Earlier this off-season, we began detailing the Rays' risk of losing talent in the front office to higher level jobs. The Rays front office used to be a cerberus of Andrew Friedman, Matt Silverman, and longtime Astros GM Gerry Hunsicker. The latter left for the Dodgers in 2014 and Friedman followed, leaving Silverman behind. His best option was to seek the comfort of what had been established, and he promoted from within.
2015 ended up being a strong performance for a front office that was essentially left holding the bag, as I graded in detail in a previous editorial series.