The Rays plan to be aggressive buyers at the August 3 deadline, and Tarik Skubal is the name at the top of their list, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Tampa Bay’s front office views this year’s American League as wide open — and a first-place club that reached the break eyeing modest help at catcher and in the bullpen is now, by Nightengale’s reporting, thinking much bigger.
Skubal is the most coveted name on the market, and the two-time Cy Young winner has given Detroit every reason to set an enormous price: a 3.06 ERA and 0.95 WHIP with 84 strikeouts in 70.2 innings since returning from offseason bone-chip surgery. The Tigers have not committed to moving him, and the Dodgers have already been reported as interested — so any Rays pursuit starts a bidding war with the deepest farm systems in baseball invited.
Nightengale’s report also sketches the fallback plan, and it runs through the infield rather than the rotation. Tampa Bay has checked on Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte, but Marte holds full no-trade protection through his 10-and-5 rights and is expected to veto any deal — a message Arizona has relayed to interested teams. That leaves Giants All-Star Luis Arraez, hitting .332/.370/.464 with 35 RBI through 90 games, as the likelier consolation target, one day after San Francisco was reported open to offers on its veterans.
The through line: the Rays intend to add a star, not a patch, and which star depends on how many doors stay open over the next three weeks.
