The Rays did a flurry of free-agent signings before the owners locked out baseball. This is fairly strange for the Rays. Amongst those moves, they signed a reliever to a 2-year deal with $10M guaranteed (plus an option for a third year). That’s very strange for the Rays.
The list is small: Troy Percival, Joel Peralta, Dan Wheeler. The last time the Rays signed any reliever to multiple years was Grant Balfour in 2014. Erik Neander had never done it as GM. Until now.
When the Rays do things that are out of the ordinary, it’s a good idea to investigate more.