Throughout the winter, we've addressed the Tampa Bay Rays' situation multiple times. There's an argument for the Rays tearing down their roster, trading off Evan Longoria and Chris Archer (among others), and focusing on 2019 or 2020 or whenever. The pragmatic argument -- always pesky to idealists -- is they probably wouldn't get fair value on Longoria or Archer, and the roster in place is better than their 68- 94 record indicates. A few tweaks here and there -- including the one made recently, in signing Wilson Ramos -- and Tampa Bay could be in the wild-card race come September.

It turns out the Rays seem to be leaning toward the latter school of thought as they wait for the markets to shake out. Here's the latest, from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times:

"I think we're at a position where we feel like we need to at least play it forward and take a crack at it," GM Erik Neander said Friday. "If the interest and market dictates that we go a different direction, we have to consider it and trust our evaluations. But we believe in a lot of the players we have."

Topkin reports the Rays have interest in myriad free-agent hitters -- ranging from Pedro Alvarez and Luis Valbuena, to Brandon Moss and Logan Morrison, to Chris Carter, Billy Butler and Ryan Howard -- basically every corner or DH bat with some pop. Topkin also acknowledges the murmur that the Rays could make a run at Jose Bautista, who lives in the area -- provided, that is, his market fails to develop:

But it remains possible, with the major if of the price being discounted enough, that they would give up their competitive balance draft pick, No. 31 as of now, and go big in signing slugger Jose Bautista. Until he gets his money elsewhere, there will be whispers of a potential one-year Toronto revenge tour while playing from the comfort of his Tampa home.

The likelihood of such an event seems small. If Bautista wants to settle on a one-year deal, he could probably find one from a contender. But it's fun to think about, right? Bautista, of course, played for the Rays back in 2004, when they were the Devil Rays and he was not Jose Bautista. He's about to enter his age-36 season and is coming off his worst year since 2009. But, of course, if he were coming off his typical season and were, say, 32 or 33, he wouldn't be potentially affordable to Tampa Bay.

Such is life for the Rays. They have to sign players who are older, or more hurt, or who are bigger attrition risks in general. They can't afford anything more. So will Bautista land with the Rays? Probably not. But you can see why it's a thing.