MLB Trade News: Evan Longoria's Stint With the Tampa Bay Rays Ends

Since he first set foot on a Major League Baseball field back in 2008, Evan Longoria has been the player most closely associated to the Tampa Bay Rays. However, that is now likely to change as the team has just sent him to the San Francisco Giants via a trade.

Over the course of his 10-year Rays career, Longoria was an incredibly productive player, even managing to earn some All-Star nods and MVP consideration along the way.

He also helped get the team to the postseason at various points in his playing career.

Longoria was the face of the Tampa Bay Rays. And while it seemed for a while there that he would be spending his entire career with the franchise, it was recently confirmed that his stay with the team has now come to an end.

Tampa Bay Times' Marc Topkin recently broke the news on Twitter and said: "#Rays have traded Longoria to #Giants."

He later followed that up with the news that in return, the Giants would be sending Christian Arroyo, Denard Span, Stephen Woods and Matt Krook to the Rays.

Before the news broke, USA Today's Bob Nightengale had reported that the San Francisco Giants "have keen interest" in adding Longoria, especially if the Rays were willing to take back a player making big money in a trade.

It was not just the Giants who were reportedly paying close attention to Longoria. In a previous article, Topkin mentioned that the New York Mets, New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals also had an interest in trading for the third baseman.

Now, the Rays did not necessarily have to trade Longoria as he was productive enough and his contract was also reasonable, but they also did not have a compelling competitive reason to hang on to him either. Considering the availability of suitors and sensible reasons to make a trade, it had been speculated that it would not be long before the Rays signed off on dealing Longoria.

More news about the latest MLB transactions should be made available soon.