The 2021 (and only 2021) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Cubs batters left in a Hays...



James Hays turned in the dominant start we've been waiting for this postseason and the Rays got some late runs to take a 5-0 win and 1-0 lead in the World Series. For the first 5 innings he was actually being outdueled by Chicago's Edgar Mercedes, who held the Rays to 1 hit at that point. But they broke through with a Wander Franco RBI double in the 6th and then broke it open in the 8th with JT Realmuto's 3-run homer. Realmuto's been an acquisition that's really put us over the top this year. Pablo Lopez will try to give us a 2-0 series lead tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

Halfway there...



The Rays pummeled the Cubs with the longball 8-2 to take a 2-0 Series lead. Dom Scavone was the star with a pair of them, but Kelly Crumpton's 2-run shot in the first was the biggest, answering a Cub score in the top of the inning, while Andrew Greckel's 2-run blast in the sixth broke open a 3-2 game. It was a struggle for Pablo Lopez throughout as he had to pitch out of several jams and leave after 4 due to throwing 94 pitches, but Wennington Romero was downright heroic in middle relief getting the win with 6 whiffs over 3 one-hit innings. We'll head to Wrigley now and Joe Ryan will look to replicate his ALCS Game 7 gem to give the Rays a near-insurmountable lead.

[Art Deco]

We got Tork'd...



In a mirror image of Game 2 it was the Cubs who laid the lumber to the Rays with 4 homers, including a pair from their superstar Spencer Torkelson, to take a 10-2 win and get back in the Series. This was the bad Joe Ryan today, giving up a pair of homers in the first, and the relief was no relief either. Andrew Greckel and JT Realmuto had solo shots but the offense pretty much gave up after falling well behind as Chicago's Dennis Colleran retired the final 12 Rays, 7 on strikes. Jackson Baumeister will look to turn in his first good start of the postseason to keep Chicago from evening things up tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

What drama...



Kelly Crumpton blasted a dramatic 2-run homer in the 9th to give the Rays a 3-2 win and a 3-1 series lead over the Cubs. Alex Kirilloff singled with the Cubs two outs away from evening the series, and then Crumpton stepped up and took a Jose LeClerc fastball into the LCF bleachers to turn the game and the series around. Special credit tonight to Rays pitching. We all rolled our eyes and said "here we go again" when Jackson Baumeister gave up a 2-run homer to Yordan Alvarez in the 1st inning, figuring we were looking at a repeat of Game 3. But Baumeister settled in after that, and then Wennington Romero came up huge again in middle relief, getting Baumeister out of a 5th-inning jam and adding 2 more scoreless innings. And Yasunari Uehara looked his regular self after having his struggles in these playoffs, whiffing the first two men he faced and retiring the side in order to preserve the win. Now the Rays are not only in the great position of being 3-1 up, they'll also be sending James Hays to the mound tomorrow to try and win their third World Series in six seasons.

[Art Deco]

Hold the champagne...



We're going back to St. Pete for a Game 6 instead of a parade as the Cubs beat James Hays and the Rays 4-2 to pull within 3-2 in the series. Hays pitched well for 6 innings, but I left him in too long in the 7th, leading to two more Cubs runs. That decision proved even more costly when the Rays struck back for 2 runs in the 8th but their rally fell short. So now we're looking at Game 6 at the Trop with Pablo Lopez hoping to come through in our second chance to close things out.

[Art Deco]

A brutal loss...



The Rays had the World Series title within their grasp, up 3-0 after 6 innings behind a great Pablo Lopez start. Unfortunately Lopez wore himself out throwing 98 pitches and we had to turn to the pen and that's where things went so badly wrong. JT Ginn was first up in the 7th and he gave up a 3-run homer to Harrison Bader to let Chicago tie. No problem though as Dominic Scavone belted a homer to restore the Rays' lead at 4-3 in the bottom of the inning. Matt Cronin, who got Ginn out of the 7th, whiffed Yordan Alvarez to start the 8th and with righty slugger Spencer Torkelson due, we went to our closer Yasunari Uehara. Not only did he immediately give up a homer to Torkelson allowing the Cubs to equalize he then put a man on and gave up another homer, and that was too much to recover from as the Cubs have now forced a Game 7. So now it's up to Joe Ryan, who's turned in 3 poor starts out of 4 this postseason, to pitch Game 7. Of course that's where we were in the ALCS and Ryan came through with his lone quality start so we'll just have to see.

[Art Deco]

Just an unbelievable choke...



