The 2021 (and only 2021) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Bring on Game 5...



The Rays scored early and often and got some good pitching to force a decisive 5th game in the ALDS after a 6-2 win at Yankee Stadium. Chris Gutierrez had another big game, doubling twice including an RBI two-bagger in the 3rd to break the ice, and Wander Franco followed with an RBI single as part of a 3-hit, 2-RBI day. Meanwhile Shane Panzini was adequate, pitching into the 5th and allowing only two runs (one on the obligatory homer) and then Kendall Williams shone with 3 scoreless innings to get the game into the 8th before Landon Knack finished it off, putting his Game 1 nightmare behind him. So now we play one game for all the Tostitos with James Hays on the mound and while that didn't work out the first time I'll still take our odds.

And we continue to move in tandem with Houston, which also lost the first two at home but has now forced a Game 5:

[Art Deco]

It's the Dodgers and the Nationals in the NLCS:



It's funny how a team's long-discarded players IRL turn out to be key contributors 8 years down the line for that same team in OOTP as DJ Peters, shipped off to Texas in the first year of this save (2021) and now (2022) playing in the KBO, instead stayed all this time with the Dodgers and was the star of their deciding NLDS Game 5.

[Art Deco]

Survive and advance...



It turned out to be as close a series as possible, going to the distance and being decided by one run, but a series win is a series win and after falling down 0-2 in the ALDS the Rays are just glad to be advancing to the ALCS again. James Hays was solid but the game turned in the 4th inning when with two out and nobody on Jeff McNeil doubled and was followed by Joshua Baez who put one into the LF seats to put Tampa Bay ahead 3-2, and series MVP and season-saver JT Realmuto went back-to-back with Baez for what turned out to the be difference. The bullpen completed its in-series turnaround as Dax Fulton, Tommy Doyle and Yasunari Uehara combined for 3 perfect innings and 7 Ks while protecting the most precious of one-run leads. And the Rays have to feel fortunate to advance considering their top run producer, Kelly Crumpton of the 49 HR and 137 RBI this season, went 0 for the series in 17 at-bats although he did have a sac fly which plated their first run tonight.

So who will they play in the ALCS?



Unlike the Rays, Houston was unable to muster a home win in three tries in the ALDS and Minnesota took the series. Francisco Lindor's 2-run homer in the 7th against the team he played for from 2022-2028 was the difference, and the Rays will be looking for revenge after being swept in 2021 by the Twins, although other than Wander Franco I don't believe anyone from that squad is still with the team.

[Art Deco]

[Art Deco]

Let's go...



After making things difficult for themselves in the ALDS the Rays figured they'd try something different this time around and win the opener, which they did convincingly today. Kelly Crumpton, 0-for-the-ALDS, remedied that problem right away by doubling in a pair of runs in the first inning, and then Andrew Greckel and Joshua Baez put the game away with 2-run homers in the 3rd. This was way more than Michael Prosecky needed in a great outing and Luis Severino will try to get the Rays halfway to the World Series tomorrow.

And we're all even in the NLCS:

[Art Deco]

Well that was unfortunate...



The Rays had a golden opportunity to go up 2-0 in the ALCS, but like in Games 1 & 2 of the ALDS the normally-reliable bullpen let them down, allowing the Twins to score twice in the 8th to take a 5-4 win over the Rays and even things up. Tylor Megill barely got through the 7th and then Dax Fulton gave up a tying RBI single to Minnesota's standout rookie Julian Valcin, who had earlier homered. And Landon Knack then gave up an RBI double to former Ray Joey Bart which lost the game. The Rays nearly pulled it out in the 9th when with 2 out and nobody on they got singles from pinch-hitter Jose Aguilar and Chris Seise, and Ed Howard walked to load the bases for the one guy we would have picked to be at the plate, Wander Franco. But Franco grounded to short and Francisco Lindor, who earlier in the day got a 3/100 extension from the Twins, threw him out.

Meanwhile Luis Severino's brief career as a Ray is over as after giving up the homer to Valcin in the 2nd he left with a herniated disc in his back and is done for the season. So after babying Severino with rehab and skipping starts to keep him healthy for the postseason all we got out of him was one lousy start in Yankee Stadium and the aborted one today. Kendall Williams, who was excellent in long relief both of those times, is the front-runner to get the Game 6 start should we get that far. And now it's off to Minnesota, where James Hays will try to get us back in front.

[Art Deco]

Advantage Nats as Randy Arozarena hits career postseason HR #34, extending his record:

[Art Deco]

This time we held on...



