Rays will make a call on Shohei Ohtani. But a deal? Don’t count on it.

KANSAS CITY — Friday’s storms gave Rays players an extra day off before resuming action, but front office officials are hard at work exploring potential trades before the Aug. 1 deadline.

And at some point that will include calling the Angels about Shohei Ohtani.

Unless and until the Angels guarantee that the two-way sensation won’t be traded — which means they consider themselves legit enough playoff contenders that they would risk letting him walk after the season with only a draft pick in return — Ohtani will be, by far, the biggest prize on the market.

Trading for him is essentially like acquiring star players to fill two needs — a dominant starter and a powerful DH — as a rental for the final two months of the season and October.

And at not too heavy a financial cost, as he’ll be due about $10 million in salary for the rest of this season, his last before what is expected to be a record-smashing free-agent deal.

So the Rays have to make the call.

Just don’t waste time getting excited thinking they’ll make the deal.

Now, the Rays could do it.

They have what the Angels want and need to build out the foundation of their team between a treasure trove of prospects (Jonathan Aranda, Shane Baz, Junior Caminero, Kyle Manzardo, Curtis Mead, Carson Williams, to name a few) and relatively young major-leaguers (Taj Bradley, Josh Lowe, Taylor Walls, to name a few others).

Given their low payroll and a nice little boost in attendance (nearly 29 percent), the Rays definitely should have the financial flexibility to add salary.

And there is sure to be some calculus on how many more fans a game they would draw; how merchandise sales, web hits and radio and TV ratings would spike; and how those boosts and winning a championship could impact the new stadium effort.

Plus, the Rays have shown a willingness to make big deals — though not this big obviously — such as acquiring DH Nelson Cruz well before the 2021 deadline and taking on about $5 million. (That the Cruz deal didn’t work out, and that Joe Ryan, one of the prospects they gave up, has become a stud with the Twins shouldn’t be a factor now.)

ESPN’s Buster Olney has been pitching the Rays as an option in a smaller-than-you think field for Ohtani, after the “all in” Yankees and the Rangers, but on the list.

On The Dan Patrick Show on Friday, Olney said the Rays might be “a wild card,” suggesting the front office could be “uniquely aggressive” given their strong play thus far, similar to their 2022 bid for Freddie Freeman.

That’s definitely fair speculation, especially without any true framework yet for what it would take to get Ohtani. If it’s one premium prospect and one young big-leaguer, maybe the Rays are a more realistic option. Same if there are really only are a handful of teams legitimately interested and with the inventory to make a deal.

But it’s more likely the Ohtani competition will become a bidding war — and that’s something the Rays won’t win.

They invest too much, and work too hard, to always be building for the future and staying competitive to mortgage it for one player.

One incredibly great player — who could be a true difference maker in delivering a championship — but one they would have for 50-something games, plus the postseason, as they’re not going to be signing him to his next contract.

Nothing in baseball is absolute, and never isn’t a wise word.

Maybe the Rays, without blowing up their system, could still assemble the best package of talent to offer.

Or — totally hypothetically — what if the recent reports of big-money investors looking to buy the Rays are true, and knowing his group was going to sell and thus no longer cared about the future, current principal owner Stuart Sternberg gave the go-ahead to get Ohtani no matter what to go out with a ring?

Thinking more about it, there’s actually a decent shot the Rays see Ohtani his first day in his new uniform. On Aug. 2, when they play at Yankee Stadium.

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