The Rays have been rumored to be interested in a corner bat. Possibly Mike Napoli. Today they apparently closed that line of inquiry and speculation off as they have re-signed free agent first baseman Logan Morrison. It’s a one year, $2.5 million deal.
Morrison hit .238/.319/.414 with 14 homers and 43 RBI last year. He was way stronger in the second half of the season, however, so the line may not really represent the kind of hitter the Rays will be getting for 2017. Or maybe it does. I don’t know. We always tend to believe that a guy’s second half is a better indicator of future performance than his first half. I’m not sure why we do that apart from the allure of recency bias, but that’s what we do.
Morrison coming back to Tampa Bay will likely mean that Brad Miller, who moved from shortstop to first after Morrison’s late season injury, will go to second base to replace the departed Logan Forsythe.
Got that?