I really don't how quite to describe the collapse that the Rays had in Game 7 of the World Series to lose an 8-5 lead going into the 9th inning. The bullpen was brutal again but even worse was the fielding, as you'll notice the final 5 Chicago runs were all unearned. An Ed Howard error in the 9th would have been the second out and instead it let two runs score. Landon Knack then gave up a single with men on 2nd and 3rd but Alex Kirilloff threw the potential go-ahead run out to keep the game tied. After the Rays failed to do anything in the bottom of the 9th, Matt Cronin had all kinds of trouble in the 10th, loading the bases with two out for none other than Spencer Torkelson. But Cronin got Torkelson to hit an easy grounder to Wander Franco which should have ended the inning - but Franco's toss to 2nd was wild and the winning runs scored. It was just an incredible combo of relievers putting baserunners on and fielders letting them score at the absolutely worst time ever. Combine yesterday's blown Game 6 with the fact they blew a 3-1 lead in the Series with home games in 6 & 7 and you have a case for the biggest choke in baseball history. So instead of talking about World Series Game 7 hero Heston Kjerstad (who belted two homers) or the feats of Kelly Crumpton (2 doubles, a homer and 3 RBI for a playoff total of 7 HR and 20 RBI), we'll instead be talking about the World Series the Rays literally threw away.

(Personal note: not sure I've ever yelled expletives at my computer as much as I did during this game).

[Art Deco]

After the gut-wrenching World Series loss, it's a little hard to be looking to 2029 but it's time. Stu Sternberg has given us a payroll of $130M next year, and heads will have to roll given our obligations:



These are all the players who are slated to make more than the minimum. All together they add up to $150M so at least $20M and more realistically $30-35M needs to be cut.

JT Ginn and his projected $11M is an easy call since he lost his rotation spot and was spotty in relief last year. He nevertheless still has good trade value and I'm confident will get something decent (and cheap) for him.

Heston Kjerstad is also a candidate to go. He's set for $6M+ and is headed into his final year of team control. He seems to get hurt regularly and while he has good power, we have plenty of guys with good power. He also will have some value on the trade market.

After his poor playoffs, Yasunari Uehara and his $13M look awful pricey for a closer. But he was outstanding during the regular season with 2.7 WAR and we really don't have a closer-in-waiting so he's probably kept.

It would be nice to get out from under Victor Robles' $20M/year contract which potentially still has 3 more years to run. The problem is I'm not sure we have a CF replacement. Ryan McKenna is a free agent who might be able to do the job and only hit a little worse than Robles so we'll have to see what he wants for a contract, and Mo Hampton Jr can field the position but his hitting is a huge question mark. We will explore the option of dealing Robles though.

Keylan Kilgore and his $2.4M will be non-tendered and we'll probably rid ourselves of Christian Chamberlain and Osvanni Gutierrez so those two combined with Kilgore would lop about $5M off the payroll.

Last year's lineup should all be back although Kjerstad and Robles could go as mentioned. The pitching staff is another story. We're losing Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez from the rotation. Shane Panzini will return to it, Slade Cecconi is a candidate, we have prospects Dave Cedeno and Parker Detmers at Durham as well as Kendall Williams and Elvis Garcia. And I've also been considering giving Robinson Ortiz a shot at starting.

Free agents we say goodbye to: Aside from Ryan and Lopez, we'll lose Matt Cronin, Brendan Rodgers, AJ Minter, Corbin Burnes and JP Crawford as well as possibly McKenna.

[Art Deco]

November 10: Well we finally got out from under the Victor Robles contract, as we got $15M/year in relief thanks to this trade with Cleveland:



We are retaining $5M/year, parted with a couple of other guys whom we weren't going to keep around (Kilgore and Wetherbee) and threw in a C prospect in Jose Meding and in the end we get a starting pitcher in Prosecky. He's more of an innings-eater type, having gone 9-15, 4.44 with Cleveland last year in 192 innings. The lefty is rated 50 stuff, 65 movement, and 50 control and he makes the minimum.. Although we'll have 2-3 openings, he's not yet a lock for the rotation; we could use him in long relief.

Robles bounced back to have a decent 2.4 WAR season in 117 games after a dismal 2027 but he never looked to be getting back to the 5-WAR guy he was before we signed him. We now have a hole in CF as Ryan McKenna, whom I was considering having fill in, wants a 3/13 deal which seems a lot for a guy who I picked up off the free agent scrap heap last summer. Mo Hampton Jr, who was up last year for a while when Robles was hurt, is an excellent defender who put up a 7.7 ZR in Durham last year and has a little pop, but isn't a very good overall hitter. We'll just see how the offseason goes and who becomes available, etc.

Awards season time. Unlike last year when it was the James Hays show (MVP & Cy), we'll likely be shut out this year although Hays has a shot at another Cy Young (he led the AL in pitcher WAR but that seems to not be a big consideration in OOTP's pitching awards).

Gold Gloves: LOL, we're not getting any.

Reliever of the Year: Somehow Tyler Zuber of KC won it because he had a 1.16 ERA in 54 innings (but only 6 saves and only 1.1 WAR). Yasunari Uehara got my vote and apparently it was the only vote of any kind he received which is ridiculous since he led AL relievers in WAR at 2.7, had a 7/77 BB/K ratio, a very good 2.45 ERA and 29 saves. The voting made no sense.

