The Rays made a lot of big moves at the trade deadline this year. While fans quite naturally focus on the players joining the Rays, it’s clear that the team has also been using trades to expand their international signing pool funds.
The Rays are a team always involved in the IFA market, and the IFA market has been very, very good to them thus far.
On July 2nd this year, the IFA period officially opened and a flurry of signings were announced in the following days, headlined for the Rays by the signing of Baseball America’s #13 prospect SS Alejandro Pie (reported $1.