The Tampa Bay Rays fire sale continued with the exodus of Raphael Soriano to the New York Yankees & Grant Balfour to the Oakland A's.
Soriano got the biggest check - $35 million for 3 years - to be the bridge, or the Daniel Bard, for the Yankees. Soriano gets the 8th inning duty so Joe Girardi can get to Mariano Rivera in the 9th. It's amazing was one good year can buy you in a contract year.
Grant Balfour gets exiled to Oakland for $8.1 million, 2 years. Balfour was a stabilizing force for the Rays & can be a 7th, 8th or multiple-inning guy out of the pen.
Given to break-up of the Rays this off-season, the Toronto Blue Jays & John Farrell may be the 3rd team in the east to contend with the Sox & Yankees in 2011.
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