Silver Slugger: We actually did win one as Wander Franco took the award at SS.

Rookie of the Year: Marc Petro of Oakland (.256-21-65) took it in the AL with 31 of 32 first-place votes. Finishing a distant second was our own Dominic Scavone. In the NL, El Paso's Andy Kelly was an unanimous winner, hitting .279-14-48 in a partial season.

Cy Young: Wow, he did it! Back-to-back Cy Youngs for Hays:



Thought for sure Francis Martes' sexier 19-6, 3.10 was going to win it but he finished a distant third. Hays had a very good season but nothing like his otherworldly 2027. We're going to pay through the nose for him in arbitration this year but it'll be worth it.

In the NL the unanimous winner was Atlanta's Luke LaFlam, who was 15-11, 2.89. He threw a whopping 236 innings and earned 5.0 WAR. It would have been his rookie season as well but he pitched 58 innings over parts of the previous two years and just missed out on rookie eligibility or I'm sure he would have won RotY as well.

MVP: In a league when nobody had a truly outstanding season, the AL MVP vote was always going to be a muddle and it did end up a close race as the White Sox' Matt Wong took it, 355-332 over Baltimore's Billy Carlow with each receiving 14 first-place votes (I voted for Carlow). Wander finished 5th in the voting. Wong hit .303-32-98 and played a good LF, earning 6.3 WAR. Carlow hit .284-39-103 and led the AL in SLG and OPS. The 2nd overall pick in 2026 also can pitch and made 3 starts for Baltimore which albeit were nothing special.

In the NL there wasn't much doubt as Atlanta's Jasson Dominguez won unanimously after a monster year which saw him hit .283-55-128 and play Gold Glove defense in LF (he'd play CF but Atlanta has another Gold Glover in Christian Pache), and compiled 8.6 WAR.

Back to our regularly scheduled trading, we found a home for JT Ginn:



(Although this says the Texas GM is going to think about it, he already thought about the offer I submitted without Ricciardi and said we had a deal if I included him, so I put the trade through. Contract law and all that, y'know.)

Dax Fulton is a power lefty who can start or relieve (60 or 70 stuff depending on which) and was 5-9, 3.52 with 16 saves and 101 Ks in 105 IP, making 13 starts mixed in. Not sure yet what role I'm going to use him in. Seise meanwhile is a defensive wizard at 3B who had a ZR of 8.5 last year at the hot corner. He isn't much of a hitter (262/320/387) but thanks to his glove earned 3.1 WAR. He can play SS too, with a potential rating of 60 with enough reps. I wanted to upgrade our defense and Seise should see a lot of time at 3B with Dom Scavone likely ending up at DH mostly. Ricciardi meanwhile was expendable as we have a lot of 1B and with a 40 contact tool he seems to be Angelo DiSpigna 2.0. Carbajal is a longshot prospect.

And we have another trade:



Remember Andy Kelley, mentioned previously in this post? Yep, the NL Rookie of the Year is headed to Tampa Bay in a swap for Heston Kjerstad, who was slated to make $6.3M/year. Kjerstad still rates better than Kelley but HK's problem is staying on the field - he averaged only 90 games the last two seasons with us. He did hit a lot of big homers for us the last 5 years including a pair in Game 7 of this year's World Series (#toosoon) but he was into his last year of team control. Gonzalez is a bit of a longshot while Corona I considered at one point our 3B of the future (ahead of Kelly Crumpton a few years back) but kind of stagnated. He can play in the majors now as an average-fielding 3B with 20 HR and a .240-.250 BA, in other words a second-division starter.

Kelley meanwhile is a 65 LF but can play center (45-rated). Since we're looking at Greckel and Kirilloff in the corners, center is where he'll have to fit although I'll probably have Mo Hampton Jr or a Mo Hampton Jr-type backing up to come on as a defensive replacement late in games. Also you may have noticed that we were between assistant GMs as nobody gave me feedback on this trade. Shortly after it was completed, we hired former Rays front office guy and former Astros GM James Click to be our AGM.

December 6: We signed an interesting international FA to a minor league deal:



Sasaki has some pretty good potential and he didn't cost us anything. He's potentially a little light on HR power for a 1B and we have Jonathan Guiterrez at Montgomery as well who's a more advanced 1B prospect but Sasaki should have decent future value, either for our club or as a trade chip.

[Art Deco]

December 9: The first of the big-name free agents to sign is Riley Greene, who leaves Detroit for Washington on a 4/92.6 deal. Greene put up consecutive seasons of 4+ WAR for the Tigers the last two years.

December 11: Andrew Vaughn trades in the second city for the first as he moves from Chicago to the New York Mets, inking a 4/93.2 pact.

December 13: The Cardinals broke out the checkbook today, signing 2B Nico Hoerner from their arch-rival and World Champion (ugh, hurts to say) Cubs to a 5/100 contract and they added former Reds & Mets starter Luis Castillo for 3/63. Castillo is long in the tooth for a pitcher at 36 but is coming off an excellent 18-7, 2.93 year with New York.