It was deja vu as for the second straight game the Rays took a 4-3 lead into the late innings but this time around the pen held and they moved back in front in the ALCS 2-1. It was a rather fortunate win as they were mostly dominated by Twins ace Marco Raya, who fanned 12 and threw a 127-pitch complete game in 41-degree weather but they strung one big rally against him in the 3rd and it turned out to be enough. Chris Gutierrez led off with a triple, Chris Seise walked, Ed Howard singled home Gutierrez, Wander Franco doubled in Seise and Howard, and then Wander scored on a Raya wild pitch. That was enough for James Hays, even though it didn't look good when he immediately gave up a 2-run double to that man Valcin in the bottom of the 3rd to get the Twins right back in it. But that would be the end of the night's scoring and the Rays will now try to go up 3-1, hoping for an adequate start from Shane Panzini.

Also in a roster move we disabled Luis Severino and activated Robinson Ortiz, who hasn't pitched in over three months. With Durham's season over he could pitch in rehab, but I did have him on the "active" roster for a week so we'll see. He's a possibility for Game 4 but I'll probably use him if Williams struggles.

Remember back during the season when we played Washington and touted it as a possible World Series preview? Well the Nats are holding their end of the bargain and are almost there:

[Art Deco]

Gonna be a long series...



Shane Panzini was as terrible as feared and a 4-run 3rd was not enough for the Rays to win this time as the Twins evened things up by bashing 5 homers off Tampa Bay pitching. They included a pair each from Kyle Tucker and former Ray Austin Meadows with Panzini immediately squandering the 4-1 lead he was handed by giving up homers to both in the bottom of the 3rd. The relief was no relief either with Slade Cecconi and Landon Knack both awful again. The only bright spot was the return of Robinson Ortiz, who got an inning in and recorded all 3 outs via the whiff. Some sort of Ortiz/Kendall Williams combo will be pitching Game 6, and here's hoping it's not with the season on the line provided Michael Prosecky can take care of business again tomorrow like he did in the opener. Also can someone find Kelly Crumpton's bat?

Meanwhile the Dodgers stay alive in the most dramatic of fashions as star rookie 2B Arturo Gutierrez walked it off with a homer in the bottom of the 15th to send the series back to D.C.:

[Art Deco]

Advantage Rays...



Michael Prosecky was money again and the Rays brought the boomsticks to trample the Twins 7-2 and take a 3-2 lead in the ALCS. The Rays now have two shots in St. Pete to return to the World Series thanks to big games from Prosecky and Joshua Baez, who blasted two of the team's 4 homers tonight including a mammoth blast that reached the back of the upper deck at Target Field. As mentioned before, Game 6 will be kind of a tandem if not bullpen game with Kendall Williams starting and then we'll see from there. If things don't go our way, we do have two-time Cy Young winner James Hays ready for Game 7.

[Art Deco]

Congrats to the Nats, who are looking to win another World Series in a year ending in "9":

[Art Deco]

Bring on the Nats!



It looked for all the world that we'd be headed to a Game 7 after Minnesota went up 4-0 in the top of the 5th as Kendall Williams struggled allowing a pair of homers and Robinson Ortiz was tagged for one himself. But a Rays offensive blitz in the bottom of the inning turned the game completely around thanks to Series MVP Andrew Greckel's 2-run double and my choice for Series MVP Joshua Baez's 3-run line drive homer which just cleared the LF wall, and the up-and-down bullpen this postseason held on for the final 4 innings to send the Rays to their fifth World Series in seven years as they bid to erase last year's collapse against the Cubs and win the club's third title. I'm just amazed we got there considering our 47 HR/139 RBI Kelly Crumpton is 2-for-41 this postseason after belting 7 homers during last year's run. But it won't be easy against Washington as the two best teams in MLB made it through to the end and Tampa Bay will have to slow down the real Mr. October, former Ray Randy Arozarena.

[Art Deco]

We made a couple of changes to the playoff roster before the World Series as two guys who had not been used at all in the ALDS or ALCS despite being on the roster were dropped: OF Andy Kelley and P Wennington Romero. Romero was dropped because Gavin Bruni has supplanted him as the lefty long man, and Kelley was dropped to make room for Dong-hyun Kim, finally recovered from injury. There isn't a place in the lineup for Kim now that we have Jeff McNeil, but if Kelly Crumpton doesn't snap out of his slump I might move McNeil to 1B and put Kim in LF. The pitcher taking Romero's place is Kevin DiCostanzo, so good when up and so good in the minors this year, and I'm not going to hesitate to use him in key situations as Landon Knack and Tommy Doyle, my main RH setup guys, have struggled in these playoffs.

