ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Andrew Friedman is more interested in talking about what the Tampa Bay Rays have than what they don’t after not making a move to strengthen their offense before the non-waiver trade deadline.
“We’re in first place … and we control our destiny,” the team’s executive vice president of baseball operations said Thursday night after a bid to obtain outfielder Jason Bay ended when the two-time NL All-Star went from Pittsburgh to Boston as part of the three-way deal that sent Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The AL East-leading Rays were in the market for a strong right-handed hitter. However, Friedman expressed confidence that Tampa Bay has enough power on the roster to improve enough offensively to stay in the race.
“We have a lot of faith in the guys we have,” Friedman said during a conference in which he declined to talk specifics about trade discussions.
The Rays lead the division by three games over the second-place Red Sox.
The New York Yankees, who have bolstered their roster by acquiring catcher Ivan Rodriguez, outfielder Xavier Nady and reliever Damaso Marte, were four games back heading into Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels.
“I’m not going to address speculation,” Friedman said when asked if at any time he felt the Rays were close to making a a deal. “We had conversations that went right down to the wire. Obviously when you have that, you feel like you have a chance.”
But Tampa Bay was unwilling to part with several promising prospects from their talent-rich minor league system, and the Pirates wound up getting four young players from the Dodgers and Red Sox just before the deadline.
Friedman insisted he wasn’t discouraged by not making a deal to shore up an offense that has struggled to score runs.
He’s confident the team will continue to thrive on strong pitching and solid defense, and believes the offense will be fine if the Rays begin getting more consistent production from Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena.
“We’ve got a first-place club. … We’ve played well, but not as well as we can,” Friedman said, adding he doesn’t feel any different about Tampa Bay’s playoff prospects than he did before the trade deadline.
“I feel we have the talent on hand to continue to do what we did the first two-thirds of the season.”
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