KudoSurf Me!
June is the unofficial month for clubs to promote their top prospects and this years crop shouldn’t disappoint. Just last week, the Dodgers called up SS Dee Gordon aka “The Flash”. The Royals followed suit by promoting third baseman Mike Moustakas and the Athletics have promoted super star Jemile Weeks. So what about the Tampa Bay Rays? Who’s the next Evan Longoria? Unless, you’ve been under a rock or just attained consciousness from a two-year coma you know the prospect is Desmond Jennings. So where is our guy?
Welcome to Super Two Purgatory! If you’re not familiar with Super Two eligibility here’s a quick refresher course. Under MLB’s salary and arbitration laws, players meet “Super Two Status” when the player records more than 130-140 days of service time. This allows the player to file for arbitration after two years as opposed to the standard three. Obviously, avoiding super two status benefits the club as they save money by paying the league minimum salary for an additional year. Because players accumulate service time each day they are on the team's 25-man roster the Rays will financially benefit by holding Jennings in the minor leagues until they are certain he won’t accumulate 130 service days.
I know? The Rays need Jennings now and would greatly benefit from him being in the lineup. The Rays are currently a few games behind both the Yankees and Red Soxs and neither of those organizations would procrastinate to save a few bucks. I know? That’s why the Yankees and Red Sox’s typically win the pennant. The fact of the matter is that the Rays don’t or can’t operate this way. The Rays currently don’t generate enough revenue to support our lofty expectations. It follows, that we must mind our P’s and Q’s especially when it comes to payroll.
With that said, Desmond Jennings is on his way. Jennings started the year with 33 days of service time due to past September callups, so the Rays likely won't call him up until the July 4th weekend. Desmond is considered the 22nd best prospect in all of baseball (Baseball Review). He’s a 24 year old 5 tool center fielder. He plays excellent defense, is incredibly fast, has great plate discipline, and hits consistently for average. His only weakness is power and he’s slowly developing it via 9 home runs in 59 games in Triple A.
What is Jennings expected to bring to the MLB roster? Think software upgrade! Now think two upgrades over BJ Upton or (Upton version 3.0). If you really love Jennings, and I do, then you compare him to Carl Crawford. I know I'm getting ahead of myself but the kid will make our club better just sitting on the pine next to Joe Maddon. He is expected to eventually replace Upton but will most likely start in left field once called up giving the Rays one of the best outfields in baseball.
Obviously, having Jennings on the 25 man roster NOW would be great. However, being a Rays fan you must first learn the virtue of patience. Until our team builds higher revenue streams we are best suited to improve our club by using internal options from our MLB best farm system. Jennings is a better option than most clubs will find internally or externally and by keeping him in Triple A for another two weeks we are saving our club the money needed to compete with the dominating Yankees and Red Sox’s. Thank goodness for Andrew Friedman.
