The general theme that has lingered from the Scott Kazmir trade is that the Rays simply could not afford to keep him beyond this season because of financial constraints. When we say "financial restraints", there have been two schools of thought:1. If the Rays want to keep Carl Crawford beyond this season, they needed to shed payroll. With more than $20 million owed to him over the next 2+ years, Kazmir was the logical choice for the Rays to move.2. As Buster Olney, Keith Law, and a handful of other writers have noted, Kazmir's performance and stuff has been on the decline for more than a year now. The Rays simply could not afford to keep Kazmir around given his risk of decline and the amount of money he was owed. So in a sense, Scott Kazmir was the perfectly logical choice to go. I'm not a fan of the timing, but the Rays got a good package....so what can ya do? One final question: who is to blame for the Rays trading away Scott Kazmir?Answer: Pat Burrell.To me, the...
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