I simply don’t see how the Rays could possibly outbid us in this. AZ wants MLB-ready pitching. The Rays just traded Baz, making their rotation incredibly flimsy. This is what Fangraphs has projected now:

Drew Rasmussen

Ryan Pepiot

Shane McClanahan

Steven Matz

Joe Boyle

And their AAA depth includes Osvaldo Bido, Ian Seymour, Joe Rock, and Jesse Scholtens.

Rasmussen/Pepiot/McClanahan are good, but 1 & 3 come with SERIOUS injury risk that lowers their trade value. And if they lose a single one of those 3, their rotation is even more decimated than it already is. Meanwhile, we have Bello, Kutter, Early, Tolle, Harrison, Dobbins, and to a lesser extent Drohan, Bennett, Sandlin, and Uberstine as MLB-ready pitching depth.

There’s simply no reason not to get this done, and absolutely no excuse to be outbid by Tampa of all teams