One Of The Tampa Bay Rays’ Best Years Ever Was Also One Of Its Hardest

Forbes Business SportsMoney One Of The Tampa Bay Rays’ Best Years Ever Was Also One Of Its Hardest Mark Deeks Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Writing analysis of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Mainly.

Following Sep 28, 2023, 11:46pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – SEPTEMBER 26: Junior Caminero #1 and Peter Fairbanks #29 of the Tampa Bay . . .

[+] Rays celebrate after defeating the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on September 26, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Rutherford/Getty Images) Getty Images To win the American League East , the Tampa Bay Rays will need to win their last three games, and hope the Baltimore Orioles lose their last four. At the risk of looking foolish – it is safe to say that it won’t happen.

Of course, the Rays are going to the postseason anyway. They and the Orioles are streets ahead of the rest of the American League – no other team has cracked 90 wins – and in the era of the liberalised Wild Card , Tampa Bay going back to the playoffs for the fifth year in a row has been a formality for quite some time. Indeed, given their record-breaking 13-0 start to the season, it has never really been in doubt.

That said, from then to now, nothing has been plain sailing. This will be the second-highest single season win total in the history of the Tampa Bay franchise, but it has also been one of the toughest. Notwithstanding the fact that this single data point in isolation can be misleading, it is nevertheless significant to note that the Rays have had 58 different players take the field for them at some point this season, 37 of which have been pitchers.

It is both well known and a point of pride that Tampa’s heavy finagling of the pitching roster as a means of filling innings is a part of that; the team that briefly pioneered the opener is certainly willing to shuffle through the arms. Yet it also speaks to the fact that they have, for the most part, had to do it this time. Alongside season-ending injuries to quality starters Jeffrey Springs and Drew Rasmussen early in the year, the Rays suffered the loss of all losses when staff ace Shane McClanahan was forced to have his second Tommy John surgery .

The Rays thus found themselves down their numbers one, three and four starters, alongside number two (Tyler Glasnow) being notoriously creaky. MORE FOR YOU New MLB Tiebreaker Format Hurts Cubs’ Playoff Chances Gerrit Cole s Run To A Likely Cy Young Award Among Few Highlights For New York Yankees Historic Array Of Young Stars Lined Up Behind Shohei Ohtani In AL MVP Race Similarly, while it held up better across the course of the season as a whole, the hitting line-up started to break down come year’s end as well. At one point in the season’s final week, the Rays were missing all of Yandy Diaz, Randy Arozarena, the streaking-in-a-good-way Brandon Lowe , Jose Siri and Luke Raley – five of their regular starters, a combined 109 home runs, and their best defensive player, all out for various reasons and missing the last opportunity to haul in the Orioles.

Ultimately, though, overshadowing all of these injuries is the absence of Wander Franco, the team’s generational talent. Having a career-best year with 17 home runs and 30 steals in 112 games, Franco was removed from the team pending the continuing investigation into allegations of inappropriate relationships, with the timetable for his return – if even there is ever to be one – completely unknown at this time. With Taylor Walls concurrently hurt and Vidal Brujan continuing to struggle against big-league pitching, the Rays had to promote the young infield ahead of schedule, relying on Osleivis Basabe, Curtis Mead and Junior Caminero for lengthy stretches.

To recap, then, that is the starting infield, the three best hitters and 60% of the starting rotation all out of action. And that is without even mentioning Jason Adam and Garrett Cleavinger out of the bullpen. All of this turmoil, however, has not prevented success.

The fact that all of this upheaval has not stopped the Rays from winning 97 games and being within a mathematical chance of both the pennant and baseball’s record going into the regular season’s final weekend is a testament to the qualities of the non-injured roster, the depth of the system, and the spirit of the clubhouse. “Next man up” is a cliché, perhaps, but clichés exist because they are so often true; when required to call on the next man up, the Rays, somehow, have barely missed a beat. Basabe, Mead and Caminero have all had decent starts to their major league careers, while Triple-A stud Jonathan Aranda has quality at-bats and is a couple of extra base hits away from a quality OPS.

The line-up has remained one of the best in baseball even without the Franco/Lowe infield, fuelled by the breakouts of Raley and Isaac Paredes, and bolstered by the patch-up work of the youngsters. On the pitching side, journeyman reliever Zack Littell has been rescued and fashioned into a strike-throwing starter whose pitch counts are bettered only by his walk rates, while Shawn Armstrong was this season’s winner of the Under-The-Radar Rays Pick-Up Who Goes On To Become One Of The Game’s Best Relievers award, one previously won by Pete Fairbanks and J. P.

Feyereisen. If Armstrong does not win it, then perhaps Robert Stephenson does; acquired only for then-Double-A shortstop Alika Williams (who was still too far down the middle infield depth chart to ever make the team despite everything ahead of him), Stephenson has been electric out of the pen, stepping into the set-up role in the absence of Adam and being just as good in it. Next man up, indeed.

Another classic baseball truism says that in the playoffs, everything comes down to the quality of the starting pitching. In this department, no matter how good their bullpen is, the Rays are at their weakest. Nevertheless, any team that loses the All-Star starting pitcher and two others of the quality of Rasmussen and Springs should be limping to the barn in late September, not in with a shot of 100 wins.

The Rays, as ever, do things differently. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website or some of my other work here .

Unless stated otherwise, all stats via Baseball Reference . All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook . Mark Deeks Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.