The 2025 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



Game 2:



Game 3:

And once again the summer storms came, this time in the 3rd inning of a 0-0 game which was suspended and will be completed July 7. We're going to have logjam of games coming up next month.

The standings:



The Rays are 1/2 game out in the fourth wild card position.

Next up: We have a day off before heading to Kansas City for 3 games to face the struggling Royals.

Players of the Week:

AL: Lawrence Butler (ATH), 11-22, 3 HR, 6 RBI
NL: Francisco Lindor (NY), 12-25, 2 HR, 3 RBI

MLB News: Three pitchers saw their 2025 season come to an early end: The Dodgers' Roki Sasaki (shoulder inflammation) and Tony Gonsolin (partially torn UCL), and Boston's Tanner Houck (also a partially torn UCL). Also Toronto's Andres Gimenez had a 6-hit game.

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



Game 2:



Game 3:



Always good to win series on the road, and this one was no exception as it put the Rays into the third wild card, 1/2 game up on Toronto.

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



Game 2:



Game 3:



And after taking two of three in Kansas City, they drop two of three in Baltimore. Such is the life of a .500 team.

Players of the Week:

AL: This guy:



NL: Marcell Ozuna (ATL), 10-24, 5 HR, 7 RBI

The standings will be in the midseason review following this post.

[Art Deco]

Record: 42-40
3rd place AL East, 7 1/2 behind Boston, 3rd Wild Card 1/2 game up on Toronto.

As the record would indicate it's been a season of fits and starts for the Rays although they did overcome a poor start (especially at Steinbrenner Field, their temporary home). The offense has been surprisingly good but the pitching and defense has been below the traditional Rays standard. Some of that will hopefully be helped when ace Shane McClanahan returns from injury around the All-Star break. And despite the uninspiring record the Rays are in a playoff spot at the moment, though just barely and will play on the road quite a bit in the second half with the scheduled front-loaded with home games in an attempt to minimize the threat of rainouts from Tampa's summer thunderstorm season.

Here's how things look around MLB at the midway mark:



Team stats:



These are some impressive offensive numbers and if put together with the usual Rays pitching and defense you'd have a first-place team. But this isn't the usual Rays pitching and defense, it's been mediocre-to-awful at times. The defense especially - regular CF Jonny DeLuca has hit but has a brutal -4.9 ZR despite being considered a 55 at the position. SS has been bad too - Kim, Peraza and Caballero have combined for a -7.1 ZR t the position with only the demoted Taylor Walls a positive (+0.2). Kim is a -1.8 in 24 games which is not what we thought we'd get from him. Meanwhile at 2B, B.Lowe is a -3.5 so just poor D up the middle. Only Josh Lowe in RF (+2.6 in 37 games) has been a superior defender.

The batting stats:



A true breakout season for Aranda, and while no great shakes with the glove B.Lowe has regained his power stroke. It looks like the aging curve has caught up with Yandy, who dropped off substantially from 2023 to 2024 and has done so again so far this year. We could move him before the deadline so we don't have to pay $12M next year for further decline.



Some of the pitching has really been homer-prone - Bradley, Pepiot and Littell in particular. When McClanahan returns Littell will be the odd man out and as a pending free agent we'll likely be dealing him as well (for how much I wonder). The bullpen has also been shaky outside of Fairbanks and Cleavinger with last year's big surprise Uceta turning back into a pumpkin. Stewart has been a good pickup so far. This staff is capable of better and they're going to have to pick it up.

The farm:



We have three big prospects, and unlike real-life they're having great seasons and haven't regressed, so if we trade Yandy Isaac could get a look or BLowe could move to first with Taylor coming up or Kim could slide to second with C.Williams up. This would probably help the team defense. Simpson is also an interesting case with his ludicrous speed and bat-to-ball ability.

Also in the trade department I have two utility infielders (Peraza/Caballero) and I'm shy an OF so one of them could be dealt in the very near future.

[Art Deco]

First as alluded to in the previous post, a trade:



Peraza was a freebie off waivers and did decent work but had tailed off lately and his numbers at SS weren't very good. Barrosa had a cup of coffee with Arizona last September and projects as a fourth OF type with decent defense, above-average speed and average hitting tools except for subpar (35) power. To fill Peraza's spot and improve the OF defense Jake Mangum is up from Durham. He'll play a decent amount in CF with DeLuca moving to RF against lefties.

Game 1:



The injury to Baz was a tweak of his back, he'll have to skip his next start but we have an off-day so no need to call up anyone.

Game 2:



Game 3:



A big series sweep for the Rays, including a thrilling finale in which they got back-to-back doubles from B.Lowe and Yandy with two out in the 9th off top closer Mason Miller to tie before going on to win in the 10th. As a result they (for now) escape the gravitational pull of .500 and move a season-high 5 games over it while moving 3 games ahead of the pack in the third wild card slot and one game behind Detroit for the 2nd. Next up: A day-off then the 4th of July weekend in Minnesota.

Players of the Month (June):

AL Batter: Lawrence Butler (ATH), .375-13-22
NL Batter: James Wood (WAS), .372-4-20
AL Pitcher: George Kirby (SEA), 5-1, 1.79, 6/43 BB/K in 45 IP
NL Pitcher: Spencer Schwellenbach (ATL), 4-0, 1.40, 28 K in 25.2 IP
AL Rookie: Brady Basso (ATH), 3-1, 3.41, 32 K in 34 IP
NL Rookie: Michael McGreevy (STL), 2-0, 4.15, 19 K in 26 IP

Also this guy didn't pout when he was sent back to Durham about a month ago:



MLB News: Seattle lost closer Andres Munoz for a month with shoulder inflammation. The Mariners are one of three teams 3 games behind the Rays for the third wild card.

[Art Deco]

Game 1:



Mother Nature put out the fireworks in the Minnesota on July 4 with the Rays on the short end of the stick after 4 1/2 innings.

Game 2:



Game 3:



Between the second and third games we made another deal to fortify the bullpen:



It's welcome back to Florida for Puk, who was a star for the Florida Gators about 10 years ago. He's an upgrade as a second lefty behind Garrett Cleavinger in the pen as rookie Mason Montgomery had been a mixed bag this season. Montgomery will go to Durham to make room for Puk, who had a 3.24 ERA and 15 saves for Arizona, which is in rebuild mode. We only had to give up a couple of C+ prospects in Baker and Lindsey while Puk is still under team control albeit at a projected $5.5M in arbitration.

Meanwhile the Rays' recent surge continues with a road series win in Minnesota which saw some quality pitching as they only allowed 7 runs in the 3 games and are now a season-high 6 games over .500. They have a very busy week ahead with 8 games in 7 days - the regularly-scheduled 3 in Detroit plus resumption of a suspended game between the clubs in Tampa the week before followed by 4 games in Boston before hitting the All-Star break. The amateur draft will also come at the end of the week and the Rays are picking their highest (#14) since 2018.

Here's how the standings look:



The Rays and Tigers are 3 games up on Toronto in 4th place in the wild card standings.

Players of the Week:

AL: Vinnie Pasquantino (KC), 14-30, 1 HR, 7 RBI
NL: Bryan Reynolds (PIT), 13-26, 1 HR, 2 RBI

Rays News: We had a couple of minor leaguers win Player of the Week in their respective leagues: Low-A Charleston's Emelien Pitre was 10-23 with 5 HR and 12 RBI as last year's 2nd round pick won the Carolina League honors and slugging prospect Brailer Guerrero was the DSL honoree after going 10-23 with 5 HR and 14 RBI.