Around The AL East: Rays

Ostensibly, the Rays signed free agent outfielder Cliff Floyd to provide some left-handed power while splitting time between right field and designated hitter.

But they also were getting an established veteran and proven leader, and he made that clear with a message to his new teammates in his first public comments after the one-year deal with an option was announced.

"I want them to know I'm here to win," Floyd said. "This is a team to reckon with. These guys are getting better and better each year."

The Rays' biggest concern will be keeping Floyd, 35, healthy. He has had as many as 400 at-bats only once the past five seasons, having been sidelined due to a broken wrist, two knee surgeries and another surgery to repair his left Achilles tendon.

"We did a lot of due diligence on the subject," Rays executive VP Andrew Friedman said. "We're confident that not only is he healthy, but that we'll be able to put him in a position, with rotating him through the DH spot, that we'll keep him healthy."

If so, the Rays project a potent platoon in right field with Floyd and Jonny Gomes.


NOTES, QUOTES
--The new Rays regime continues to show its creativity in contracts. To sign RHP Troy Percival, they agreed to buy him a "vintage automobile" worth up to $40,000. To seal a deal with OF Cliff Floyd, they structured the deal so that whatever incentives Floyd earns in 2008 will become part of his 2009 salary if they elect to pick up his option. Floyd is guaranteed $2.75 million in 2008, with the possibility of an additional $2 million in incentives. If the Rays pick up his 2009 option, he'd get what he made total in 2008 with the chance to make another $2 million in incentives, making a max-out total of $11.5 million.

--The Mitchell Report didn't make much of the Rays, and at least one of the Rays didn't think much of the report. "I just don't think the report really gave any breakthrough information," OF Jonny Gomes said. "What's the point of bringing out a list of names of guys who don't even play anymore? It doesn't change anything. ... If it's up to me, why don't you use that money for future research to find a drug test that works, figure out a test for (human growth hormone)? Why don't you use it to educate players, to teach players coming up through the minor leagues what's right and what's wrong? I just think there might have been a better way to do it."

--RHP Jae Seo, who opened last season as the Rays' No. 2 starter, won't be coming back. Seo, who was designated for assignment and sent to Class AAA Durham after going 3-4 with a 8.13 ERA, signed a $1.5 million deal to pitch next season in his native South Korea.

--The Rays would appear to have some more work to do in improving their roster, with needs for a backup corner infielder who could start at third base if Evan Longoria opens the season in the minors, a left-handed reliever and a better backup catcher than unproven and oft-injured Shawn Riggans.

--Principal owner Stuart Sternberg said the proposal for a new stadium in downtown St. Petersburg is not -- as some skeptics suggest -- part of a ploy to move the team if the effort fails. "It's not the case. And I think, given the amount of time, energy, effort, resources, money and everything else, it would be pretty Machiavellian of us," Sternberg said.

--RHPs Gary Glover and Grant Balfour agreed to terms on one-year deals to avoid arbitration, allowing the Rays to maintain the depth that they have sough to build in their bullpen.


BY THE NUMBERS: 1997 -- The year Cliff Floyd won a World Series ring with the Marlins, one season before the Rays franchise came into existence.


QUOTE TO NOTE: "Everything I'm doing this offseason, I couldn't do a couple of years ago. I couldn't run as much as I'm running right now or get to the gym as much because I just wasn't feeling right." -- OF Cliff Floyd, on how healthy he feels.