This, of course, caused an uproar of criticism aimed towards the always budget consciousness Rays as they shedded arguably their top slugger in 2018 as he was due to make around $5M in arbitration.
I can’t imagine being a Rays fan. Like, I root for some trash teams, but they don’t intentionally get rid of good players over trivial amounts of money.
— Jesse Spector (@jessespector) November 21, 2018
Rays fans got a lot of mileage mocking those of us who disapproved of salary dumps last offseason. And hey, they earned the right to mock, even if it was in hindsight.