30-year old righty closer Rafael Soriano finished 8th in the A.L. Cy Young Award voting. He pitched in 64 games (0 starts) for the Rays last season and he was 3-2 with 45 saves, a 1.73 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP. Soriano was so awesome last season that he priced himself out of Tampa Bay’s plans. He is likely going to get $10+ million bucks per year on a 3-4 year deal and I think he’s worth that on the open market. Soriano has now pitched in 342 games (8 starts) in 9 years in the majors and he is 11-20 with 88 saves, a 2.73 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP.

UPDATE: (12/2/2010) - Rafael Soriano also has finished 12th in the voting for the A.L. MVP Award.

27-year old lefty swinging catcher John Jaso finished in a tie for 5th in the voting for the A.L. Rookie of the Year with outfielder Brennan Boesch of the Tigers and lefty starting pitcher Brian Matusz of the Orioles. Jaso played in 109 games for the Rays last season and he was 89 of 339 (.263 avg, .750 OPS) with 57 runs scored, 5 homers, 44 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. He also was actually leading off a lot for the Rays last season to his plate discipline as evidenced by his 59 walks and 39 whiffs as a rookie. Jaso has now played in 114 games in his first two years with the Rays and he is 91 of 349 (.261 avg, .741 OPS) with 59 runs scored, 5 homers, 44 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Jaso will likely get a lot of starts for the Rays behind the plate in 2011 and beyond.

25-year old righty starting pitcher Wade Davis finished 4th in the voting for the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award. Davis pitched in 29 games (all starts) for the Rays last season and he was 12-10 with a 4.07 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. He has now pitched in 35 games (all starts) in his first two years in the show and he is 14-12 with a 4.01 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. Davis was really solid for the Rays last season and he has a bright future near the top of the rotation.

The Rays have released 25-year old lefty swinging 1B Jose Ruiz. Ruiz played in 36 games in AA+Rookie-ball last season and he was 46 of 139 (.331 avg, .884 OPS) with 25 runs scored, 2 homers and 20 RBIs. He walked 21 times and whiffed 25 times last season in the minors showing pretty good plate discipline. Ruiz was in line for a huge raise so the Rays decided instead to cut him loose.

Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays finished third in the voting for the A.L. Manager of the Year Award. He probably deserved to win this award as he has now toppled the Yankees and Red Sox twice in the last three years to win the A.L. East despite operating with a relatively small payroll. The Rays were 96-66 (59.3%) during the regular season before falling in five games to the Rangers in the first round of the playoffs. Maddon now has a 431-430 record (50.1%) during the regular season in his first seven years as a major league manager and he’s 10-11 (47.6%) in the post season. Maddon will really be tested now due to the Rays cutting payroll pretty sharply this season.