Rays Baseball: The Future Is Uncertain

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The Tampa Bay Rays came into the 2024 season as favorites to win the AL East. They were also trying to make their fourth straight playoff appearance. The team went through injuries that hurt them at certain times. The Rays are also dealing with what is going on with Wander Franco in the Dominican Republic. Tampa Bay came in with what might have been the best starting rotations in MLB. The problem that has haunted them is scoring runs. This year, it seemed that if they pitched well, they could not score runs. If they scored runs the pitchers would give up too many runs for them to win games. There needs to be a lot of credit to manager Kevin Cash. The reason is he worked through all the changes in the roster.

The Rays struggled to stay above .500. As the season turned to the second half they would get above or near.500 only to lose a series of games and be back under .500. Owner Stu Sternberg paid out the highest payroll before he wanted to cut at the trade deadline. The traded players were Aaron Civale, Phil Maton, Randy Arozarena, Zach Elfin, Jason Adam, Isaac Paredes, and Amed Rosario. Arozarena was a fan favorite and even had his section in left field. After he was traded to the Seattle Mariners, he attended a game and sat with the fans before making a grand exit to begin his tenure in Seattle. There were also rumors that Yandy Diaz and Pete Fairbanks could have also been traded. Neither one of them was traded but Fairbanks suffered an injury.

The Rays finished the season two games under .500, 80-82. With that record, they finished fourth in the Al East behind the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, and the New York Yankees. The Yankees and Orioles met in the second round of the playoffs. New York is playing in the World Series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. The last time the Rays went to the World Series they fell to the Dodgers. One of the bright spots for Tampa Bay was Junior Caminero. Caminero had been called up before and it was time for him to shine. They struggled on offense as the Rays ranked 29th in runs and OPS, 27th in batting average, 28th in homers, and the worst in running in scoring position hitting .212. This is one aspect that Eric Neander will have to fix in 2025.

That is not the only aspect that has to be fixed. The state of Florida had two major hurricanes hit in back-to-back weeks. The first was Helene which brought many areas of the state life-threatening storm surge. The following week hurricane Milton was the one that caused major damage to Tropicana Field. The entire roof was ripped off and now the Rays do not have a place to play their games in the 2025 season. This also comes after Tampa Bay got a new stadium deal. Most likely to replace the roof it will cost the team nine figures. The question is will that hurt them now building a new stadium? The new stadium groundbreaking was supposed to happen in November of this year. We will have to see moving forward with where they are going to play and who will be in a uniform in 2025.

Can The Tampa Bay Rays have a successful 2025 season? Leave a comment below.

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