It's been something of a struggle for the Rays this season, but fortunately nobody's run away with things in the division so they remain in striking distance there as well as in the first wild card spot. They overcame a very poor start (8-12) to go a pretty decent 35-25 since and they've had to battle of slew of middle infield injuries. Here's where things stand across MLB at the moment:
Nobody's even playing .600 ball in the AL, leaving things open for the Rays should they get going.
No question where the strength of this team lies, as an offense collectively hitting 236/307/395 normally would have no business being 6 games over .500. Despite those anemic numbers they're in the middle pack in runs scored, so they've sequenced well and obviously had some luck. The offense is going to have to improve if they want to truly contend though. The rotation has been the best in the league, and the defense has been pretty decent although being 2nd in DE but only 10th in ZR is a pretty wild disparity.
Yordan Alvarez has carried the offense after a slow start and speaking of slow starts Wander has started hitting after being terrible early as well. But too much of the rest of the squad has been underachieving big-time including Albies (when healthy), Luciano and Santana, who's followed his breakout 45 HR, 109 RBI season with whatever you want to call those numbers at the bottom of the above list.
A much more pleasing set of numbers to look at, with German and Khattak having breakthrough seasons. Even the terribly unlucky Bryce Eldridge has been good for 0.9 WAR in half a season, not bad considering his 1-10, 5.01 record otherwise. I have a feeling positive regression is in store for him.
The farm system still needs improvement (and still doesn't offer much immediate help) but it has gotten better thanks to a pretty good draft last year and a guy who I had no clue about until pulling up this list as he was signed as a scouting discovery 8 days ago. I'm referring to sudden top team prospect and #22 overall guy Jesus Lemus:
Signed out of Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles, Lemus has off-the-charts potential but of course he's only 16 and he's a pitcher, so it's a long road with many things that go wrong before he sniffs the majors.