Another bad Ray

 I had planned on posting about some Rays/Tigers luck I’ve had at a shop and packs, but unfortunately, some breaking Rays news came out, and that post will have to wait. 

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to make this post, but I knew deep down that it would’ve been too good to be true for the situation to turn out different. Many of you heard the news that Wander Franco was found guilty today. 

With the news of Franco, I can’t help and look back at some of the guys the Rays have signed and wonder ‘why are they drafting such crooks?’  I have my theories, but I’ll leave that till the end. 

*Just a note, a majority of this post was written in 2023, so some info might be dated, and I could’ve linked a number of the stories of the players mentioned, but a google search will get you the info should you want to dig deeper.*

I realize that other teams have their troubled players. The Dodgers had Urias and Bauer. The whole ‘90’s and ‘00’s Yankee$ were littered with crackheads (Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Steve Howe), ‘roiders (Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, A-Rod, etc), alcoholics (Chuck Knoblauch and CC Sabathia), thieves (Ruben Rivera), wife-beaters (Chapman and German), and pedophiles (John Wetteland, Chad Curtis, Luis Polonia, and Mel Hall). I still feel like the Rays have had players with worse transgressions over the years. 

The most known guy was one of the first guys they drafted, Josh Hamilton. He was drafted in 1999 their 2nd season. A few years after that, I was a big Rays fan. I went to fan fest in 2003, and he signed my 2003 Topps and 2002 Bowman Chrome cards and seemed really nice. Myself and other Rays fans expected him to perhaps get called up that year, but he was battling drug and alcohol addiction, and was later released. While it should be noted that he overcame his problems for a time and put together a decent career, he has also had some issues with anger and violence after his career. 

Greg ‘Toe’ Nash was signed out of a semi-pro league in Louisiana in 2000. He came from a rough early life, being abandoned by his mother, getting into fights at school, and ultimately dropped out to work in sugar cane fields with his dad. Nash had legendary power but was very raw and couldn’t read or write. 

He was nonetheless signed by Tampa, and was shortly after arrested for felony robbery. During the 2001 offseason, he was arrested for having relations with a 15-year old. The Rays released him after he got out of prison, and he was signed by the Reds, but was later arrested in a bar fight. He was released by them, and never played pro ball again. His life never really turned the corner, as he has multiple drug arrests on his record in addition to the ones mentioned earlier. 

Next is Delmon Young. He was drafted in 2003, and was supposed to be a 1-2 punch with 2002 1st rounder BJ Upton. Young bumped an umpire  in a 2005 game, and in 2006 he hurled a bat at an ump, hitting him and earning Young a 50-game suspension. He also was arrested in 2012 for using an anti-Semitic slur, and after retiring was arrested for choking a valet and making anti-Hispanic comments. His older brother Dmitri is a noted card collector, and a saint compared to his brother, only having a post-playing career drug arrest. 

Where do I start with Elijah Dukes? Dukes’ father was arrested for murder in 1996, and Dukes himself was arrested for the first time a year later. Among the many charges he incurred during and after his career are assault, battery, and  assaulting a pregnant ex. What I remember most were the many kids he fathered. According to Wikipedia, 5 with 4 women in 3 years. I went to a Rays game 1 year, and I believe they were playing Washington, and a guy kept heckling Dukes in the outfield, repeating ‘That baby don’t look like me’ numerous times, even getting a chant of it going. I think Dukes was classy about it, though. 

In 2010, the Rays signed former 1st overall pick Matt Bush. Bush had many alcohol related arrests at the time. I actually met him that season during a minor league game. He signed a card for me and I wished him best of luck at his newest opportunity to make the Majors. He seemed like a nice guy. Then in 2012, he ran over a motorcyclist while fleeing the scene of an accident while intoxicated. He appears to have conquered his demons and is still in pro ball, pitching for the Rangers in 2023. 

Josh Sale was the Rays 1st round pick in 2010. He is probably the most holy out of these guys, with his transgressions only being a post on FB about a strip club visit and 2 banned substance violations and suspensions. 

Brandon Martin was drafted by the Rays in 2011. He had drug problems, and had resentments towards his parents because he comes from a mixed race family. After many drug offenses and mental issues, he ultimately murdered his father, uncle, and an alarm installation employee in 2015. He is currently serving a life sentence. 

