The Tampa Bay Devil Rays won’t make the playoffs this season — nor should they be expected to. That much has already been decided by the skewed economics that now define Major League Baseball. The Rays are Third World baseball have-nots. At $34 million, their payroll is a quarter that of the New York Yankees.
But to be a baseball “have” also means having prudent judgment, as in whom you choose to overpay. Otherwise, the Dodgers and Orioles would have been in some recent World Series.
Part of the Rays’ “have-not” status is not having better ways to spend half that $34 million. The half that goes to Designated Out Greg Vaughn and perpetually rehabbing, current Disabled Listee Wilson Alvarez. And speaking of “Another Taco, Please” Alvarez, since when does he have muscles to pull?