Longoria doesn't know if he'll ever get over departure of Forsythe

Logan Forsythe's departure to the Los Angeles Dodgers is still weighing heavily on the mind of Evan Longoria.

Forsythe was shipped to the Dodgers in January in exchange for right-hander Jose De Leon, but while Longoria is content with how the team is shaping up this upcoming season, he feels the loss of Forysthe could offset their offseason progress.

"I actually like where we are," Longoria told ESPN's Jayson Stark on Saturday. "I don't know that I'll ever get over losing Logan, because we got real close and he became one of the clubhouse leaders. So when you take that away, it feels like there's a much bigger void."

Longoria and Forsythe had been teammates on the Rays since 2014, when the latter was acquired by the club from the San Diego Padres in a seven-player trade. But though Longoria's feeling cautiously optimistic, after three consecutive seasons together, the Rays' franchise player feels the absence of Forsythe's leadership could negatively loom over the clubhouse.

"The loss of Logan can't be overlooked because it kind of casts a cloud" he said, according to Stark. "But at the same time, when you look at it in totality, I think that ... at the end of the day, we've bettered ourselves a little bit.

"You know, I can't say that we got much better, with losing Logan. But I think that if you take him away and then you insert the pieces that we have, I like it. I think that we've positioned ourselves to be right there again."