Tampa Bay Rays 2023 Season Preview

The Rays had a relatively quiet offseason, but they always find a way to be competitive in the juggernaut AL East.

While the New York Yankees may seem like the team to beat in the American League East, fans of the Tampa Bay Rays can and should laugh out loud.  Any sensible baseball fan will quickly point to the fact that the Yankees have not made the Fall Classic in six consecutive trips to the postseason despite winning the division twice and being named the preseason champions every year.  So overused are the predictions that journalists might as well copy and paste last year’s analysis and call it a day.  At this point, it’s hardly surprising that the Yankees are again being picked to win the division and the pennant over their division rivals, and not by a close margin either.  Yet the Rays were able to accomplish something in 2020 that the Yankees have not: defeat the Houston Astros and make it to the World Series.

The team that came so close to the golden trophy three years ago has of course changed dramatically since then.  They declined longtime outfielder Kevin Kiermaier’s option.  They put catcher Michael Perez on waivers right after that World Series.  Starters Blake Snell and Ryan Yarbrough, both key pieces of the team’s rotation in the postseason, are also gone.  The only thing that remains mostly the same is the team’s payroll, which is the third lowest in the Major Leagues.  Zack Eflin is the only player on the team earning eight figures annually.  And yet the Rays have made the playoffs the last four years and either split or won the regular season series against the Yankees with a fraction of the big money talent.

Little brother clubs in baseball are always looking for a way to stick it to their “older siblings”, teams who spend more on one player than some do on an entire roster.  For the Rays, this situation is no different.  The Yankees and the Boston Red Sox are always numbers one and two, with the occasional Blue Jays run thrown in the mix.  But Tampa Bay has found a winning formula the last half decade that has made the big brother teams sweat and put the rest of the American League on notice: should they make it to the postseason and get their stars to shine in the biggest moments, they are not going to be intimidated.

Infield

Wander Franco is perhaps the team’s most important young star for the foreseeable future.  He has quickly cemented himself as the team’s veteran shortstop, finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting two years ago and showing a lot of maturity for a twenty-two-year-old.  If the team wants to build a championship-winning roster, it has to start with his abilities with the bat, which are in need of improvement.  Franco’s defensive chops are probably his greatest asset and will go well with Brandon Lowe’s skills at second base.

Speaking of Brandon Lowe, as the leader of the infield for the team, Lowe needs to remain off the IL this year if he wants to become part of a potentially lethal double play combination.  In his five years in the majors so far, Lowe has played just one full season and needs to prove to his teammates that he can truly be a full-time leader as the Rays make another push for the postseason.

Yandy Diaz has been a reliable first and third base option for the team for the last three years and is growing into the veteran role quite nicely.  Of all the players on the team who have the chance to truly back up Randy Arozarena in the lineup, it would be Diaz.  He has very little in the way of power hitting, but last year he finished with 140 hits in 137 games played.  This year, he needs to have every element of his game in sync to provide reliability and leadership to a team dealing with injury troubles over the last few seasons.  Diaz knows that he has plenty of potential, and now is the time to use it.

Meanwhile, Isaac Paredes at third base is entering his second full season with the Rays and is another young talent that needs to fine-tune his abilities to become a star.  In just 381 plate appearances last year, Paredes hit twenty home runs, which is a very impressive clip for a player still finding his footing.  Paredes knows that his skills fit right alongside Brandon Lowe and Wander Franco, and now he just needs to unlock them.  If he can turn his fielding abilities into a powerful defensive weapon, to go along with his impressive power hitting, Paredes can become the Rays’ best infielder and round out the team.

Outfield

In the outfield, things are less stable now with the departure of Kevin Kiermaier.  Nevertheless, the team has a great defender in Randy Arozarena, the postseason superman and 2021 Rookie of the Year.  Arozarena will be looking to do more of what he does best this year on both sides of the ball.  Last year saw only a slight improvement on his rookie campaign, but this year is when he can break out as an MVP candidate.  Left field is not an easy position to play, due in part to the fact that most batters are right-handed.  Yet Tampa Bay’s left field seems to always play to Arozarena’s strengths, making it inevitable now that he will win a Gold Glove sometime soon.  Arozarena has four elements so far of the five-tool player.  Now he just needs to be able to start hitting for more power.

