Rays of Light is reporting that Matt Silverman addressed season ticket holders informing them that the plan is to keep Evan Longoria in the minors all season.

According to Silverman, Evan Longoria will most likely spend the entire 2008 season in the minors, barring injury or a performance at Durham showing beyond a doubt that he can succeed at a Major League level.

This certainly sounds alarming but we find it hard to believe. How does a team go from “Maybe we give him the opening day job” to “Not this year” after the spring Longoria had? They don’t.

There was considerable negative reaction from both fans and both the local and national media after the Rays decided to demote Longoria and give the everyday third base job to Willy Aybar. Many believe that the Rays are just trying to save money by delaying the start of Longoria’s service time at the cost of fielding the best possible team in 2008.

Telling us that there are no plans to promote Longoria in 2008 is apparently the way the Rays are dealing with the backlash. This way, they can say they are not demoting him just for the service time and when they do call him up, it will be because Longoria “earned” it and not because Neptune and Jupiter were aligned in the proper quadrant for the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Remember what Dr. House always says….Everybody lies.

Longoria a Longshot in ’08 [Rays of Light]