Evan Longoria spent ten years — some of them the best of his career — with the Tampa Bay Rays, and when he was traded, he remained vocally supportive of the team where he’d begun his baseball journey. There were, it seemed, no hard feelings about the split. Everything was as amicable as could be expected.

Now that he’s spent a quarter of a season with the San Francisco Giants, his tune about his old franchise has changed slightly. In a recent interview with Tampa Bay Times reporter Marc Topkin, Longoria was candid in his opinions about the future of the Rays, and it seems like every sports news website in the world is hanging on one comment in particular:

“Honestly, and this is maybe not something I should say, but my gut tells me that the best decision might be to move the team.”

As a soundbite, it’s pretty eye-catching, isn’t it? It curls in the gut and wrinkles the nose like the sharp scent of something rotten. It’s the kind of sentence that makes for an incredible headline and deeply clickable Twitter fare. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter. And it also doesn’t paint the complete picture of what Longoria was trying to say.

Longoria pointed to the lack of fan support, saying, “Players want to play in a place where you have consistent support. It’s a selfish thing to say probably as a player, but, I don’t know, does anyone really want to play in front of 10,000 a night? I don’t know. I’m glad I won’t have to hear the backlash again this time”

Guess those San Francisco crowds have him feeling pretty good these days.

But Longoria doesn’t necessarily believe the Rays need to move out of the area, which is what the implication of every current headline is. In fact, in the same interview, he said he agreed with the notion of a multi-use complex for the team, and even offered the suggestion of having the new stadium near the existing Raymond James stadium rather than the proposed Ybor location. “I think it has to move to Tampa. If you’re staying in the area, it has to move somewhere over there.”

So at the core of Longoria’s statement is not the idea that the Rays have no future in the Tampa Bay area, but rather that a new stadium in a poorly thought out location will not solve their attendance problems, and that consistent attendance is the key for the franchise’s future success.

That’s a lot of hype about some quotes that largely amount to what we already knew.

There will be appeal in talking about Evan Longoria in relation to the Rays for years to come. He was the face of the franchise without a doubt, and the sting of his trade still hurts. But knowing what his opinion on the Rays stadium saga is like hunting down an ex-boyfriend and asking how they feel about your new apartment. Why are you bothering? That ex-boyfriend isn’t going to stay there, and he really doesn’t care how many of your friends are going to hang out. He can say whatever he wants, because it doesn’t matter to him anymore. Just like the Rays are a part of Longoria’s past.

Longoria’s name still has weight, certainly, and Topkin posted another part of the interview today in which the ex-Ray discusses his trade, where Longoria explained how it feels now. “There’s no part of me that’s rooting for or against. I feel like an outsider looking in now.”

There’s a knee-jerk desire to get riled up when we here a guy like Evan Longoria say the Rays should move, but we need to remember: there’s more to what he said and, more importantly, what he said has no bearing on the future of the Rays whatsoever.

And just like with an ex, it might be time to stop concerning ourselves with the Ghosts of Rays Teams Past.

Managing editor Danny Russell disagrees, and you can find out why here.