December 17: Our good friend Pablo Lopez has found his payday in our nation's capital, signing a 5/72.9 deal with the Nationals.

Trade time:



We moved Chamberlain, who had fallen out of favor and spent the second half of the season at Durham, to the Giants for Baez, who is an intriguing speed/power guy who's every level, including in 31 games with the Giants:



There's a lot of swing and miss in his game which is his one drawback but he is an above-average defensive OF as well. He'll be borderline to make the team but will be a nice stash at Durham.

Another deal:



Osvanni was another guy making $1.6M who wasn't even on the 40-man but he's not far removed from a couple of fine seasons in our pen. In return we get a needed bullpen upgrade in Doyle, who was Kansas City's closer last year and recorded 35 saves. It came with a 3.73 ERA but that was largely due to an unlucky .346 BABIP as he only allowed 6 homers while fanning a batter an inning. He has 70 stuff, 55 movement and 60 control.

December 20: Added Ps Gavin Bruni and K. Xavier Pelzer, 1B Jonathan Gutierrez, SS Carlos Colmenarez, OF/P Drew Gray and OF Mo Hampton Jr. to the 40-man roster. Designated 1B Michael Busch for assignment and placed him on waivers.

Rule 5 time. Bruni's a lefty swingman with some potential, Pelzer is starter depth, Gutierrez a July 2 int'l signing who still profiles as our 1B of the future, Colmenarez is a defensive wizard at SS and currently has the inside track as our backup MI, Gray is an intriguing 2-way player who profiles as a 4th OF who could be a hard-throwing middle reliever, and I've already talked at length about Hampton. Meanwhile Busch didn't hit at all for us last year and is getting long in the tooth as a quadruple-A type, so we let him go to open up a spot in case someone in Rule 5 intrigued us - and it turned out someone did.

December 20: Selected IF Brad Manross from Toronto in the Rule 5 Draft.

Who is Brad Manross? Some (BNN) say he's the #7 prospect overall:



We have found our backup MI as of course we will have to keep Manross on the active roster for the entire 2029 season. He has the glove to contribute right away, although he's probably not going to hit much (although he should draw some walks). Meanwhile we didn't lose anybody, so that's good too.

December 25: Merry Christmas! It was a merry one for former Ray Brandon Lowe, who after a series of 1-year deals resurrected his career with a big year for Houston (.289-33-82) and parlayed that into a 4/60.8 deal with Oakland.

December 31: The Cardinals continued their free-spending ways by locking up 3B Josh Jung on a 4/67/7 deal. Jung had a career 4.4-WAR season last year with the Angels after signing a 1-year deal, hitting .294-21-84. Speaking of the Angels, they brought in SP Kumar Rocker for one year at $6.7M.

[Art Deco]

January 3: Matt Cronin, who did a good job for us in the bullpen late in the year and during the playoffs, signed a 3/14.8 deal with the San Antonio Alamos while another former Ray, Shane McClanahan, signed a 1-year contract with the Dodgers for $3.7M, his fourth team in four years.

January 7: Seattle's star OF Julio Rodriguez won't be going anywhere as he signed a 7/178 extension with the club.

January 8: 36-year-old SS Xander Bogaerts went to Milwaukee on a 3/51 deal.

January 10: The Hall of Fame voting is in, and so is just one player:



Congrats to Mad Max Scherzer while Robinson Cano and Zack Greinke remain agonizingly close. Meanwhile Ichiro and Mauer don't seem to be gaining much traction.

January 12: A couple of more former Rays find new homes as Drew Rasmussen joins Texas on a minor league deal and Reid Detmers becomes an Astro for the low price of $780K.

January 17: Longtime Cleveland ace Shane Bieber is taking his talents to San Francisco on a 4/78 deal. He's struggled with ERAs of 4.78 and 4.70 the last two years but still gets the whiffs and eats the innings. And the Giants weren't done improving their rotation there either as they inked Houston's former ace Jose Alberto Rivera to a 6/108 contract.

January 21: In what must be an experiment to see just how many homers a pitcher can allow, longtime Rays rotation fixture Joe Ryan has signed a 3/30.9 deal with Colorado. He was homer-prone in the Trop, just imagine Coors Field. Also AJ Minter, who was with us late in the season and didn't contribute much, signed a 1/2.9 contract with the Mets.

January 24: Activated OF Jose Aguilar from the 60-day IL, waived and designated OF Brayden Jobert for assignment.

Aguilar was originally supposed to be out until almost mid-season with a broken bone in his elbow but it healed much quicker than anticipated and he was ready to return. I had kind of written him off in my 2029 thinking but now that he's back we need to make room for him on the active roster since he's out of options. He's a potential impact bat who hit well when he played last year but isn't a good defensive outfielder. Jobert meanwhile hit a somewhat freakish .346 in about 100 AB for us last year but should clear waivers as he's just a 2-star guy.