[Art Deco]

3 wins to go...



It wasn't pretty but the Rays overcame another blown lead by the bullpen in this postseason to take a 5-4 win as one of our key players finally joined the playoff party. Kelly Crumpton, whose failure to get a hit his first four times up tonight made him 2-for-45 this postseason and on the verge of a benching, picked a great time to get a big hit as he hit a one-out triple in the 9th and scored on Jeff McNeil's sac fly to provide the winning margin. James Hays had pitched a great game and left with a 4-2 lead but it took him 106 pitches to get through 6. That put us in our 7th-inning danger zone and sure enough Tommy Doyle and Aaron Fletcher could not get it done as they combined to blow the lead. Enter rookie and brand new addition to the playoff roster Kevin DiCostanzo, who got a whiff to end the 7th without further damage and then pitched a scoreless 8th against some tough hitters. That bought the offense time to regain the lead and Yasunari Uehara breezed through 9th with a couple of Ks to save it. Michael Prosecky will get the ball for Game 2 and we have to hope he'll be as brilliant as he's been in his previous 3 playoff starts (2-0, only 2 runs allowed in 20 IP).

[Art Deco]

A memorable loss...



The Rays lost a tough one, falling to Washington 5-4 in 12 innings to allow the Nats to even up the World Series at 1. But in the process a new national star was born as Joshua Baez, already having a great postseason, took it up another notch today with a 3-homer game, joining Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, Albert Pujols and Pablo Sandoval as players to hit 3 in a World Series game. And the third was the most amazing of all - with the Rays down 4-3 in the 9th he hit an inside-the-parker, the first among those to do so as part of a 3-homer game in the Fall Classic. Unfortunately he was a one-man offense as his teammates had their problems (4-36 combined) and when they did reach they didn't last long on the bases as the Rays suffered three caught stealings. Michael Prosecky wasn't as sharp this time around, giving up 3 runs in the first although an Ed Howard error played a large role in that but the bullpen was outstanding until Washington finally broke through in the 12th against a pair of rookies as Gavin Bruni put two men on with one out and last night's hero Kevin DiCostanzo gave up the walk-off RBI single. So we head back to St. Pete in two days where out pitching situation is a bit murkier with the likely Game 3 starter being Robinson Ortiz.

Also tonight Jeff McNeil had to leave with back stiffness and it's a "moderate" injury which will put him out. Good thing Dong-hwan Kim is back, and Andy Kelley will return to the roster to take McNeil's place.

[Art Deco]

Robinson to the rescue...



This game will go down in the books as a 10-1 Rays rout of the Nationals to go up 2-1 in the World Series but until a late offensive explosion, it was a taut pitchers' duel and nobody dueled better than Robinson Ortiz. Coming into the game as a question mark given his 3-month injury absence which was followed by a mixed pair of 1-inning relief outings in the ALCS, Ortiz instead quieted all doubters by going 6 2/3 innings of 1-hit ball with 12 strikeouts, tying the club's single-game postseason record set by Tyler Glasnow, who did it once in 2025 and once in 2026. Although Wander Franco ended up knocking in 5 with a 7th-inning grand slam to break it open and a bases-loaded walk in the 8th, the slumping Kelly Crumpton had the game-winning hit, an RBI single in the 6th which put them up 2-1. The Rays will now try to take a commanding 3-1 lead tomorrow with Shane Panzini getting a crack although he'll be on a very short leash with Kendall Williams ready to step it. At least now though we know we have someone to count on should there be a Game 7.

EDIT: Almost forgotten here (since it was icing on the cake tonight) was that Joshua Baez homered again in the 8th, his 4th in 2 games and 9th of the postseason, putting him one behind current National (and former Ray) Randy Arozarena who had 10 postseason homers twice, once in 2020 with the Rays and again in 2026 with the Dodgers, for the MLB record.

[Art Deco]

One win to go...



