On Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Rays traded third baseman Evan Longoria to the San Francisco Giants for Denard Span, Christian Arroyo, Matt Krook, and Stephen Woods.

To make heads or tails out of the return, we decided to ask a prospect expert for their thoughts on the youngsters involved. In this case, that expert was Craig Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus. You can follow Goldstein on Twitter here.

Do you consider this a legitimate return, or mostly a salary dump by the Rays?

It's a cop-out, but the answer is somewhere in the middle. They obviously took some money back with Span in the deal, but it provides relatively significant long-term flexibility given their payroll. And Arroyo is a surefire major leaguer. So they got a legitimate piece and a couple depth types, along with Span to offload some salary. It's not a straight-up dump, but I think the amount of money the Giants took on (even if it wasn't an unreasonable AAV) affected the return.

What's Arroyo's future likely to look like?

Solid regular. He can put bat to ball, but there's not a ton of power in the profile and he's more of a second or third baseman than he is a shortstop. He's not going to impress you with style or flash or a tool to drool over, but he's got a bunch of ways to help out a team on a daily basis. He's more useful than he is special, as a major leaguer.

Can either Krook or Woods stick in the rotation? 

Unlikely. Krook isn't the same pitcher who turned down the chance to go pro as a first rounder out of high school (and he suffered an arm injury while in school). The stuff is still pretty good but he's far too wild, and has already been used in relief as a pro. Woods has top-notch stuff but no idea where it's going. It's possible the Rays can straighten something out in either or both, but the odds aren't great.

Whereabout does the Rays farm system rank now?

I was talking this over with our Senior Prospect guy Jeffrey Paternostro, and while it's not set in stone, they're right around fifth for us right now.

Do the Giants have any pieces left to make another trade?

Heliot Ramos, their first-round selection in the 2017 draft, is a stud. After that it gets somewhat gnarly, though you'll hear praise for the likes of Tyler Beede, Chris Shaw, or Steven Duggar. None of the latter types would be considered headliners in a significant trade.


There you go. The Rays got one potentially interesting part in return, in Arroyo, and two pitchers who serve as lottery ticket relief arms. That's not a great return for the franchise player, but, as Goldstein mentioned, it is more than a straight salary dump. 

Remember to follow Goldstein on Twitter.