MLB Insider Reveals Why Rays Never Traded Pete Fairbanks in Recent Years

The Tampa Bay Rays may have overestimated how much value their closer Pete Fairbanks would have on the open market.

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The Tampa Bay Rays surprised a lot of people when they decided against bringing back closer Pete Fairbanks. Instead of exercising a club option worth $11 million, the team declined the option, opting to instead pay a $1 million buyout.

It was a surprising turn of events. Not that anyone ever expected the Rays to pay him that kind of money. Given the restraints on their budget, allocating that much money to a relief pitcher wasn’t going to happen.

Evidently, Tampa Bay wasn’t the only franchise that felt that way. As shared by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required), teams around the league weren’t going to be willing to take on a reliever at that price tag so early in the offseason.

Trade market for Pete Fairbanks was not robust

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The potential of being saddled with an $11 million relief pitcher was too high for the Rays, so they opted to decline his option. The Rays could have opted in and rolled the dice that a team would be willing to trade for him down the road, but the risk was too high.

Could some of the inability to move Fairbanks fall upon Tampa Bay? It can certainly be argued that they overestimated what his value was around the league.

Whatever discussions the Rays had before deciding to decline his player option weren’t the first talks that centered around trading Fairbanks. Rosenthal noted that Tampa Bay was never able to get the kind of return they were seeking in exchange for him.

That could certainly mean that their asking price for him was too high. Based on how teams have balked at taking on his salary recently, the same sentiment could have been used in the past on top of whatever prospect compensation the Rays were seeking.

Rays asking price may have been too high on Pete Fairbanks

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Fairbanks certainly fits the mold of the kind of player Tampa Bay has traded in recent history. Entering the final year of team control and with a rising price tag, the Rays normally flip players like that for longer-term assets.

Alas, this wasn’t a situation that played out in their favor. It certainly is disappointing not being able to trade a player who was viewed as one of the best trade chips in baseball entering the offseason for something of value.

But the risk far outweighed the reward from Tampa Bay’s perspective. So, they opted to move on, cutting costs and moving forward with the next item on their to-do list.

With $10 million now cleared off the books, they could have a little more wiggle room to spend money elsewhere to upgrade a weakness on the roster. Outfield certainly remains a need, along with catcher, in the early going of the MLB offseason.

Fairbanks, meanwhile, is expected to draw interest from several contenders, including the two World Series participants this year: the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.