The Tampa Bay Rays are a smart franchise. Sometimes they leave fans scratching their heads and questioning trades. Usually, the fans are able to watch the players perform over the course of a season or two and remove their hands from their head-scratching assignments and use the to applaud the front office on another job well done.
Prior to the 2019 season, the Rays traded Jake Bauers to Cleveland for Yandy Diaz. Yandy was hitting the ball as hard as anyone (8th percentile in avg. exit velocity), he was getting on base and hitting for average, the only problem with Yandy…He had only one homer in 299 plate appearances.