Pena to the Rays.

[raiders_umpire]

Wow. I didn't expect the Rays to dish out 7 million for another player. Must be all in this year.

[silverZ]

Makes a lot of sense. When you have a rotation like that it would be an utter shame to miss out on the playoffs by a couple games because you didn't sign a guy like Pena to a reasonable one year contract.

[MashinSpuds]

Yep, good move indeed. Someone needs to cause a little fear around Longoria in that lineup.

[SpecialFNK]

last I read about Pena is that he was an option for the Yankees. maybe the Rays had been considering Pena and didn't want to lose him to the Yankees because they were taking their time deciding on whether to sign Pena.
everyone should know what to expect with Pena. low AVG, good OBP, and power.

[raiders_umpire]

last I read about Pena is that he was an option for the Yankees. maybe the Rays had been considering Pena and didn't want to lose him to the Yankees because they were taking their time deciding on whether to sign Pena.
everyone should know what to expect with Pena. low AVG, good OBP, and power.

From what I have heard, it was the Tigers that scared the Rays into offering more money. The Rays had a 6 million offer on the table for Pena, but bumped it up once VMart got hurt.

[jlm53089]

Always great to have a club house leader. Now that Damon is gone Pena is the veteran leader.
The signing shows the Rays are serious and ready to play. However imagine if it was Fielder instead

[Broncmet724]

I think Fielder ended up being out of the Rays price range by a few years and $

[deerayfan072]

Mixed feelings.

Great leader, good defense and power, but the Rays have enough guys on the team with high Ks. Add Luke Scott and Pena and you have a lot of Ks on a team. Could be a lot of boom/bust games

[silverZ]

I think Fielder ended up being out of the Rays price range by a few years and $

Yes, just slightly.

[Skin Blues]

Mixed feelings.

Great leader, good defense and power, but the Rays have enough guys on the team with high Ks. Add Luke Scott and Pena and you have a lot of Ks on a team. Could be a lot of boom/bust games

What's wrong with a lot of Ks? As long as he gets on base and has power, who cares? Would you rather he hit more infield pop flies and weak ground balls/GIDPs as opposed to striking out so much? Because I'm pretty sure they could have got David Eckstein to do that for them for a lot cheaper.