How the Lockout is Affecting the Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays had the 5th smallest payroll last season, only ahead of the tanking Marlins, Indians, Pirates, and Orioles. The Tampa Bay Rays had the 2nd lowest average attendance only ahead of the Marlins and Athletics. The Tampa Bay Rays had in season controversy as principal Owner Stu Sternberg floated a split season plan with Montreal.

Switching gears to the MLB lockout, which was implemented on Dec 2. This is the first work stoppage since the 1994-1995 season which was before the Rays were a team. This allowed there to be an imaginary trade deadline as over 2 billion was spent on players in 2 weeks. There will likely be another facade trade deadline as star players like Carlos Correa and Freddie Freeman will rush to sign with big market teams before games begin.

The question you all have been waiting to be answered. No major news outlet has answered it. How does this lockout affect the Rays? The reason why this article is being written so late in the lockout is because the lockout hasn't negatively affected them. But the lockout hasn't helped them either. The Rays are a unique team that won 100 games last season, a small market team that has been using many strategies that are being argued between the players and owners. The first strategy is Arbitration.

The owners want Arbitration, instead of a player pleading his case for a bigger salary to a panel and the team either wanting it lower or agreeing, they want it to be based on algorithm. Algorithm basically means WAR, how many games a player has won for a team. I actually agree with this, having a team talk down and bad about a young player is unhealthy not only for the players motivation but also for the teams reputation.

If this ends up happening it will help and hurt the Rays. It will help because more players will want to play for them and small markets in general. It will hurt because the Rays payroll will have to increase, lowering the number of up and coming arb players they will have. Instead expect more rent a car veterans on 1-2 year deals instead. This lowers potential and long term success. This is all assuming ownership will still be cheap. Arbitration salary will not affect the Rays as it will be the same base salary increase for all teams. The next big thing is revenue sharing.

Revenue sharing is when all the TV (National, local, out of market) money, about 1.5 billion, among all 30 teams. This balances the competitiveness of teams to help small markets. The MLBPA wanted to cut it by 60 million each team at first, but after last weeks talks they lowered the cut to 30. This will obviously hurt the Rays, count the owners on this one. Another thing MLBPA wants to lower is age based free agency.

Lowering the age based free agency to 26.5 will hurt the Rays. This lowers base pay with team control, which is already increased, so the Rays will be able to have less time to hold on to a Wander Franco and pay him 600k. First time free agents will want to cash out, obviously the Rays aren't known to cash in. Another thing that WILL change is an expanded playoff.

An expanded playoff to 12 or 14 teams will help the Rays. This will allow them to use less players and be healthier knowing they have a better shot. This is an overall advantage for small market teams because they have less star power.The Rays used the most pitchers and players in baseball. That definitely affected their early playoff exit last year.

This shows how the lockout hurts the Rays more than affects them. The Rays, being a small market team will have less time to strategize with players. There is still lots left in the lockout process as something needs to be done by the middle of February for no games to be canceled. It does help that the Rays are close to their spring training, so they don't need much time to get over there.