Record: 62-40 (18-6 for the month)
1st place AL East, 6 games up on Baltimore
Well we had three okay months to start the season but July was a
great one as the Rays dominated their opposition before and after the All-Star break. And in recognition of their status as true contenders, we made another big trade to boost the squad for the stretch run after the deal with Texas chronicled in the previous post. Now part of this was necessitated by stalwart starter
Jose Ramirez succumbing to a torn UCL and Tommy John surgery and then the same happened to
Magdiel Cotto, who moved from the bullpen to take his place and only lasted until his third start. So we needed to find some help for the rotation and boy did we, making this deal right at the July 31 deadline:
The Dodgers had fallen out of contention and were looking to move Skenes, whose contract is up at the end of the season. The ace righty was 9-5, 3.40 for LA and on pace for 222 whiffs and 4.2 WAR The real price for him was Sosin, our #1 pick in 2027 but who's been struggling with his command in the minors and still has quite a ways to go before realizing his potential. Bailey was necessary in the deal (as well as LA picking up 65% of Skenes' salary) so that we could afford to make it. While he's been our starting C for the last several years he too is a free agent at year's end and has fallen to a replacement-level player (literally as his current WAR is 0.0). It's a bit of a risk turning over the staff to rookie
Zion Rose but whatever defensive shortcomings he has are made up for by his offense (270/323/566 with 11 HR in 152 AB). And he'll be backed up by another rookie as we've decided to call up
Cade Arrambide, acquired in the Bobby Marsh/Mike Brown deal earlier this month. Arrambide has a bit of pop in his bat and is the best defensive C in our system, rated 60.
In other team doings we got some more bad news on the injury front as the fragile
Carson Williams won't be coming back this year from the torn ankle ligaments he suffered in June as he'll now need surgery on them. Fortunately we're fairly deep in the middle infield and
Cody Schrier has been outstanding in limited action (272/331/457 with 1.4 WAR in 54 games) while
Luis Almeyda is due back from his injury early in August.
This is how the month played out:
Had a run in there where we won 11 of 12 and 7 in a row before dropping the final game of the month. The much better-looking standings:
Not only have we moved into first, but into a 2-seed as it's always nice to avoid the wild card round.
We're not a very good team when it comes to batting average but we more than make up for it by drawing walks, hitting homers, and stealing bases. The pitching remains a strength and while the defense doesn't have a great zone rating it's still making the plays to maintain a very good defensive efficiency.
Elly continues to state his claim for another MVP with months like July and
Jeffry Rosa has been our secret weapon all year. As you can see Rose was starting to wrest the job from Bailey anyway.
Mike Brown had a mediocre Marsh-like first month with us, Auer continues to have his struggles with the bat but is playing a good CF and stealing tons of bases, but hopefully he and Tatis (having an okay but not Tatis-level season) pick it up. And Kinney came back to Earth this month, losing PT to Brown and Rosa.
A good month for the staff outside of the injuries with the back end of the bullpen (even Peguero) getting the job done. Kirby's numbers for the month are skewed by a disastrous start he had on the month's final day while
Mason Montgomery has been a pleasant surprise.
The farm system remains mediocre but did get a boost from our top two picks Vokey and Wallace, who are now our #2 and #3 prospects.