January 31: Trade time again:



So long to Alex Kirilloff and his contract. Kirilloff had his best year in Rays colors last year with 3.1 WAR and .292-23-102 but he was terrible in the field (-7.8 ZR) and isn't getting any younger. Jimenez is a quality young prospect, a July 2 signing by the Mets in 2027:



This will open up RF for Joshua Baez, who may not hit as well as Kirilloff but will play above-average D and still hit for power.

February 15: Some interesting OFs signed with new clubs: Austin Hays to St. Louis (2/21.8), Eloy Jimenez to Cleveland (2/18) and Ramon Laureano to San Antonio (2/21).

February 24: Let's keep trading:



It's no secret I've been looking to upgrade the team's abysmal defense and instead of playing Andy Kelley somewhat out of position in center, I've traded for Gutierrez, one of the best defensive CFs in the league. The second-year-man is rated 70 in CF and had a whopping 14.1 ZR at the position. He's not going to hit a lot (246/279/357 last season) but despite those paltry numbers he still earned 2.6 WAR. He can probably hit a little better than that and has good gap power (34 2B) and speed (21 SB). Kelley will now shift to RF where he's good defensively too, and Joshua Baez will go to the bench or Durham. The price was Sponheim, a good prospect who was our #1 pick in 2027. He held his own in full-season ball last year (.260 with 13 HR) but we have a lot of prospects at 1B so he was tradable.

March 3: One of the bigger trades of the offseason went down with Houston dealing superstar SS Francisco Lindor to Minnesota for IF/OF Ian Happ and a really good CF prospect. Lindor is now 35 and did slip last year with the bat but still earned 3.5 WAR.

March 6: Some former Rays found new teams: Taylor Walls signed for $1.6 on a 1-year deal with Memphis while Brendan Rodgers signed a minor league deal with Houston and Ryan McKenna did likewise with Miami.

March 11: Fading superstar Christian Yelich signed a 1/6 deal with Baltimore after all those years in Milwaukee. He hit .236-25-73 with the Brewers last year, good for only 1.2 WAR. Meanwhile JP Crawford, who served as our backup MI last year, signed a minor league deal with San Antonio.

March 18: Some big-name veterans still looking for jobs found them today: Kyle Lewis 1/5 to the Cubs, Jeff McNeil 1/13.6 to Texas and Javier Baez 1/980K to St. Louis.

March 22: We signed some vets to minor league contracts: IFs Michael Chavis and Jorge Polanco, and P Nate Pearson. Pearson has a torn rotator cuff and won't be back until August.

March 24: We got an injury scare with James Hays as he had to leave his spring training start but it was just a dead arm. Still it'll keep him out for a couple of weeks and he'll miss his scheduled Opening Day start. Elsewhere Joey Gallo signed a minor league deal with Boston.

[Art Deco]

A few moves to set the roster: Kendall Williams and Shane Baz make the team since they're out of options, and Michael Busch and Brayden Jobert are put on waivers.

The Opening Day roster:

C-Realmuto, Collins
1B-Crumpton
2B-Howard
SS-Franco
3B-Seise
IF-Manross, Scavone (DH)
LF-Greckel
CF-C.Gutierrez
RF-Kelley
OF-Aguilar, Baez

SP-Baumeister, Panzini, Prosecky, R.Ortiz, Baz
LR-Cecconi, W.Romero
MR-K.Williams, Knack, Megill
SU-Crespo, Fulton, Doyle
CL-Uehara

James Hays of course is starting the year on the IL and should be back for the second turn in the rotation.

The preseason predictions (which will slam us because Hays isn't active):

And, oof...



Hays is probably worth 5 or 6 wins here but man that's still a rough prediction. The starting rotation is obviously a huge question mark and we'll just see how it goes. And of course I'll be tinkering throughout.

[Art Deco]

The Opening Day box:



The emphasis this offseason was to improve the team's run prevention, especially on the defensive side of things. Our goal was to win games 2-1 rather than 7-5. And for one day at least it was mission accomplished as the Rays took the opener 2-1. The winning run came as part of the plan with Chris Gutierrez, acquired for his speed and defense, beat out an infield single, stole second, went to third on a fly ball and scored on a groundout. The pitching was great, plays were made behind them and on we go.

Transaction: We activated James Hays off the IL and DFA'd Shane Baz.

The Rays made it two wins in two games with another crisply-played victory over Kansas City 6-1, but it came at a price. James Hays, fresh off the IL, got the start but had to leave after 2 scoreless innings with a sprained elbow which will shelve him for a couple of weeks. Slade Cecconi took over and was impressive with 3 scoreless 1-hit innings with 4 Ks and picked up the win. They had a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the 8th thanks in part to Andy Kelley's first RBI single as a Ray before busting it open with Wander Franco and Andrew Greckel hitting back-to-back jacks to start a 4-run rally.

