Arozarena’s breakout October encapsulates Rays' brilliant team building

Jamie Campbell and Joe Siddall recap a busy Tuesday of MLB playoff action, where the Yankees shouldn't try to outsmart the Rays, the Astros have re-discovered their swagger, and the Marlins sent yet another message to Ronald Acuna Jr.

The Tampa Bay Rays are known for having a stable of above-average contributors in their lineup in lieu of superstars, but in these playoffs they’ve found themselves a one-man wrecking crew.

That would be Randy Arozarena, who has posted a line of .600/.636/1.250 in these playoffs. After Wednesday’s 3-for-4 night, he now has as many hits in five games (12) as the whole Toronto Blue Jays lineup managed against the Rays in the wild-card series. The 25-year-old Cuban outfielder has captured the imagination of the baseball world -- and not just because of his good-luck cowboy boots.

We haven’t seen enough of Arozarena to be confident in what he can do at this level, but the early signs are promising. In 23 games down the stretch, the outfielder got the promotion from part-time player to top-of-the-order fixture thanks to a .281/.382/.641 line with seven home runs and four stolen bases.

The tools are indisputably there. His sprint speed is in the 96th percentile and his max exit velocity during the regular season was 113.1 m.p.h. -- tied with Aaron Judge, 0.2 m.p.h. behind Juan Soto and 0.3 behind Fernando Tatis Jr. He also seems to be able to square up velocity -- if the bomb he hit on a high Gerrit Cole fastball in Game 1 is any indication.

Despite the positive early signs, the story of Arozarena has yet to be written. Even so, it’s clearly another chapter in a very familiar existing story with Tampa Bay entitled, “where did the Rays find this guy?”

In recent years, the Rays seem to be able to unearth above-average players at will. That reputation was built on pitching, but it applies to position players as well. Arozarena’s path to major-league success with the Rays mirrors that of many of their other hitters. Namely, he was underappreciated elsewhere.

Last year, the young outfielder split the season between double-A and triple-A in the St. Louis Cardinals' system. He put up outstanding numbers, but didn’t make waves among prospect evaluators -- likely due to his age and the fact he was repeating those levels after a dismal showing at triple-A in 2018. Nearing his 25th birthday, he probably looked like an athletic fourth outfielder to the Cardinals, who already had a mix that included veteran Dexter Fowler as well as youngsters Tyler O’Neill, Dylan Carlson, Harrison Bader and Lane Thomas.

They saw them as superfluous and shipped him to Tampa Bay as an add-on in a deal where the big names were slugger Jose Martinez and pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore. At the time, the deal was seen as somewhat of an overpay by the Rays. While Liberatore could still make that the case, it’s worth noting that the Cardinals’ outfield hit a collective .209/.294/.385 on the season and could’ve used Arozarena’s services. Martinez, for the record, ended up getting moved by the Rays to the Cubs in a mid-season deal and went on to go 0-for-21 in Chicago before getting optioned. Long story short: never make a trade with the Rays.

Arozarena’s story mirrors that of a number of his teammates. Here’s a brief summary of how the Rays collected the other eight hitters in the lineup they ran out on Wednesday night:

Austin Meadows -- Former top prospect with the Pittsburgh Pirates who was struggling at the MLB level to the point that he was demoted a couple of weeks before the Rays acquired him in the Chris Archer deal.

Brandon Lowe -- A former third-round pick who couldn’t crack the Rays' top 31 prospects according to FanGraphs in 2017, and made it to 16th in 2018.

Ji-Man Choi -- Acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers -- already his fifth organization despite having just 72 MLB games to his name -- for Brad Miller (who was released by the Brewers in less than two months) and cash.

Yoshi Tsutsugo -- Signed to a modest two-year, $12 million contract as an international free agent.

Joey Wendle -- Acquired from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for Jonah Heim -- a catcher who cracked the majors for the first time at the age of 25 this year and hit .211/.268/.211 in 41 plate appearances. Heim ranked 13th among A’s prospects entering the season, according to FanGraphs.

Willy Adames -- Acquired in the 2014 David Price trade as an 18-year-old, and was considered the third piece for the Rays behind Drew Smyly and Nick Franklin.

Kevin Kiermaier -- A 31st-round draft pick by the Rays.

Michael Perez -- Acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks along with RHP Brian Shaffer for Matt Andriese, who gave the D’Backs 89.2 innings of 5.62 ERA ball before being shipped out of town.

That’s a pretty impressive group to bring together without the aid of a high draft pick, a splashy international amateur signing or a big-money free agent. The closest guy to fitting those descriptions is Meadows, who the Pirates drafted ninth overall but the Rays got him by trading Archer, a former fifth-round pick that they stole from the Chicago Cubs in the Matt Garza deal. This club simply wins trades.

Now, any lionizing of the Rays’ team-building can be problematic, because it implies that running low payrolls is a positive -- a fundamentally an anti-labour stance. There’s a reason the Rays were among the teams the MLBPA filed a grievance against in 2018 over the lack of spending on payroll in relation to revenue sharing funds received. The way the Rays ownership does business is not a shining example to be emulated.

The front office, on the other hand, is worthy of admiration. Even if the constraints they're given are worthy of skepticism, what they've done within them is nothing short of remarkable. This group has repeatedly spun straw into gold. Arozarena is the latest example, and he might be the single biggest reason they’re within one win of the ALCS.

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