5 offseason moves Tampa Bay Rays must make after ALDS loss

3. Bolster the bullpen

There’s a lot of interesting players available to bolster the Rays’ bullpen. Obviously their bullpen is the most important position on the team. There’s 30 players from the bullpen coming into the offseason with a positive WAR. Then, there are players like Arodys Vizcaino, Shawn Kelley and Trevor Rosenthal who don’t have positive WARs, but still provide a lot of value for teams.

The Rays bullpen threw more than 772 innings this season. Not only is that the best in the entire league, but the New York Yankees, who were second, weren’t even within 100 innings of them. That’s insane usage, so the Rays need to keep adding pieces so they have fresh arms at all times.

Obviously, we don’t see the Rays going after a player like Aroldis Chapman or Will Smith, but someone like Sean Doolittle really intrigues as a match for the Rays. Collin McHugh and Jeremy Jeffress are other names that could fit perfectly in the ever-changing Tampa bullpen.

No matter what, one thing that’s almost a given is the Rays will try to find some value pieces in the bullpen. They have a couple pieces that could come up from the minor leagues in spring training, but there are some question marks around those prospects. The big one is Brent Honeywell, who missed a second straight season after Tommy John surgery. If he can actually come back and be a quality pitcher, then he might also see himself in the big leagues to start the season, or whenever he gets healthy.