There’s reasons the Rays will look different in 2021

The Rays are going to look different next season.

They always make key changes — even coming off good years — balancing budget issues, opportunity for rising players and roster management.

The financial impact of the pandemic-delayed 2020 season and the industry-wide uncertainty about 2021 raises the question of how far those changes could go.

Like trade Kevin Kiermaier or Blake Snell far?

The Rays missed out on massive revenue last year, most obviously from not having fans at stadiums and fewer games for broadcast partners. Further, they lost out on the benefit of hosting 10 games during the postseason, which ended up costing them money to participate in.

Just as significant, they won’t get their annual revenue sharing check from the big-market teams, estimated a few years ago at $45 million and now possibly higher. With a player payroll that has been averaging around $70 million, that’s a significant hit.