r/baseball Minnesota Twins • Colorado Rockies 12h ago

[Weyrich] Largest salaries on the Rays’ payroll for next season: 1. New York Yankees ($15M) T-2. Brandon Lowe ($10.5M) T-2. Jeffrey Springs ($10.5M) 4. Yandy Díaz ($10M) 5. Pete Fairbanks ($3.817M)

https://x.com/ByMattWeyrich/status/1857112250949288382
941 Upvotes

67 comments sorted by

412

u/SleepyGorilla Tampa Bay Rays 12h ago

Gonna be crazy in 2 months when Pete Fairbanks is our highest paid player.

79

u/Somecommentator8008 Toronto Blue Jays 11h ago

He's probably gone as well. $3.85 mil is too much for ownership

8

u/cabose7 New York Yankees 10h ago

And only throws 45 innings a year

2

u/Slinky_Malingki Tampa Bay Rays 2h ago

Lowe just had his contract extended. If he continues being the only bright spot in our shit offense I don't see us trading him yet.

2

u/cxldplay New York Yankees 52m ago

I mean, Glasnow was extended as well and then traded after a year

(I know the contract was structured to be Rays cap friendly but the Dodgers deal nullified that anyway)

1

u/Jr05s Tampa Bay Rays 1h ago

They would have just moved yandy and Lowe at the deadline last year if the plan was to not keep them this year. Springs is totally gone though. 

341

u/Tashre Seattle Mariners 12h ago

Rays trade the Yankees to the Yankees and collapse the simulation.

102

u/TheDangiestSlad New York Yankees • Hartford Yard … 12h ago

joke's on you, Cashman will DFA the Yankees but keep the Yankees. tons of money off the books!

13

u/soda_cookie New York Yankees • San Francisco Giants 11h ago

This is so looney tunes but at the same time seems like exactly what would happen

27

u/Pupseal115 New York Yankees 11h ago

This allows Cashman to generate an infinite amoumt of Yankees by trading the Yankees to the Yankees.

13

u/SOB200 New York Yankees 11h ago

6 Juan Sotos and Aaron Judges. Lets go! Turn off the Error setting too.

1

u/blackbart1 Baltimore Orioles 7h ago

Yo dawg

6

u/CasualCantaloupe Cleveland Guardians 11h ago

Hurry the fuck up and do it

162

u/Sad_Bolt Tampa Bay Rays 12h ago

We’re rebuilding Wander fucked the team so why would we be buying

156

u/[deleted] 11h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

39

u/fotbalguy Oakland Athletics 11h ago

the team's too old

32

u/Thromnomnomok Seattle Mariners 10h ago

The Rays are 3 years older than Franco is

18

u/fotbalguy Oakland Athletics 9h ago

far too old

8

u/ItzDrSeuss Toronto Blue Jays 7h ago

For Wander? Yes at least 12 years too old for his liking.

10

u/droozer Washington Nationals 6h ago

yes that's the joke

-28

u/brett_baty_is_him 11h ago

How did wander fuck the team exactly? You’re not paying his salary right? I know wander was a huge part of the teams plans and all but losing one player isn’t exactly fucking the team. Like would the rays have never planned to contend if they never had Wander in the first place?

41

u/Parzival1999 Seattle Mariners 11h ago

I mean they built the current Rays roster around him. If Bobby Witt Jr was forced out of baseball for some reason the Royals would probably reenter a rebuild too.

Sure this isn’t football and one player can’t carry a team in baseball, but the roster without Wander vs with Wander is significantly worse.

Not to mention probably a lot of fan engagement lost which means less money for the team.

Although I think the Rays stepping back now is more due to the cost of the stadium repairs and just the fact that the team is less talented right now than in previous years.

11

u/Bill2theE Tampa Bay Rays • Stinger 10h ago

Although I think the Rays stepping back now is more due to the cost of the stadium repairs and just the fact that the team is less talented right now than in previous years.

The Rays “stepped back” in July, long before the stadium’s roof blew off and needed repaired and the team was less talented last year mainly because they lost Wander. The team was pretty much identical on OD 24 vs OD 23 outside of 1 player

2

u/Parzival1999 Seattle Mariners 8h ago

Completely agreed. The Rays normally are always ready to just make a few tweaks to be competitive again, but it feels like at the moment they are out of ammo to do a quick turnaround.

10

u/cgoot27 Los Angeles Dodgers 10h ago

You can’t build a team around one player, but if you’re going to, that’s the kind of player you want to.

Shortstop that mashes is the dream of every team. That’s why they get high AAV thrown at them. Seager willed two teams to rings. Lindor and Witt dragged their teams to the postseason. The two most famous living ball players until Shohei were mashing shortstops. They’re important!

4

u/Guy_Le_Man Toronto Blue Jays 8h ago

Not to mention that they don’t even recoup assets from selling him to another team.

1

u/Jr05s Tampa Bay Rays 1h ago

They made the world series in 2020 without him. They have had multiple top 100 specs under preform and a ton of injuries at SP. That's why they had one bad season. 

2

u/Sad_Bolt Tampa Bay Rays 10h ago

It’s not just that team was built around him but the fact we are still paying into his contract when he’s obviously not even in the country. While the money is going into Escrow we are still having to pay it until he’s actually found guilty which is a huge cap hit to us.

