I was bored one afternoon when suddenly a question occurred to me: who are the best players for other teams to have played for the Tampa Bay Rays?
This of course is a completely natural thing to ponder and an easy enough thing to search out utilizing the search feature on Baseball Reference that allows one to research players who have played for multiple franchises. With the tools at my fingertips. I set about my search.
Down the list I went and sorted by the highest bWAR per player and encountered names of some very surprising players who many may not have realized once played for the Rays; There were also many great players who were truly among the best of their generations—one even a Hall of Famer—who did not make this list.