The Tampa Bay Rays are officially the best team in the American League! If you’re leaning towards rooting for the Rays during the World Series this week, you’ve come to the right place. Here is everything you need to get up to speed and to be the most knowledgeable bandwagon Rays fan out there.
The Ray Way and Kevin Cash
The Rays have an out of the box way of doing things. If you’re more of a baseball traditionalist, the way the Rays play may take some getting used to.
Low Payroll and High Talent
The Rays may have had the fourth lowest payroll this season, but that hasn’t stopped them from being successful.
Instead of signing big names with big contracts, the Rays focus on player development and under the radar players who can fill a gap in the team. Similar in ideology to Moneyball, each player who joins the major league roster is there for a reason, and has a role to play in the team’s success.
In fact, the Rays have an uncanny way of taking lesser known players and developing them into stars. One current example of this is Mike Brosseau, who went undrafted in 2016. The Rays took a chance on him and he turned out to be the hero in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Yankees. The player development staff deserves a lot of credit. They are great at identifying and tuning the skills of so many Rays players who have gone on to be successful either on the Rays or elsewhere.
And while not too many casual baseball fans can identify the stars of the Rays teams, the players certainly have made a name for themselves. The Rays bullpen, for example, had the third lowest combined ERA in the 2020 regular season.
The Rays depth is one of their biggest strengths, and is what kept them competitive this season despite all the injuries. Their farm system is consistently ranked either first or second in the league, comparable to that of the Padres and Dodgers. Instead of signing expensive free agents, they trade either when a player is hot or his contract is running out. Through this method, they continue to build a core of young, hungry players to maintain the team’s success.
Interesting In Game Decision Making
Kevin Cash had big shoes to fill when he took over for former Rays manager Joe Maddon. While his methods were frustrating and unorthodox to a lot of fans at first, he has really grown as a manager and proven what he is capable of.
As discussed briefly earlier, the Rays are a team that depends on analytics to help guide them when making decisions. These decisions don’t stop at setting the roster, but also continue into in game decision making. While some teams struggle finding a good balance between analytics and traditional baseball, the Rays have fine turned a method that combines both ideologies to produce a team built for championships.
Starting Lineup
The roster allows the Rays to platoon players based on the arm side of the opposing pitcher to optimize matchups. It is quite common that the Rays have a lineup that alternates righty and lefty bats throughout. This makes watching the Rays play a series particularly interesting. It’s very rare to see the Rays put out the same starting lineup in back to back games. This keeps the other team on their toes, and allows different hitters to contribute day to day.
For the first time in MLB history, the Rays had a starting lineup entirely consisting of lefty bats in one game this season.
Starting Pitchers
The Rays’ rotation consists primarily of Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Charlie Morton. Each one of these pitchers has elite stuff that gets some pretty funny looking swings and misses. If you already know anyone’s name on the Rays, it’s probably one of these three.
When it comes to in game decision making, traditionalists would expect pitchers of this caliber to go late into the game each outing. However it would be a surprise, especially in a high leverage game, to see any of the three pass the 5th or 6th inning at most, regardless of their performance that day.
Last week in the ALCS, Cash was questioned twice about his usage of the starting pitching staff. The first time was when he took Snell out of a tight game after 4 innings despite Snell not giving up a single run. The second time came when Cash took Morton out after 5.2 innings in game 7, who had been nearly perfect up to that point.
A priority for the Rays is avoiding three times though the order. This especially comes into play when facing a team built around offense. Even though the Rays starting pitcher may be completely shutting down the opposing team, don’t be surprised when Cash walks out of the dugout signaling for a pitching change.
While it may seem like he’s over-managing, the Rays are just attempting to prevent a disaster before things spiral out of control. The Rays have won 63 straight games if leading in the 7th inning for a reason. And it’s not like they’re handing the ball over to just anyone. The Rays bullpen remains one of the best and most dominant in the game.
The Stable of Guys Who Throw 98 mph
After Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman threw at Mike Brosseau’s head during the regular season, Kevin Cash delivered one of the most memorable quotes in Rays’ history:
“The last thing I’ll say on it is I’ve got a whole damn stable full of guys that throw 98 miles an hour. Period.”
Kevin Cash, Rays Manager
And so the Stable was born.
The Rays bullpen is nothing short of dominant. And while they’ve had a few nail biters in the postseason so far, the members of the Stable are reliable and effective. Not only do they throw 98 mph, they also have a funny way of doing it.
The Rays relievers each have a unique arm slot through which they deliver their pitches. The graphic below from this article on MLB.com by Mike Petriello, shows the various relief points for the Rays pitchers on the ALCS roster.
This graphic is from the catcher and batter’s point of view. If you were in the box, the pitch could be coming from any angle depending on which pitcher is on the mound. This means that opposing hitters are constantly seeing vastly different pitching styles in an attempt to keep them off balance.
The Rays use all their relievers and put them in different spots throughout the season. In fact, 12 Rays pitchers recorded at least one save during the regular season this year.