That seems like it is all of the Rays who have had issues, but while it looks like things have been under control for almost a decade, let’s not forget that MLB investigated Randy Arozarena in the 2020 offseason for an incident where he tried to kidnap his daughter and allegedly assault her grandfather. 

I haven’t even mentioned guys like David Price (verbally went off of Dennis Eckersley on a plane when he was with Boston), Tim Beckham (substance abuce and steroids), Yuniel Escobar (wrote a bad word on his cap), Charlie Haeger (involved in a murder/suicide), Bubba Trammell (struggles with mental issues), Mickey Callaway (harassed a female while with the Indians). Alex Sanchez (first guy busted for steroids under the new agreement), and Aubrey Huff (posts a little too much info on Twitter).  There may have been others that have fallen through the cracks, but I feel like I’m knowledgeable enough about the Rays that I didn’t miss any big ones. 

Now Franco is the latest. It hurts that he was a mega prospect, but big picture, it doesn’t matter is he was a mop up reliever, he deserves whatever punishment he gets. 

I wonder why the Rays keep signing guys with such questionable character when other teams only have like 1 or 2 guys getting arrested over the past decade. I think it comes down to 1 thing. Money. The Rays have only had 1 or 2 off seasons when they tried to sign some big name free agents, and that was when they signed Jose Canseco, Greg Vaughn, and Vinny Castilla during their first few years. When that didn’t work, they essentially quit signing anyone who could help the team quickly. That led to some crappy teams for the next decade, bad attendance because of it, while a team who entered 1998 with them (Arizona) signed free agents from year 1, and while admittedly got lucky with some, they still won a World Series. They were able to trade for Schilling because the owners were willing to pay to resign him and Philly wasn’t. Schilling would’ve been traded to New York or Boston had Arizona not signed Randy Johnson/Matt Williams/Steve Finley/Luis Gonzalez in an attempt to contend and get fans in the seats from day 1. With the Rays pinching pennies, they needed to look for players that had potential but that most other clubs would’ve passed on. That led to them drafting guys with arrest records like Dukes, and acquiring ones who were cast off from other clubs due to issues (Bush), and taking chances on guys with huge talent but tons of hurdles to overcome (Nash). With all of the tools out there, who knows if some of the other ones like Hamilton, Young, Sale, and Martin had psychological tests with red flags that the Rays just ignored and hoped would go away once they were ranking in the Majors? Had they spent money on free agency, yeah they would’ve lost some bets, but they would’ve signed some good players and been able to keep some as well. Imagine Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, David Price, Ben Zobrist, Blake Snell finishing out their career in Tampa. I am a Rays fan with Rays-colored glasses, but maybe they would have a title by now. They surely would’ve had more fans show up to games. Many Rays fans I know don’t buy any jerseys of Rays players because they always leave in free agency. I’m not a jersey guy and they are expensive, but I would’ve probably got a Longo, Zobrist, or a jersey of someone who I like who would stay for a while. 

Analytics has a place in baseball whether I like it or not, but when you have an owner that won’t spend on top tier free agents, you are never going to get past the final round in the playoffs. Rays are exhibit A. The team has the money to build a brand new stadium in the parking lot of the old one, but without top tier players to go along with players who are analytics acquisitions, nobody will attend games just like they didn’t attend them at the Trop. I have hope that this new ownership group will build a new stadium in the Tampa area should the sale go through. If only they will spend more money than penny-pinching Stu. Just spend some money to get the pitchers and get off the spin rate bandwagon so the pitchers won’t need Tommy John surgery every other year. Go all-in at the Trade Deadline with a few relievers and injury replacements and I guarantee the Rays would have a World Series title and fans would pack the new stadium in Tampa. 

If they can’t do all that, at least do mental inquiries on players before you draft or sign them. Tampa fans don’t want another situation like this and more importantly, the victims deserved not to have had this happen. Perhaps if the Rays knew Wander had a problem they could’ve got him help and stopped the issue before it got to where it has now. If he wasn’t an athlete, he still deserves justice. My heart goes out to the victims, Wanders family, and Wander himself. I hope he can get help and live a productive life while justice is served. Let’s do better, $ternberg, and (hopefully) the new ownership group. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy