It’s been a relatively quiet Winter Meetings thus far for the league as a whole.
However, there has been plenty of eventful things happening in the Rays tiny corner of the map as Wander Franco’s conviction was overturned and he’ll be receiving a new trial. In the draft lottery, the Rays were awarded the #2 pick in the 2026 draft, their highest had a pick in the top five since taking Brendan McKay 4th overall in 2017. Meanwhile, according to Jon Morosi of Ohtani is on a flight to Toronto fame, trade talks are picking up for Brandon Lowe.
The World Baseball Classic is fast approaching and it’s been announced that Junior Caminero will play for the Dominican Republic while Garrett Cleavinger and Griffin Jax will pitcher for team USA.
On Monday, the Rays reportedly signed veteran LHP Steven Matz to a two year deal. We received more details of the signing yesterday as Ken Rosenthal reported that the deal would pay Matz $7.5M per year; Alex Cora, Matz’s former Manager, told reporters that Matz was “pretty vocal about wanting to return to being a starter in 2026.”
In the rest of baseball land, the Philadelphia Phillies resigned Kyle Schwarber to a 5-year, $150M deal and Edwin Diaz signed a 3-year, $69M deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers; both of those amounts are a record AAV for their respective positions.
Today brings the end of the Winter Meetings but also the Rule 5 draft in which the Rays have generally been very activing having added Kevin Kelly and Ryan Thompson through the draft in past years.
It’s the third and final day of the 2025 Winter Meetings, what’s going to happen?
