Earlier this week the Rays picked up the $10 million dollar option for the 2010 season of Carl Crawfords contract. You can read all about it here. I happen to agree with the author of the article by the way. This is a very good thing for Rays fans! I do not think that Carl will finish the 2010 season as a Ray, and I will be really upset when he is traded, but the fact is he will be traded. Carl will be a FREE AGENT in 2011. If there is no extension signed in the off season, or before the end of Spring Training, I just do not see anyway CC puts on the number 13 for the Rays to start the 2011 season.
The Rays simply will not be able to afford to pay Carl what he will be worth on the free agent marked in 2011. If you look at the 2009 salaries of the top ten paid outfielders in the MLB you will see that even at $10 million Carl is under paid. Numbers do not lie, they don't always tell the whole story, but they do not lie. Carl will make more then the Rays can afford. The Rays also have a number of young prospects in the farm system that could fill the gap in the outfield if Carl was traded. Desmond Jennings, Frenando Perez, Justin Ruggiano and lets not forget Matt Joyce.
Here are what the 2009 salaries of the top ten outfielders in baseball made in 2009. When I look at this list I do not see 10 players better then Carl Crawford.
Manny Ramirez $23 million
Carlos Beltran $19 million
Carlos Lee $19 million
Magglio Ordonez $18.9 million
Torii Hunter $18 million
Ichiro $18 million
Alfonso Soriano $17 million
Vlad Guerrero $15 million
J.D. Drew $14 million
Matt Holliday $13.5 million
The Rays are not going to be able to spend that kind of money for a left fielder. Hopefully the front office will put together the kind of deal they did for Delmon Young and not the kind of deal they did for Edwin Jackson. Carl will have a good year next year for the Rays until about the mid point of the season and then I look for the Rays to unload him to a contender, who hopefully will not be in the AL East, for picks and prospects. I will curse them and be upset, but that is what happens when you root for a small market team. You get high draft picks, develop them into All Stars, and then ship them off to New York, Boston, or LA. Durham is our farm system, the Rays are the big money teams farm hands.....and that is what is wrong with the current system we have in Major League Baseball. Go Rays, and Carl, I will root for you where ever you go unless it is to the Yankees, or Red Sox.
The Card Addict
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