The two hitters who came through the most consistently this postseason for the Rays came through again when it mattered most to give them a 5-4 walk-off win over the Nationals and a 3-1 lead in the Series. Joshua Baez didn't homer today but he was on base 4 times with 3 hits and a walk to lead off the 10th, whereupon he stole second and scored on a single by JT Realmuto, who's also come through big this postseason including in Game 3 of the ALDS when the Rays were on the brink of elimination. Before all that it was a typical 2029 Rays postseason game with a good start (Shane Panzini was excellent in his 5 innings of work with 8 Ks) before the bullpen blew it (Kevin DiCostanzo putting a pair on base and Aaron Fletcher letting them all score on a homer). But Andrew Greckel tied it in the 7th with an RBI single and although the Rays squandered a bases-loaded opportunity to win it in the 9th they came through the next inning. So now James Hays will look to clinch it for Tampa Bay tomorrow night in their only chance to do so in front of the home fans.

[Art Deco]

Champs!



The Rays are World Champions for the third time after downing the Nationals in 5 games, adding to their titles won in 2023 and 2025. Today's 8-3 win came thanks to yet another fine outing from James Hays and yet another big hit from JT Realmuto, whose bases-clearing double turned a 2-1 Washington lead in the 6th into a 4-2 Rays advantage and they never looked back. Joshua Baez fell just short of the single-playoff home run record but gets to console himself with being named World Series MVP and the Rays also got to exorcise the ghosts of 2028 when they were up 3-2 on the Cubs in the Series before blowing Games 6 & 7 in the late innings. And we should be primed to contend for a repeat next year as everyone should be back with a similar payroll except for Yasunari Uehara and Tommy Doyle and a few rentals we picked up (McNeil, Fletcher, Severino). The celebration:

[Art Deco]

The current state of the team:



If you had told me we'd win the World Series without a single homer from Kelly Crumpton I would said you're crazy. But that's what we did - a mark of the depth and quality we had.

We will be saying goodbye to a few of our 2029 contributors, most notably our closer Yasunari Uehara and primary setup guy Tommy Doyle, whom Stu Sternberg wants me to re-sign. Doyle wants a 4/50 extension which...sorry, ain't gonna happen. Here's our salary structure for 2030 (as always those set to make the minimum aren't listed):



We can keep the band together for about $118-120M, and Stu's given me a $150M payroll so no major cost-cutting is on the horizon. When I acquired JT Realmuto last season my thought was let's let him help us in 28 and then we don't have to play him so much in 29 that his contract vests for 30. But he was so good for us that I've never been so glad to have a contract vest. He'll be 39 next season but he's shown no signs of slowing down and was great with the staff. Also we were done a favor by Victor Robles who had such a good year with Cleveland that he opted out of the contract we were still partially on the hook for, saving us about $5M.

On the list above the only value I don't like that much is Ed Howard at $8.4M. He's been a solid contributor for us the last several seasons but he dropped off last year (including a six-week injury) from the 3-4 WAR guy he was to one who earned 1.8 and was only 224/308/373 in the playoffs. What he has going for him is that I don't have a ready replacement as top prospect Nate Strickland is still a couple of years away and others like Brad Manross and Brennon McNair aren't really improvements. Manross was OK as a Rule 5 guy but he may be ticketed for Durham this year to work on his hitting. Getting back to Howard I'll be shopping him to see what we can get.

Otherwise, Realmuto is set behind the plate with Collins or Cartaya as his backup, Crumpton, Franco and Seise look set at 1B-SS-3B, and Kim/Gutierrez/Baez looks like the OF with Greckel as the primary DH. The rotation should be Hays/Baumeister/Prosecky/Ortiz with the fifth starter coming from Panzini, Kendall Williams, Wennington Romero, Dave Cedeno or prospects like Parker Detmers or Brad Garrard. I've given up on Slade Cecconi as anything but an emergency starter but Landon Knack intrigues me as a starter if he doesn't end up our closer. Speaking of closers, I'll miss our Uehara security blanket but rookies Kevin DiCostanzo and Mike Moore will join Knack, Megill and Fulton at the back end of the pen and if they don't work out I can move for an established closer during the season. Elvis Garcia could also be in the mix somewhere. Bottom line is that internal options abound.

Not making a qualifying offer to Uehara because he might accept it.

[Art Deco]

Notable retirements: Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber (who was with us in September), Cavan Biggio, Gary Sanchez, Miguel Sano, Jorge Soler, former Rays Pete Fairbanks, Jonathan Loaisiga and Brett Phillips, Andrew Benintendi, and Kolten Wong.

Remember all that noise I made in the previous post about not trading for an established closer unless we needed one in-season, well....



Dettmer has saved 97 games for the Phillies the past three seasons and boasts 70 stuff, 55 movement and 60 control so I think we found our new closer. Cedeno was once considered a future ace and now I'm not even sure I trusted him as the fifth starter. He still has good stuff but might be better suited to relief. Wright was our 4th-round pick last year and could be a decent bat but he's a LF in name only and really a future DH, so he'd really have to hit.

