Snyder's Soapbox: With playoff position in sight, Rays are giving up once again instead of trying to win

Welcome to Snyder's Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it's free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you'll get smarter, though. That's a money-back guarantee. Let's get to it.

The Tampa Bay Rays ended Sunday just three games out of a playoff spot. That's perfectly workable. Yet their front office saw fit to essentially gut the team and they were met with an awful lot of praise in doing so. One article called it a "clinic" in selling.

It was certainly a clinic ... in giving up.

What the hell are we doing here? A front office quit on a team that was easily within striking range of a playoff spot and that's somehow a good thing? It's the opposite. It's pathetic. It's cheap. It is nonsense and should not be tolerated, much less praised.

Can we just call it what it actually is? It is loser behavior. Pulling the plug on a season when a playoff spot is within reach is loser behavior. It's quitting. Since when was quitting considered anything positive?

Worst of all, it's a middle finger to the fan base that has been following them all season.

I realize the point has been belabored, but we just saw an 84-win team take the pennant last season and it's bound to happen more and more in this playoff format. We have previous examples, too. In 2021, the Braves hadn't been above .500 at all -- at any point in the season! -- until August. They won the World Series despite having the worst record in the playoff field. The 2022 Phillies were 50-47 through July 26 and then went 37-28 the rest of the way before winning the NL pennant. The 2019 Nationals were only 58-53 through Aug. 4. They won the World Series too.

Anyone remember the 2014 Royals ? They were 48-50 through July 21. They were 4 1/2 games out of a playoff spot and I remember a good number of new-school media members calling for them to trade free-agent-to-be James Shields . Instead, Royals general manager Dayton Moore went for it. He didn't give up on his team because he didn't have a loser mentality. Come Aug. 23, the Royals were 72-56 and the hottest team in baseball. They'd hoist the AL pennant and then next season take another step forward as World Series champions.

Had Moore operated like the Rays are operating right now, he'd have traded at least Shields and probably several other big names like Alex Gordon , Greg Holland and Jason Vargas . They wouldn't have won the World Series in 2015 in this case.

Speaking of the 2015 World Series, the Mets were 52-50 on July 30 that season and would end up in the World Series. Remember their big trade deadline?

We could keep going and find so many cases of teams looking mediocre through July only to get hot at the right time. Those teams didn't have front offices that gave up on them.

It seems to me that far too many people get lost in the future when the present provides just as good an opportunity. The mindset has permeated so many front offices. Mike Elias of the Orioles seemingly would rather rank highly on prospect lists then win an actual World Series. I'm sure he'd argue that isn't the case, but that's how it looks. He's clinging to some of these guys for dear life when the American League is wide open and he's a few pitchers away from easily having the best chance to hoist the pennant. They don't even have a place to play all their stud prospects in the majors! And yet, here Orioles fans are, watching Elias hold on with a white-knuckle grip.

The motivation behind the Rays moves is particularly gross. It's just to save the owner money. Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes are hitting arbitration this coming offseason. Zach Eflin's deal escalates to $18 million next season. Keep in mind these aren't players hitting free agency after the year. Arozarena and Paredes are players to build around, not to cheap out on.

These deals are saving money for ownership while the local taxpayers are picking up $429.5 million of the tab on a new ballpark.

The counter-argument here will be that this Rays team is mediocre and isn't going anywhere this season anyway, so they are shrewdly building for the future. I'd again point to the 2014 Royals at this point in the season. They were not very good at the time. The 2021 Braves at this point in the season had never had a winning record, not even like 1-0 or 3-2 or anything. They had also lost their best player to a torn ACL.

Further, are there any teams in the American League you trust to be great in the playoffs this year? Every team is badly flawed and has gone through awful stretches. It definitely was not out of the question for the Rays to ride a hot streak into the playoffs and then make a deep run.

The front office had other ideas. Let's kick the can down the street and perpetually build for the future, I guess?

The teams that gain my respect are the ones that try to win. I'm aware that it doesn't always work. The Angels last year desperately tried to make a run so they could retain Shohei Ohtani . It didn't work, but at least they tried to win. What a novel concept, right? Trying to get good players and win games is a noble effort. It's a hell of a lot better than up and quitting on a season with two-plus months left -- and, again, only three games back of a playoff spot!

If not, what are we even doing here? Remember the old Herm Edwards clip ? "Hello? You play to win the game."

The 2024 Rays front office doesn't -- not the on-field game of baseball, at least. They are playing the game of saving their owner money, which is tantamount to spitting in the face of their paying customers. Instead of praising this, more people should be calling them out. I'm happy to be part of the resistance here. The Rays are playing to win money games, not baseball games.