Prelude to a Trade Rumor... Coco and the Rays?

MLB Trade Rumors and Buster Olney report that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (see what I did there?) may have interest in Coco Crisp.  With Rocco Baldelli out for an extended period of time (and, quite possibly, the rest of his career... a very sad and unfortunate turn of events as Rocco suffers from extreme fatigue that hinders his recovery from workouts and game play) and Delmon Young being shipped to Minnesota (largely because the Rays were sick of putting up with his character issues), the Rays would certainly welcome a bit of depth in their seemingly shallow OF.  However, as MLBTR points out, Coco's due $11 million over the next 2 years and that is likely more than the Rays would consider, so the Sox would have to eat a decent amount of his contract to facilitate a deal.  The Rays do have quite a surplus of young arms, though (in fact Keith Law ranks them #1 in his organizational prospects list), so a deal would easily get done if the two can match up.

I don't think it's a good fit.  The Rays already have Carl Crawford and BJ Upton in the OF, and while Coco fits that same general mold (good average, moderate to good power, speedy), the Rays already brought in Cliff Floyd in the offseason for DH/OF duty.  Also in the outfield mix is Jonny Gomes, who has considerably more power potential (albeit at the expense of his contact rate and on base skills) than Coco.  In addition, Tampa has been rumored to be a possible landing spot for BALCO poster boy Barry Bonds, who only needs 65 more hits to reach 3000 on his career and would likely join a club just to achieve that milestone (i.e. he wouldn't give a crap the that the Rays won't be competing for a title).  The Sox would love to get a young pitcher like Edwin Jackson or Andy Sonnanstine in a deal with the Rays, but unless they're willing to cover at least $4 million of Coco's remaining contract themselves, I don't think there's a deal in the future.  Plus, with experts speculating that the Rays could be an 82+ win team this season (before you call me crazy, keep in mind that some analysts like Peter Gammons have stated as much during spring training), there's a good chance the Rays wouldn't want to do their AL East foes any favors by trading interdivisionally.

 
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