Final Regular Season Record: 99-63 (21-8 for the month)
1st place AL East, #1 seed overall in MLB
After a mediocre August the Rays bounced back to close out the regular season in fine fashion, clinching the division with almost a week to go and nearly reaching the 100-win mark. There were no injuries to report, and the only roster move of note was to bring up veteran IF
Masyn Winn to help out on the infield as
Owen Paino was hurt again for a bit, and all Winn did was hit 387/412/484 in 31 AB and earn 0.5 WAR for his cameo. Even guys who had fallen out of favor produced in September such as
Geronimo Satiro (6 HR in 68 AB, .559 SLG) and
Ben Schmidt (297/381/483), who both saw a big increase in playing time. Hell even
Jose Ramos hit 3 homers over the final two games, including a 3-run shot in his final AB of the season to get him over the Mendoza Line. So it's all systems go for the playoffs where we'll start against either the Angels or Mariners in the ALDS. September's day-by-day results:
Not shown here is an 8-1 win over Boston on the final day of the season, October 1.
Quezada making an MVP bid with a close 3rd in the AL in WAR. All of the playoff spots were wrapped up or virtually wrapped up with most of the final week to go, making for a boring close to the year with Texas holding off Seattle for the AL West title the only suspense and even that was decided on the final Saturday.
Plenty to like here, although this is a very home run-reliant offense with the poor AVG/OBP numbers yet combined with some outstanding team speed we get it done. And the pitching and defense was outstanding to elite, with only the penchant to walk guys a crack in the armor.
Quezada joined the big two combo of Subaru and Tatis this year as the guy who was a waiver claim from Pittsburgh a couple of years ago has turned into one of the game's best shortstops, putting up a healthy +7.5 ZR on defense to go with 23 HR and 48 SB. Father time continues to catch up with Tatis, who had a great season for most players but a disappointing one by his standards, and this playoff run will be his Tampa Bay swan song as he's a pending free agent. As I said earlier Satiro and Schmidt worked their way back into the lineup despite mediocre season totals, and one player who tailed off in the second half was Crisp so we might do some mixing and matching with the playoff lineup.
Despite losing Morejon for the season midway through the year, the pitching as mentioned was excellent, and Teodo had himself quite a September on the way to winning a career and team-high 17 games:
Hopefully he can carry that form over to the playoffs where he'll be our #3 starter behind Sesay and Yohemas. The latter had a rough September in which he really struggled with his control so there's a bit of concern there. Vela, who was terribly inconsistent, will be the odd starter out of the playoff rotation. The bullpen was a real strength as we have 3-4 guys capable of closing including midseason acquisition Richard, who has the job and has excelled in it.
Not the most inspiring farm system although we have an elite pitching prospect in Vokey, who should be in next year's rotation. Of the rest I like Olivo the most but he needs more seasoning. Speaking of the farm, Durham is up 3-1 in their opening playoff round best-of-7 series.
Next up: The playoffs!