Transaction: We put Hays on the IL and recalled rookie reliever Cody Adcock, who was a sensation in spring training after flashing upgraded 75 stuff and we figure we'll get a look at what he can do. Baz being waived opened a 40-man spot for him. Cecconi will take Hays' rotation spot in the meantime.

The finale was quite a different story from the first two games as the Royals routed the Rays 16-6. Shane Panzini didn't have it all, escaping the first allowing just one run then getting lit up like a Christmas tree in the 2nd and finishing 1.2 8 8 7 2 3. The Rays did climb back within 11-6 before Dax Fulton made a forgettable Rays debut allowing 5 runs in the 9th. Speaking of debuts, Cody Adcock made his in the bigs and allowed a run in 1 1/3 with a whiff. Andrew Greckel had a big day at the plate, singling in one run and driving in 3 more with 2nd homer of the season.

Team record: 2-1. Next up: 4 at home vs Toronto.

[Art Deco]

The Rays ended up splitting their 4-game series with Toronto, although they should have won 3 of the 4. They're in an early 3-way tie with the Jays and Boston atop the AL East at 4-3.

The opener was the one that got away as the Rays took a 1-0 lead into the 9th inning, only to lose 3-2 in 10. Michael Prosecky was brilliant in his Rays debut, going 6.1 6 0 0 1 4 and Tommy Doyle fanned 3 in 1 2/3 to get them to the 9th. But Yasunari Uehara coughed up a 2-run homer to Rowdy Tellez, and Toronto scored off Jose Crespo (0-1) in the 10th after a pinch-RBI double from Joshua Baez tied it up in the bottom of the 9th.

The Rays came out swinging in the second game, winning 8-4 behind the bat of Kelly Crumpton and the arm of Robinson Ortiz. Crumpton drilled a 2-run homer in the 1st (#1) and later added an RBI single, Andrew Greckel made it 3 homers in 5 games with a solo shot, and Dominic Scavone had a 2-run double. They backed a strong outing from Ortiz, making his first-ever start with the Rays after a couple of seasons in the bullpen as he got the win going 6 7 3 3 1 8. Dax Fulton got Landon Knack out of a jam in the 8th and finished the game for his 1st Rays save.

Jackson Baumeister was excellent again and the Rays took an easy 8-2 win over Toronto in the third game as Andrew Greckel continued his torrid start to the season with a pair of 2-run homers, giving him the MLB lead in homers and RBI with 5 and 10. Baumeister went to 2-0 with a 6 6 1 1 0 7 outing and Wennington Romero pitched the final 3 for his first save. In addition to Greckel the Rays got homers from Ed Howard, a 2-run shot in the 3rd to get them on the board, and a solo shot from J.T. Realmuto, the first of the season for both.

Toronto salvaged a split of the series with a 4-2 win as Jordan Groshans hit a pair of 2-run homers off Slade Cecconi, and solo shots from Andrew Greckel (his 6th in 7 games) and JT Realmuto (#2) were all the Rays could manage. Cecconi (1-1) went 4.2 4 4 4 2 6 in the loss.

Team record: 4-3. Next up: 3 games in Detroit against our perennial ALCS foe.

[Art Deco]

Comerica Park has always been a tough place for the Rays and this time was no exception as they dropped 2 of 3 to Detroit.

Shane Panzini's rough start to 2029 continued today as the Rays fell 6-3 to Detroit. The righty, who didn't make it out of the 2nd in his first start of the year, wasn't a whole lot better today at 4.1 7 5 5 1 3 to drop to 0-2. The bats only managed 5 hits as well.

On the other hand Michael Prosecky has been brilliant to start 2029 as he and two relievers combined on a 6-0 shutout of Detroit. Prosecky won his first Rays decision with a 6 4 0 0 2 5 outing and was backed by Kelly Crumpton, who delivered a pair of RBI hits, and Andy Kelley, who blasted his first Rays homer. Chris Gutierrez was also 2-4 with 2 steals and an RBI.

The Rays dropped the rubber game of the series 5-4 in a tough one. Andrew Greckel gave them a 2-0 first-inning lead with HR #7, but Robinson Ortiz (1-1) couldn't replicate his opening start success and went 5.1 7 5 5 2 6. The Rays bounced back to tie it at 4 with 2 runs in the 5th including Chris Gutierrez's first Tampa Bay homer but Landon Knack wild-pitched in Ortiz's runner in the bottom of the inning and that proved to be the winner.

Team record: 5-5, 1 1/2 behind Baltimore. Next up: An off-day then the road trip continues with 3 in Houston.

