Only a Matter of Time

While Matt Garza's departure from the Rays is great news for Sox Nation,
it's tragically symbolic of the current state of Major League Baseball. 

Making it more and more apparent that the once formidable Rays are now fully engaged in rebuilding mode, Tampa Bay jettisoned yet another core member of their 2009 AL Champion squad, trading away flamethrowing ace Matt Garza to the Chicago Cubs earlier today in exchange for a plethora of highly touted prospects. Garza now joins Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford, Jason Bartlett and Rafael Soriano as former Rays who have either been traded or elected to leave Tampa via free agency this offseason.

Talk about having your team gutted.

Sure, Red Sox fans are sure to rejoice in the news of Garza's departure from the American League East, simply because he always seemed to shut down Boston with a stellar performance. In 19 career games versus Boston, Garza went 7-4 with a 3.83 ERA. In addition, he absolutely killed the Sox in the infamous 2008 American League Championship series, which the Rays eventually won in seven games. After winning both Game 3 in Boston and the clinching Game 7 in Tampa, Garza was named the MVP of the series. In 13 innings pitched, Garza allowed just 2 earned runs and struck out 14.

Good riddance.

Still, true baseball fans can't help but feel bad for the Rays. For years, the expansion Devil Rays, as they were called at the time, were the laughingstock of baseball. From their inaugural 1998 campaign all the way to 1997 they lost a minimum of 90 games every single year, losing at least 99 games fives different times. Ownership refused to pay for players and Tampa's perpetually thin payroll never allowed them to field a competitive team. They played in an ugly dome. They had the lowest attendance in baseball. And, oh yeah, they were forced to join the hardest division in Baseball, meeting up with the powerhouse Sox and Yankees a guaranteed 19 times per year.

But then it all turned around. Tampa dropped the "Devil" from their name, changed their uniforms and welcomed a phenom third baseman by the name of Evan Longoria to the team. Seemingly overnight, everything clicked. The Rays were young, exciting, well-coached and featured a formidable starting rotation. In 2008, manager Joe Maddon guided the upstart Rays from worst to first, going 97-65 and reaching the World Series. In 2009, they barely missed the playoffs but went 84-78. In 2010, the Rays won the AL East for the second time in three years, going 96-66 before eventually losing in the first round of the playoffs.

However, even feel good stories like the Rays going from worst to first are destined to evaporate in today's Major League Baseball. The odds are simply too great against them. The reality of the fact is that the Rays know they can never financially compete with the Red Sox and Yankees as long as a salary cap doesn't exist. As a result, they are unable to pay for stars like Carl Crawford and Matt Garza and are forced to let them go in favor of younger, inexpensive prospects that they hope can contribute sooner than later.

While the news of Garza's departure is met with exuberance in Boston, fans in Tampa can't help but think "here we go again." And, while you'll never hear me complain about overspending in baseball after my team shelled out $298 million on two star players this offseason, as a fan of the game I admit the growing disparity between big and small market teams is troubling.

Still, the reasoning for the Sox deep wallets is that they are forced to spend in order to compete with the Yankees. Luckily, they have the funds available to do so.

Unfortunately for Rays fans, Tampa simply does not.