, Tampa having to cut costs is great news. They have a very good GM and farm system, but the more established talent they have to move the harder it will be for them to remain competitive (see Oakland). The Jays can build up their system like the Rays did but can also afford to increase payroll when the time comes. I think Tampa will be good next season, and maybe the year after as well, but if they do not start increasing their payroll I don't see how they will be able to sustain this type of success. Especially when we all know the Yankees are just going to sign Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford, and Scott Downs this off-season, and the Red Sox will go crazy too to make up for missing the playoffs.

There was a great back and forth in April on this issue between two knowledgeable writers: http://jonahkeri.com/2010/04/08/jeff-pa ... -rebuttal/

And so it begins. This will be TB's exit from the playoff picture in short order. Once more players are due raises before FA via arbitration, TB will fall apart slowly but surely. Great news for the Jays. One less team to beat.

ItsDanger wrote:And so it begins. This will be TB's exit from the playoff picture in short order. Once more players are due raises before FA via arbitration, TB will fall apart slowly but surely. Great news for the Jays. One less team to beat.

nah, i dont see them falling that much. their young guys are really good. hats off to their scouts

If they win the world series no body goes any where, or they all end up yanks or sox.

hyper316 wrote:

ItsDanger wrote:And so it begins. This will be TB's exit from the playoff picture in short order. Once more players are due raises before FA via arbitration, TB will fall apart slowly but surely. Great news for the Jays. One less team to beat.

nah, i dont see them falling that much. their young guys are really good. hats off to their scouts

Over the years, we've seen plenty of teams make that claim only to be chewed up by salary constraints. It will happen to TB as well. Only Minnesota has really been able to maintain a winning formula. But they are not in the AL East. TB isnt that far ahead of Boston (who had a lot of injuries) this year.