[Art Deco]

A good series for the Rays in a tough place to win as they took 2 of 3 from the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

Jackson Baumeister made it 3 wins in 3 starts although he wasn't his best in a 4-3 Rays win. Baumeister was 5.2 8 3 3 2 3 and the pen was sterling over the final 3 1/3 with Yasunari Uehara getting his 2nd albeit not without some suspense as he walked a pair. All 4 Rays runs came in the first two innings with the crackling-hot Andrew Greckel hitting a 2-run HR (#8) in the first and RBI singles from Ed Howard and Wander Franco in the 2nd.

The OOTP scouting reports often refer to a starter as a "dice-roll guy", either great or terrible in any given start and Slade Cecconi fits that description. Today he rolled a 7 as Cecconi (2-1) was brilliant, going 8 6 1 1 1 6 in a 5-1 Tampa Bay victory. Wander Franco jumpstarted the offense with a 2-run single in a 3-run 2nd and Jose Aguilar singled in a run in a 2-run 5th as they opened up breathing room.

The Rays couldn't complete the sweep, falling short in all phases of the game in a 7-0 loss to Houston. Shane Panzini (0-3) wasn't great but he wasn't terrible either as his defense betrayed him with two key errors although one was his own. He gave up 6 runs in 4 innings but only 2 were earned. Of course little of it mattered since the bats were held to a mere 4 hits, two of which came from Wander Franco who was 7-15 in the series.

Team record: 7-6, 2 behind Boston. Next up: 3 games at home vs the Yankees.

[Art Deco]

It was a close, hard-fought series with lead changes in every game and the Rays ended up prevailing in 2 of them to stay two games behind Boston in the AL East.

The Rays were the team coming from behind to win in the opener as they overcame a 5-1 deficit and took a 6-5 victory over the Yankees at Tropicana Field. The comeback came via the longball as Wander Franco (twice, #2 & 3), Chris Gutierrez (#2) and Kelly Crumpton (#3) all went deep to make it 5-5, and then they manufactured the winning run in the 7th as they got the first two on with nobody out and I called for a rare bunt which Chris Seise executed and Ed Howard came through with a sac fly. Michael Prosecky had his first rough start as a Ray (4 9 5 5 3 4) but the pen was sterling with Landon Knack (1-0) getting the win and Yasunari Uehara save #3.

The second game was a seesaw affair with the Rays blowing the lead this time but coming back to tie and eventually win 7-6 in 12 innings on a walk-off Kelly Crumpton blast (#4). It was 4-0 after 5 which saw the lead built in part on rare back-to-back triples from Andrew Greckel and Jose Aguilar, and Robinson Ortiz was 1-hitting the Yankees. In the 6th though Ortiz walked a pair and had to leave, Tylor Megill gave up a 3-run homer to get New York back in it (Ortiz' final line was 5.1 1 2 2 4 3), and then the Yankees scored 3 more in the 8th off Dax Fulton and Tommy Doyle to go up 6-5. But Ed Howard doubled leading off the 9th and scored on Greckel's 3rd RBI of the day, a sac fly, setting the stage for Crumpton's winner. Landon Knack (2-0) once again picked up the win.

The Rays were in position to sweep the series after going up 3-1 after 4 in the finale, but a 4-run 5th keyed by an error from last night's hero Kelly Crumpton enabled the Yankees to take a 6-4 win. First Crumpton homered for the third straight game (#4) to help them to that early lead but his error opened the door for all 4 runs being unearned in that 5th and Jackson Baumeister (3-1) tasted defeat for the first time this season. Error aside, Baumeister wasn't very sharp and finished 4.1 8 4 1 2 5 on 100 pitches. Joshua Baez hit his first Rays homer to get them back within 5-4, but that was as close as they'd get.

Team record: 9-7. Next up: 4 big early games against the team we're chasing, the Boston Red Sox.

[Art Deco]

Noticed that the Royals had this guy on the trade block, so a deal was done:



Kim has averaged 3.7 WAR over the past two seasons, his first full years in MLB since coming over from South Korea. He was .291-32-85 in 2027 and .276-22-72 last year and is an above-average defensive LF (60-rated). He'll take over in LF and Andrew Greckel will take over DH, which was Scavone's role. It also gives us another LH bat in the lineup as not counting the switch-hitting Wander Franco, Greckel was the only one. Scavone came to us late in 2027 with lots of promise, but sporadically delivered on that promise in a .227-26-60 season good for 1.1 WAR and was off to a dreadful 6 for 45 start this year with 0 HR. Sounds too good to be true? Well, Scavone is under team control for one more year than Kim and will not be eligible for arbitration until 2031 while Kim is eligible next year and projected for $4.4M. Also Scavone is 5 years younger and probably better offensively than he's showed with us. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to upgrade our team D (Greckel is a slightly below-average LF) and put a more consistent and proven bat into the lineup.

Also for what it's worth the fan reaction was "amazing" to Kim's acquisition.

[Art Deco]

Well we came into this series 2 games behind Boston and finished it 2 games ahead of the Red Sox thanks to a 4-game sweep which saw our pitching allow 4 runs in total.

