Barely an hour after news of his trade to the San Francisco Giants was made public on Wednesday, Evan Longoria faced the press in a conference call to express his feelings about the move. He made it very clear that the team is headed for a rebuild, and in trading him, they believed they were giving him a better opportunity to win than if he stayed with the Rays.
When asked by Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin if he felt like the Rays hadn’t honored their commitment to Longoria — who had signed two club-friendly contract extensions with the team — he replied, “Eric [Neander] and Matt [Silverman] in the front office have been very open and communicative from day one.