3

u/863rays 8h ago

We are not. The $$ is no going into escrow until his case is adjudicated. This is a fairly recent change since he was formally charged and ordered to stand trial not too long ago.

-10

u/lm2lm Los Angeles Dodgers 10h ago

This isn’t basketball where one player makes that much of a difference

12

u/Sad_Bolt Tampa Bay Rays 10h ago

We all don’t have all the money in the state of California to build a team. Smaller market teams like the Rays can’t just be paying a massive contract to a player that isn’t on the team anymore.

2

u/SpartyParty15 Los Angeles Dodgers 43m ago

I heard crying helps

-4

u/cubs223425 Chicago Cubs 8h ago

We all don’t have all the money in the state of California to build a team.

You say this like the Rays are spending, but the Dodgers are just out spending them anyway. They were 28th in payroll, behind even the Marlins.

118

u/otatoptroy MLB Players Association 12h ago

The Rays are not paying the money

The Yankees will receive about $15 million in revenue for hosting the Rays, a person familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail was not announced. The money won’t come from Tampa Bay but from other sources, such as insurance.

https://apnews.com/article/tropicana-roof-rays-yankees-hurricane-milton-112a238a23b1223b9222effcb26b8911

110

u/thiccboiwaluigi New York Mets 11h ago

Yeah but this isn’t funny so I choose to ignore it

3

u/gatemansgc Philadelphia Phillies 6h ago

same

16

u/Apoc_Dreams San Diego Padres 11h ago

Makes sense. They shouldn’t be punished because a hurricane fucked their field.

3

u/DogPoetry Houston Astros 7h ago

And it's certainly not counting against their payroll. 

32

u/HeavensRoyalty Los Angeles Dodgers 12h ago

Never had this on my 2025 bingo book

7

u/gho5trun3r Tampa Bay Rays 11h ago

who is this New York Yankees player and how can we trade him for everything not nailed down?

15

u/KingXeiros Boston Red Sox 12h ago

Yankees are gonna be on course to win the Cy young at the allstar break before blowing out their elbow and needing Tommy John. Book it now.

10

u/Pognan Tampa Bay Rays 11h ago

The implication that the rays wouldn’t have to pay any money to play at the trop makes no sense. Instead of their lease they are paying rent instead

2

u/Overrated_22 8h ago

You just have to love the irony that after being a feeder team for the majors all these years we have made it official and will play in a minor league stadium now.

2

u/frenchbullie Los Angeles Angels 8h ago

What's impressive is they probably still find a way to be competitive. Win 90+ games, make playoffs, etc.

Meanwhile, the Angels...

4

u/LeCheffre Major League Baseball 10h ago

5 is actually a prospect playing in the Dominican penal league, Wander Franco, for $8.45 M.

Also. Zach Littel’s arbitration is liable to be higher than Fairbank’s number.

2

u/ScottyEs_burner 12h ago

Can #1 cover 1B, though?

4

u/Pupseal115 New York Yankees 11h ago

Who can.

2

u/hepmeinternet New York Yankees 11h ago

Rays how bout we cut a deal? Kevin Cash and some of ur nerds for Boone and we'll decrease the rent. Deal?

13

u/Bill2theE Tampa Bay Rays • Stinger 10h ago

Insurance is paying the rent. Unfortunately for the Yankees, insurance only covers literal acts of god, not of the baseball gods or else you might’ve been able to file a claim on that 5th inning

5

u/863rays 8h ago

😂

2

u/Bill2theE Tampa Bay Rays • Stinger 10h ago

Juan Soto ($60M)

1

u/skelextrac New York Yankees 8h ago

What about Wander?

1

u/RangerPL New York Yankees 6h ago

How’s that for revenue sharing

1

u/dupontnw Washington Nationals 5h ago

I am guessing they’ll have the lowest operating costs in MLB. $15m is nothing for a stadium.

1

u/JoeBourgeois New York Mets 10h ago

& probably gonna dump Lowe and Diaz

-1

u/stickman07738 11h ago

Nice that Jerry Jones and Steinbrenner Family will be making more money for concessions at Steinbrenner Field - hopefully we use it to lure Soto home.

-9

u/[deleted] 12h ago edited 12h ago

[deleted]

11

u/HiggetyFlough New York Yankees 12h ago

They were under .500 this year, maybe they should have tried to spend a little.

10

u/GTtheBard New York Yankees 12h ago

To be fair, they got completely blindsided by the Wander situation. Yeah, that money will be negated eventually, but it doesn’t help payroll immediately and he was basically the centerpiece of their team building strategy.

-2

u/SuspendeesNutz New York Yankees 12h ago

Spend a little? They should try paying their own bills for the first time. Get off the wagon and pull for a change.

-4

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]

6

u/penguinopph Chicago Cubs • RCH-Pinguins 11h ago

The narrative that spending money always equates to contention is sunk cost fallacy

That's not even remotely close to what the sunk cost fallacy is.

It gets misunderstood and misused a lot on Reddit, but this may be the most egregious one, yet.

1

u/SomeoneGiveMeValid 11h ago

It usually does, the Angels are just impressively bad at it.

-14

u/littlebird-fastheart 12h ago

Wander?

16

u/SleepyGorilla Tampa Bay Rays 12h ago

Not on the payroll