It didn't look like a sweep was in the cards for most of the opener as the Rays' bats were kept in check and they trailed 2-0 going to the bottom of the 9th, held to only 2 hits. And despite a walk it looked bleak with two out. But Wander Franco singled and that man Andrew Greckel came through again, blasting a 3-run walk-off HR, his AL-best 9th and giving him an MLB-best 22 RBI. Pitching kept them in it with Slade Cecconi turning in a fine 6.1 3 2 2 4 5 start and Kendall Williams picking up his first win of the year with a scoreless 9th. Dong-hwan Kim was fatigued so he didn't play in his first game since the trade.

The Rays had only 4 hits through 7 innings in the second game but made the most of them in a 3-1 win. Solo homers from Wander Franco (#4) and Joshua Baez (#2) sandwiched around a Chris Gutierrez triple and subsequent score on a wild pitch backed the fine pitching of Shane Panzini and 4 relievers in a 3-1 win over Boston. Panzini earned his first win of the year against 3 losses with a 5 6 0 0 2 5 outing and Boston seemingly had traffic on the bases in every inning with 12 hits and 3 walks. But the Rays bullpen kept them off the board until Yasunari Uehara gave up a run in the 9th while picking up save #4. Dong-hwan Kim was 0-4 in his Rays debut.

The Rays took another 3-1 win from Boston in the third game behind a great outing from Michael Prosecky. The lefty has been a revelation this year and he improved to 2-0, 2.28 with a 7.1 4 1 1 1 3 outing. Tylor Megill recorded the final five outs for his first save this season. Wander Franco homered again (#5) and the Rays scored on a bases-loaded walk to take a slender 2-1 lead before Dong-hwan Kim came through with his first Rays homer in the 8th to cap a 3-hit day and provide some insurance.

Transaction: Activated P James Hays from the 10-day IL and optioned P Cody Adcock to AAA Durham. Hays got a rehab start this time so he should make it through a full game while Adcock impressed in his stint and will be back when the next bullpen opening arises. Slade Cecconi will move to long relief.

James Hays was masterful in what was essentially his real 2029 debut after only lasting 2 innings in his first try and the Rays routed the Red Sox 9-0 to complete the 4-game sweep. Hays went 7 3 0 0 0 7 for the win while two big homers in consecutive innings blew the game open off former Ray Tyler Glasnow. In the 4th JT Realmuto broke the ice on a 0-0 affair with a 3-run blast (#3) and then in the 5th Dong-hwan Kim hit a Donger Dinger (as I will sometimes call them) for a grand slam and his 2nd homer in 3 games with Tampa Bay.

Team record: 13-7, 1 game up on now-second place Baltimore. And who's up next? Yep, those Orioles for 4 games in Camden Yards so another big early-season series on tap.

[Art Deco]

The Rays aced another early season test - after sweeping four from the Yankees they faced down their new division challengers in Baltimore and took 3 of 4 from the Orioles in Camden Yards to open up a 3-game lead in the division over both of those teams.

Things didn't start off great in the opener though as the bullpen couldn't hold a 3-3 tie and they lost 7-4 to Baltimore. That wasted a 2-homer performance from the major's top HR guy, Andrew Greckel (who now has 11) and a decent start from Robinson Ortiz (6 4 3 3 2 4). Tylor Megill gave up a solo homer in the 7th to put Baltimore ahead and Jose Crespo gave up 3 runs in the 8th to put the game out of reach. Tampa Bay also got solo homers from Chris Gutierrez (#3) and JT Realmuto (#4).

The Rays bounced back to take a 4-2 win in the second game behind yet another excellent outing from Jackson Baumeister, who has been ace-like this year. He upped his record to 4-1 with a 5.2 6 1 1 2 4 outing and Yasunari Uehara had an uneventful 9th for save #5. Wander Franco had a key RBI single and Dong-hwan Kim came through with another big hit, an RBI double, to lead the attack.

Tampa Bay blew a close contest open late, winning 7-1 over Baltimore in third game. Shane Panzini turned in his best start of the year and improved to 2-3 after going 5.2 6 1 1 0 7. A Baltimore error and wild pitch helped the Rays get an early 2-1 lead and then Ed Howard and Jose Aguilar delivered RBI singles. Dong-hwan Kim added a 2-run double in the 9th to blow it open.

The Rays took the series from Baltimore and made it 3 of 4 with a 7-5 win that got a little hairy at the end as they nearly squandered a 7-1 lead. Before that Kelly Crumpton banged out a couple of homers to give him 6 on the season, driving in 3, and Joshua Baez hit a 2-run shot for his 3rd. Michael Prosecky continues to impress, going to 3-0, 2.12 after a 6 4 1 1 2 7 outing. Kendall Williams sailed through the 7th but was tagged for 3 runs in the 8th, necessitating Yasunari Uehara to pitch the 9th for save #6, allowing a run of his own in the process.

Team record: 16-8. Next up: 3 games in Cleveland.