Rays Season Ends: Have End of Season Press Conference

Everybody is packing up today.

The players held a player only meeting and the only sounds in the office were the sounds of a vacuum.  Out front, The gm held the annual end of season press conference.

"No doubt this season was disappointing for us," kirby said.  "However, we did put ourselves in good position to compete with the top teams in the future.  We acquired some key prospects, like Mario and Damien.  We are going to look at all of our options this off-season, whether it would be through trade or through free agency.  We like some of the pitchers that are going to be on the market.  The question for us is whether we wanna save the money or spend it."

"Evan will be back," said Kirby on the status of Rays manager Evan Longoria.  "We feel he's part of the solution here, not the problem.  The players like him, the fans like him, and the front office likes him as the manager."

"There's a reason it's a players only meeting.  Whatever was discussed will stay with the players," said kirby on the players only meeting.  "I am glad John (Bremer) decided to have it.  He's a class act guy and he knew that the players needed to have a talk together about this season and whether they want to be here and work on the future.  We feel we have a bright future and we hope the players see that as well."

"We are going to resign most of our guys," kirby said on who the team plans to resign.  "We'll discuss who wants to be here and who doesn't.  We want to have a cohesive clubhouse.  We don't want to have to deal with any problems because a player doesn't want to be here when we signed him to a contract last season."

Here is the projected lineup for the Rays barring next season, barring any free agent signings or trades.

1. Heath Staite CF
2. Gary McEachern 2B
3. Rob Cross RF
4. Jose Parades DH
5. John Bremer 1B
6. Joel Anderson 3B
7. Curt Thompson LF
8. Eric Taylor SS
9. Charlie Weddell C

Bench:
Ryan Hudson C
Dustin Byrom LF/RF
Marc Sorrel 2B
Seth Davidson (eligible for arb) LF
Jesse Forrester 1B

Prospects trying to make roster
Neal Williams 1B
Tim Carracheo OF
Bobby Palomina 3B
Yoshi Okawa 1B

Rotation (barring trades and free agent signings)
1. Mario Aquino
2. Josh Mathias
3. Matthew Autrey
4. Arne Swint
5. Phillip Sturgeon
Closer- Paul Townson
Set up- Wilfredo Sanchez
Short Relief- Mike Washington
Short Relief- Scott Leitch
Middle Relief- Arturo Castillo
Long Relief- Albert Alvarez

Prospects vying for spots
Nick Beitner
Marc Rossell
Kyle Miller
Grady Cusack
Matt Stace

It feels good to finally know what the roster is going to be like starting next season.  We haven't had this in a while with the organization.  It remains to be seen whether or not the Rays will be a player for some of the top Starting pitchers in the market this season.  They'll have 42 million in budget room to spend, so they almost surely will spend some of that money.  It's just unclear from the organization on just how much.

We will keep you updated on the free agent period this off-season.  If the Rays don't sign anyone, will see everyone in March for spring training.