Opposition research: Curtis Mead

Sometimes the Rays don’t win trades

There is a sentiment in baseball that teams should absolutely never trade with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays would seemingly make an annual habit of trading a back-of-the-roster player, or a player about to get more expensive, and in return, receive a young prospect who would go on to have a few good seasons with them. (Before the cycle began anew.)

But the Rays don’t always win trades. For instance, in December 2020, they engaged in a three-way trade which saw the Phillies end up with Jose Alvarado, and the Rays with Dillon Paulson, who is currently a 26-year-old first baseman in single A. (However, the Phillies sent pitcher Garrett Cleavinger to the Dodgers, and he’s since been traded to the Rays and has developed into a solid reliever.)

The Rays might have avoided making that deal had they known how a trade from a year earlier would turn out. In November 2019, the Phillies dealt a 19-year-old infielder named Curtis Mead to the Rays in exchange for a lefthanded pitcher named Cristopher Sanchez. (Ever heard of him?) Within two years, Mead developed into a top 50 prospect and there was talk that the Rays had fleeced the Phillies.

Very few people are currently saying the Rays won that deal. Mead has yet to establish himself as a viable major league player. He couldn’t stick with the Rays in 2024 and bounced between the majors and minors. Optimism was raised after a strong showing in Spring Training, but that’s vanished since the regular season began. After 22 games, he checks in with a brutal .422 OPS.

Meanwhile, Sanchez made the All-Star Game in 2024 and seems to have established himself as one of the better lefthanded starters in the National League.

There’s still time for Mead to change that narrative. He’s only 24, and because he won’t hit arbitration for a few years, the Rays will likely offer him plenty of opportunities to reach his potential.

X-Men character of the series

Shatterstar

Like the Rays, Shatterstar was created in the 1990s with a cool design. (Or at least what was thought to be a cool design at the time. Rob Liefeld FTW!) In hindsight, based on the lack of popularity since their inception, it feels like it was a huge mistake to create either one.

The Rays are currently in exile from their home stadium, while Shatterstar is a refugee from the alternate universe of Mojoworld. And just like the Rays are often considered to be better than other teams at player development, Shatterstar is considered to be better than most humans at everything. But there’s plenty of evidence to call both of those claims into question.

I was going to post a clip of him from Deadpool 2, but those are all a bit NSFW.

Additional thought about the series

I imagine I’m not alone among Phillies fans in that a series against the Rays always conjures happy memories of 2008. Phillies fans might be the only ones who think fondly of Tropicana Field, which is generally regarded as one of the worst stadiums in baseball. But with the Trop under repair from hurricane damage, this series will instead be played at Steinbrenner Field.

The Phillies are familiar with Steinbrenner Field as they regularly play games there during Spring Training. The Phillies split their two matchups at “the Stein” this Spring. Will that have any impact on how this series goes? I can’t possibly fathom why it would.