The players who will split time in centerfield have big shoes to fill, as the team defensively will need to recover from the recent loss of Kiermaier to free agency.  Following in the footsteps of the team’s greatest ever defensive player will be a monumental task, as Kiermaier was the man who set the tone for the entire outfield with his fielding ability.

At the moment, Jose Siri looks to be the team’s top option for the position, but Josh Lowe and Manuel Margot will likely split duties with Siri throughout the season to provide the team with much needed range and fielding strength.  The deepest part of centerfield is just 404 feet, meaning that speed and agility are must haves in order to run down balls in the gap.  Siri is relatively inexperienced so far in the majors, yet he will need to transition to a more important role as the team’s centerfielder of choice.

Josh Lowe and Manuel Margot look like they will split time in right field, which can be both good and bad.  Lowe is lacking in experience and needs time to develop his defensive skills.  Yet his potential is off the charts, and he will likely become a premier defender with a little coaching and a healthy amount of self-confidence.  Meanwhile, last year’s starting right fielder, Margot, is looking to regain his primary role in the position and prove that last season was no fluke.  He was in the midst of his best offensive campaign.  But then, the crash happened.

Now, Margot is back to full health and hoping to have a full season of play once again.  Margot has the veteran experience to contain the outfield when he plays, and shows his skill with the bat as well.  The classic case of veteran against newcomer can be a brutal struggle, yet if these two get along well, they can help the team form one of the best outfields in baseball.

Pitching

The pitching staff has plenty of great potential, particularly where the starters are concerned.  The top four guys in the rotation will be Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, Zach Eflin, and Jeffrey Springs.  Eflin will be looking to cement his position as the team’s ace and prove that he is worth the biggest contract on the team.  In the bullpen, the likes of Pete Fairbanks and Jason Adam will hope to provide the lockdown support for a team whose 3.41 ERA last year ranked fourth in the majors behind only the Dodgers, Astros and Yankees.  Although this leaves relatively little room for improvement, the bullpen can certainly give the starters a lift and show that the worries the team have late in the game against opposing batters are unfounded.

Odds and Ends

Behind the plate, Christian Bethancourt is a “veteran” for the team who returned to the majors last year after several seasons as a free agent with no service time.  Regaining his old form will be a tall task, as few players are ever able to bounce around the world and then return to full form will little drop-off from the first stint.  Yet this is exactly what Bethancourt will hope to accomplish as he seeks to become a full-time catcher for the Rays and support a solid starting rotation in need of a stable signal-caller.

Harold Ramirez in the DH spot will provide some needed offensive firepower for a team without much on that front.  Lowe and Arozarena will join Ramirez as DH options, with Lowe perhaps best suited for the DH spot in the early going.  Ramirez will need to increase his offensive production to become the most reliable of the three, particularly since he has defensive limitations.

Management

Manager Kevin Cash won two consecutive Manager of the Year awards with his philosophy, which is remarkable given that most of the time, more popular teams win the big-name awards.  Cash arguably has things easier than other managers in that he does not have to keep big name personalities under control on the field, nor are there too many bells and whistles to distract players in the locker room on a daily basis.  His gametime message has truly resonated with the players the last four seasons, and he wants to continue the winning ways for the next few years.

Spending more money may ultimately be what the Rays need at this point to truly become one of the perennial best teams in baseball.  While it’s clear that GM Peter Bendix and President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander are quite happy with the direction of the team at present, they still long for the Commissioner’s Trophy that the big brothers possess.  Recently, the team tentatively approved a deal for a new stadium at a site near St. Pete.  No one knows if the team is actually going to finally (finally!) get approval for a new stadium.  Yet this is a positive sign for a team that historically has played in the worst ballpark in the Major Leagues.  Rays fans have longed for a more comfortable venue in which to watch games, one that can keep them coming back and contributing to the team’s well-being.

Conclusion

Things are never perfect each offseason for twenty-nine out of thirty major league teams as they head into the coming season.  Yet Tampa Bay certainly has all the motivation they need heading into the 2023 season to perform above expectations and summon the passion of the COVID year to head back to the World Series and show all of Major League Baseball that they mean business, for good.