"The Rays seemed to have had a successful offseason improving their offense and bullpen without diminishing their defense or trading from their stash of starting pitchers.

So much so, executive vice president Andrew Friedman on Thursday called it "a dream scenario."

Speaking on 620-AM's Countdown to Opening Day show, Friedman said, "We still have a lot of work to do in terms of this division and this league, but as far as within the scope of what we can do, this offseason worked out very well in our estimation."

One area they had looked to upgrade more was catcher, Friedman said, acknowledging "there were a few guys that we targeted that we felt like would have been really good fits," but those deals didn't work out. And while they are "a little uncomfortable" pairing veteran Jose Molina with an inexperienced partner, either Jose Lobaton or Robinson Chirinos, Friedman said they will be better overall behind the plate in 2012."