On July 31st, 2014 the Rays made a gut-wrenching decision to trade the team's only pitcher to ever win the Cy Young Award to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for Drew Smyly, Willy Adames, and Nick Franklin. It was a tough pill for Rays fans to swallow considering what they had expected for the ace of their staff to yield, but Smyly helped soften the blow as he was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball down the stretch.
This season, Smyly went down with an injury before throwing a pitch during spring training.