As the Miami Marlins are getting all the press for blowing up their team, the Rays quietly are doing the same.

Today, the Rays traded All-Star outfielder Corey Dickerson to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Daniel Hudson, a low-tier prospect and around $1 million to off-set the contracts. This is on top of all the moves they’ve made since the Winter Meetings.

The Rays made a huge splash this offseason by trading franchise star Evan Longoria to the San Francisco Giants for young infielder Christian Arroyo, veteran outfielder Denard Span, and two young pitchers with upside. It looks like an ‘okay’ deal on paper, but then you add in the $14.5 million that is spread out over a few seasons and also some deferred payments. Also, they are on the hook for the entire contract of Span, which is an additional $13 million.

Let’s detail a few other deals they’ve made this offseason.

They recently traded a former top prospect Steven Souza in a three-team trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees. The Rays only received LHP Anthony Banda, minor league 2B Nick Solak and two infamous players to be named later. I feel like they sold low on Souza. They should have held onto him. He started off hot last season and even if he was just ‘okay’ early this year, they still could have gotten a similar deal.

Starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi was sent to the Minnesota Twins for lighty-regarded prospect Jermaine Palacious, who wasn’t even a top-twenty prospect in the Twins farm system. Odorizzi didn’t help the cause by having a 5.43 FIP last season while struggling with hamstring and back problems. He is a bounce-back candidate based on his past performance and skills. The Rays could have traded SP Chris Archer to the Cubs or Twins, which were both lobbing trade offers, for a greater return if the Rays were planning a large rebuild.

Since all these trades occurred, young outfielder Kevin Kiermaier wants out. It doesn’t help that the Rays recently-signed veteran outfielder Carlos Gomez, who could takeover center field. The writing is on the wall for Kiermaier’s imminent departure.

I know the Rays need to be creative to contend in the AL East with four other teams with big pockets, but none of these moves made any sense. They didn’t really even get any centerpiece prospects they can rebuild around. You can’t even say they were shedding money since they are on the hook for a portion of Longoria’s deal and they took on Span’s contract.

If the Rays are really going in full rebuild mode, they don’t really have many pieces that could bring in some young talent. I could see SP Chris Archer, Closer Alex Colome and maybe 3B Matt Duffy. Teams are holding onto their prospects these days, so who knows what kind of haul they could get for a solid player like Duffy. It’s also not even a guarantee they let Colome go this season before the deadline since he’s only 29 years old. This rebuild is off to a rocky start.

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About the Author…

Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.