While the Rays don’t have a consistent closer, there are three names you should know heading into the World Series:
- Nick Anderson
- Diego Castillo
- Pete Fairbanks
Nick Anderson gave up 5 hits in 16.1 innings this season. Diego Castillo is top 5% in the league in terms of limiting hard hit balls. Pete Fairbanks is top 9% of the league in terms of strikeout rate. I consider this trio to be the all-star members of the Rays bullpen. Their consistency and dominance is crucial to the Rays’ success.
The Founding Father of the Opener
With only three starting pitchers, we are most likely going to see a bullpen day for the Rays this week. This is typically done by have one reliever open the game and get through the first inning. He is then followed by a bulk reliever, who carries the game into the next 3-4 innings.
The Rays were the first team to start using an opener consistently. By now, the Rays players are comfortable with the strategy and can handle it effectively.
The three batter minimum rule has made bullpen days a little more interesting this year. One thing I’ve noticed, however, is that Cash has been leaving in his relievers to get the first out of the next inning, following their typical inning ending appearance. Most of the time this probably has to do with matchups, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was trying to relieve load of a new pitcher who would no longer have to face three batters after entering the game with 1 out already in the inning.
Gold Glove Caliber Defense
Built around their pitching and defense, gold glove caliber plays are the only reason the Rays have made it this far in the postseason.
Starting behind the plate, Mike Zunino has done a great job blocking balls in the dirt and avoiding advancement when there are runners on.
Moving to first base, Ji-Man Choi has really proven his flexibility. He’s seen some shaky throws come his way, but somehow he reaches them to get the out time and time again.
Brandon Lowe at second base makes some great plays and has a great arm to go with it. This relay from July helped save a run:
On the left side of the infield, we have Willy Adames at shortstop and Joey Wendle at third. In the past few games especially, it seems like absolutely nothing can get through that side of the field. Adames also has a great arm. Check out this relay from 2019 to get the runner out at home:
Moving to the outfield, we have Gold Glover Kevin Kiermaier in center. Kiermaier hurt his hand after getting hit by a pitch during a game in the ALCS, but is back and started in Game 7 on Saturday. Manuel Margot, Hunter Renfroe, and Randy Arozarena make up the left and right fielders.
All four primary Rays outfielders have above league average sprint speed, allowing them to make highlight reel worthy plays.
| Player | Sprint Speed (ft./s) |
| Kevin Kiermaier | 29.3 |
| Randy Arozarena | 28.8 |
| Manuel Margot | 28.4 |
| Hunter Renfroe | 27.3 |
Defense is the Rays’ primary weapon, and has been the biggest contributor to their success so far. That being said, a team still needs to score to win games. So let’s continue on to check in on the Rays offense.
AL MVP Randy Arozarena
The Rays struck out more this season than any other team, recording 608 strikeouts. Usually when teams strike out a lot, it’s an indication of power hitters making up the majority of the lineup. That is not the case for the Rays, however. The Rays do not have a particularly strong offense, as they rely primarily on situational hitting and reaching base by any means in order to score.
While Brandon Lowe was a major contributor to the Rays offense this season (not sure if the Rays would’ve done as well without him), he’s had a quiet bat this postseason. His past few at-bats have been tough to watch, as it is clear he is not seeing the ball as well as before his slump. Hopefully the past couple days of rest will be enough for him to turn things around. Lowe is definitely someone to watch breakout this week.
And it isn’t just Lowe who is struggling at the plate. The majority of Rays hitters have been struggling, putting a lot of pressure of their pitchers to be perfect. One standout, however, has kept the Rays alive. And that is Randy Arozarena.
Randy Arozarena had a late start to the year because he tested positive for COVID. But that did not slow him down at all coming back, as he is a major reason why the Rays are playing in the World Series this week.
And rightfully so, Arozarena won MVP of the AL Championship series.
He’s going to be a fun player to watch. Arozarena has overcome a lot to get to this point of his career, including losing his father, defecting from Cuba, and taking on the financial responsibility of his family. Read more about his incredible journey in this article by Juan Toribio of MLB.com.
On a lighter note, Arozarena has skills that extend beyond the baseball field. He’s also a pretty good dancer! We’ve seen a couple of dance battles between Randy Arozarena and Brett Phillips this year, and they both have some moves. Check out the latest one, which came during the ALDS celebration:
It’s Time for Tampa to Have a World Series Win
23 years ago, the Rays played their first MLB season. Since then, the only other time besides this year that the Rays have reached the World Series was in 2008 when they lost to the Phillies.
It’s time for the Rays to take a championship back to Tampa Bay. They are a young, fun team who enjoy playing together. Their front office is creative, innovative, and deserving of a title. And if you love an underdog story, this is your team. Every year the Rays are counted out, but every year they are competitive.
The Rays give chances to players who could not find a spot on another team. The coaching staff develops lesser known players into stars. The front office and coaching staff work together to integrate baseball knowledge and analytics in a way that brings out the strength in all players, allowing them to grow into their roles to position themselves and the team for success.
Whether the season is 60 games or 162, the Rays have overcome obstacles and injuries, and proven themselves as the best team in the American League time and time again. It’s time for them to finish the job, and win the World Series.