Way back in 2011 and 2012, The Hardball Times did “Franchise player drafts,” where they rated—ignoring contracts—who were the best players in the game to build a team around. They’ve dusted that off now, and will do another, but I link because of what it said in 2011.
At that time, the player THT staff most wanted to build a team around was Evan Longoria. Which is, you know, sort of what the Rays did. Looking back at that list, with 20/20 hindsight, was Longo the pick? Now there are trade rumors.