"The Rays left the winter meetings without making any deals but with a better sense of what is realistic as they seek to fill holes at first base and DH, and seek to improve their offense and bullpen depth.

"It was a productive week for us from an information-gathering standpoint," executive VP Andrew Friedman said. "We feel like we're in a better position to understand the lay of the land and to narrow down the scope for kind of which domino we expect to go first.

"So there was a lot of productive internal and external conversations that I think are going to play a very pivotal role in the next month as we go about constructing our 25-man roster."

Most of their talks involved trading starting pitchers, with right-handers Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann considered most likely to go. The Reds, Royals and Marlins are among the teams with interest.

The Rays left last year's meetings in a similar position and on Jan. 8 made an eight-player deal that featured RHP Matt Garza.

Friedman said he couldn't compare the situations or say if a similar move was more or less likely. "It's hard because some things I thought had a chance have kind of gone away, and others I wasn't really focused on have risen up some," he said."