Say hey, baseball: Rays and A’s swap Ben Zobrist and 2015 goals

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Ben Zobrist was traded on Saturday in a deal that changes 2015 significantly for two franchises. The Rays dealt arguably their best player in the final year of his deal in exchange for prospects and John Jaso, in the same offseason in which they lost manager Joe Maddon, general manager Andrew Friedman, outfielders Matt Joyce and Wil Myers, and just months after trading David Price to the Tigers. They still have Evan Longoria, and they have the young pitching to make something happen in the AL East sooner than later, but that lineup wasn’t impressive a year ago even with Zobrist and company still in it.

The A’s, on the other hand, looked as if they were tearing down when they traded Josh Donaldson, Derek Norris, Brandon Moss, and Jeff Samardzija, but between bringing back Brett Lawrie, signing Billy Butler, and now acquiring both Zobrist and shortstop Yunel Escobar, suddenly they’re back in the mix. They aren’t the most dominant team in the AL, not by a long shot, but they’re built to contend for a wild card spot, and that’s a loftier goal for 2015 than it was imagined they had just a few days ago. This is a good time to remember that the A’s don’t necessarily look to rebuild, they just look to get younger. They’ve traded their two best prospects in the last seven months, but they also brought in Franklin Barreto and added additional youth to both the farm and the big-league roster, while also bringing in Ben Zobrist, who is one of the few players available this winter that can replicate Donaldson’s production on the relative cheap. As Beane said, the A’s are trying to win as many games as they can.

The A’s aren’t totally in it and the Rays aren’t completely out of it, but the directions of these two franchises at least become more defined for 2015. Remember, the Rays have to make moves like this to survive, and the moment Asdrubal Cabrera was signed for a year it seemed like a Zobrist trade, with that survival in mind, was imminent.