Rays Get Glimpse of Future With Arrival of Desmond Jennings

BOSTON -- The storyline is pretty clear.

Carl Crawford will be a free agent after this season, and with the Angels, Yankees and Red Sox involved, there is no way the Rays will be able to keep him.

Especially since they can fill the outfield vacancy with Desmond Jennings.

But that's not how Jennings wants it to play out.

"Hopefully he'll still be here," Jennings told FanHouse. "He's a great player. I want to be on this team, but I don't want to play against him. I'd much rather him be here than anywhere else."

Told of that, Crawford said, "He's a talented player. Trust me, they'll find somewhere to play him.

"I wouldn't mind playing with him too."

FanHouse ranked Jennings, 23, the No. 3 prospect in baseball before the season began and No. 4 in the July revised list.

He missed the first two weeks of the season with a sprained left wrist suffered in big-league spring training and took time to get going at Triple-A Durham.

"It was a little rough," he said. "The more games I played the better."

By the time he was called up Sept. 1, he was leading the International League in steals (37 in 41 attempts) and third in runs (83), with a .278 average, 25 doubles and six triples.

"He reminds me of myself a lot when I was younger," Crawford said. "He comes up with big base hits. A speed guy playing great defense. Over time he could probably develop into hitting more home runs. An athletic two-sport guy [recruited by Alabama football out of high school], so that always helps."

A scout who saw Jennings in Triple-A said Jennings isn't quite a right-handed Crawford, more like an Austin Jackson with better plate discipline -- quick hands and possible leadoff material.

"He's a top-notch defensive center fielder," said Rocco Baldelli, the former Rays center fielder who spent the first part of the season as a special instructor visiting the Rays' minor-league teams. "He has a pretty good idea what he's doing, what he's trying to accomplish at the plate."

In mid-July, Baldelli decided to resume playing. Now he, too, is a September call-up -- and he and Jennings are candidates for a postseason roster spot. Tampa Bay has been searching all year for a right-handed-hitting outfielder/DH type, having already tried and given up on Pat Burrell.

Both Baldelli and Jennings say they aren't thinking about the playoff roster. Jennings is too busy getting used to the majors, and Baldelli is savoring his return after a few years battling chronic fatigue caused by channelopathy.

"I like playing," Baldelli said. "I don't know what else I would do. I have some ideas. What I did earlier this year was definitely a pretty nice position. It was fun.

"But there's nothing better than playing. ... It's something I've done for the last 10 years of my life. And it's not really something I'm going to let go of easy."