Awards season:

* JT Realmuto earned the AL catcher Gold Glove, the man is ageless

* Yasunari Uehara finished 3rd in the AL Reliever of the Year voting, which is always weird as this year it went to San Antonio's Ryan Rolison, who was good at 9-6, 2.10 with 4 saves and 1.5 WAR in relief but other relievers had even more saves or more WAR so I'm not sure why. The NL version went to San Diego's Walt Kelly with 38 saves, 1.9 WAR and a 2.14 ERA, a more sensible choice.

* Kelly Crumpton (1B) and Andrew Greckel (DH) won AL Silver Slugger awards.

* Rookies of the Year: AL-Brett Baughcum (2B-KC), .259-7-43; NL-G Allen (1B-MIL) .255-48-118. (Yes "G" is his first name, not just an initial).

* 3 for 3, baby!



A unanimous winner again, Hays has now won three straight AL Cy Youngs. We still have him for next season and the one after before he's no longer under team control. We'll inquire about an extension but I'm sure it's going to be way more than I want to pay.

The NL winner was also unanimous as LA's Nathan Deschryver was 19-7, 3.24 leading MLB in wins and WAR (5.3).

* Francisco Lindor won the AL MVP, deservedly so, getting 30 of 32 first-place votes. The other two (one from me) went to Kelly Crumpton, who finished third behind Lindor and Gleyber Torres. Lindor hit .322-24-91 with Gold Glove defense and earned a league-leading 8.9 WAR. The NL award went to Atlanta 2B Ozzie Albies, who took a close vote over San Diego's Fernando Tatis Jr. Albies, set to become a free agent, hit .344-30-111 with 7.6 WAR while Tatis was .307-34-98 with an MLB-best 9.7 WAR so it was kind of a surprise. Albies had 18 first-place votes to Tatis' 14, and won 378-357 overall.

We got most of our arb-eligbles signed but the two we don't are Ed Howard and Dong-hwan Kim. Howard we're trying to get about $1M cheaper than the estimated arb OOTP gave me, which will probably backfire. Kim wants a 9-year-deal. I explored trading Howard and while there were some decent offers I think we give him a chance to bounce back as we don't really have an alternative for him.

December 2: The first batch of big free agents signed including one of last year's contributors for us Jeff McNeil, off to Minnesota for 2/26. More significantly, Marcelo Mayer went for 5/131 to Houston and the Astros also nabbed C Drew Romo for 4/87.

December 5: Free-spending Houston nabbed the big free agent prize, inking newly-crowned NL MVP Ozzie Albies to a 5/160, while Texas signed "wrecked" 1B Yordan Alvarez to a 5/103 deal which will not end well for them. Alvarez is currently hurt, only played 72 games last year for the Cubs, and isn't getting any younger at 32.

December 9: Another wave of signings - brief former Ray of last season Luis Severino returned to the Yankees on a 1/15 deal, Matt Chapman joined - who else? - Houston on a 2/43 contract, and Milwaukee re-signed Jose Ramirez to a 3/67 deal.

December 10: Another of our rentals from last season signed a new deal as Aaron Fletcher joins division rival Boston for 2/21.

December 12: Trent Grisham is now a Cub on a 4/78 contract and Houston did it again, signing former Ray Victor Robles for 5/65. By my count Houston has committed $486M to free agents in this window.

December 19: Added Ps Parker Detmers, Nolan Schubart and Brad Garrard to the 40-man roster.

Rule 5 time again and Detmers and Garrard are both fine starter prospects while Schubart looks like a decent power reliever with 70 stuff. We're actually going in with a 40-man spot open.

December 20: Selected 2B Jamie Reiner from Memphis in the Rule 5 Draft.

Oops we did it again. After finding our backup MI in the Rule 5 Draft last year with Brad Manross we're looking to do it again with Reiner. And this is why:



The dude can hit - for average at least. Incredible bat-to-ball skills here with good speed and adequate defense. He missed 4 months with a concussion last year which is why he only played in 46 games. If we could only combine him with Manross's ability to draw walks and play exceptional defense we'd have an All-Star on our hands. Anyway Manross will go to Durham and one of he or Reiner will likely be our Ed Howard successor in 2031. Meanwhile we didn't lose anyone in the Rule 5 draft.

December 25: Our closer of the past three years Yasunari Uehara has returned to the team we acquired him from in 2027, the Mets on a 2/19.9 deal.