The Perennially Rebuilding Tampa Bay Rays Continue to Be Contenders

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the Tampa Bay Rays made it to the World Series in 2020, and then subsequently lost several of their top players from the roster. And despite that, they once again find themselves in contention in the American League.

Tampa is still a young franchise, first entering Major League Baseball as an expansion team in 1998. Since 2008, they’ve made the playoffs six teams and played in the World Series twice. They’ve also been among the best teams in the league at finding premier talent. Unfortunately, due to the constrained budget the team has always operated under, they’ve also had to be great at finding young talent out of necessity – they have seemed to be constantly replacing their stars over the last decade.

After advancing to the World Series last season, the Rays lost two of their top three starting pitchers. Charlie Morton signed with the Atlanta Braves as a free agent, and Blake Snell was traded to the San Diego Padres. That left Tyler Glasnow with some question marks behind him. Veterans like Rich Hill and Colin McHugh were picked up in free agency, and several young pitchers with potential entered the season the roster. Plus, Tampa has long been one of the most innovative teams at baseball in terms of managing its staff and even making use of relief pitchers as openers before it caught on more league-wide with other teams.

Things have worked out well even with those question marks. The Rays have given up the fifth fewest runs in baseball and their +84 run-differential is fourth-best in baseball, marks that should make MLB odds buffs hot(ter) on the Rays. Tampa leads the AL East by 2.5 games over Boston and they have the best record in baseball.

That’s even more impressive considering how tough the AL East has been this season. The Yankees are still the Yankees and once again in contention. The Blue Jays, who made the playoffs last season, have seen their promising young roster improve. And Boston has been one of baseball’s biggest surprises, giving the East four legitimate contending teams.

Before the season, FanGraphs projected the Rays to be in the 84-win range. So far, they’ve obliterated that pace – they’re on pace to win more than 100 through the first 66 games.

Glasnow has been incredible this season, with a 2.66 ERA and a 5-2 record. He’s striking out nearly 13 batters per nine innings as well. The Rays are certainly going to suffer if his injury that caused him to leave a start early on June 14 is serious, but they do have good depth behind him.

Hill, Ryan Yarbrough, Michael Wacha, and Shane McClanahan have all also provided consistent, quality pitching all season.

The team is known for its pitching, but that doesn’t mean the offense isn’t good. Before the season, Kevin Kiermaier told MLB.com that the team feeds off its pitchers and wanted opponents not to “sleep on” what Tampa can do with the bat. So far, that statement has been prophetic.

Brandon Lowe, who became the first player in World Series history to hit two opposite-field home runs in the same game last season, was a breakout performer last season. He’s struggled at the plate, but his power has been solid with 12 home runs. He’s also had help in the lineup.

Austin Meadows has hit 15 home runs and is the latest successful Tampa Bay reclamation project after he was given up on by Pittsburgh.

Randy Arozarena hasn’t been quite the star he was in the postseason, but how could he be? Here was how Sports Illustrated described him in the preseason: “Sought no information on opposing pitchers other than how hard they threw. Slugged .831 in the postseason with a record 10 home runs in 20 games.” 

He broke the record for home runs in a postseason last season with nine, so that undoubtedly ratcheted up expectations on him for this season. So far, he’s hitting .264 with nine home runs, 34 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases. He also has a .344 on-base percentage. Meadows’ emergence as a power-hitter has taken some pressure off of Arozarena and helped make Tampa’s offense more exciting.

The Rays will certainly have heavy competition, both in their division where the top four teams are all separated by 8.5 games, and in the Wild Card race where several teams are still alive and capable of getting hot at any moment. But Tampa has an experienced roster that already made an unexpected World Series run last season. Don’t sleep on their ability to do it again.