The Tampa Bay Rays just keep on winning
May 11, 2022; Anaheim, California, USA; Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Shane McClanahan (18) throws / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
There’s just a little under a month until the MLB All-Star Game, and the season is approaching the point where predictions and forecasts start to carry a little more weight. A lot can change in the back half of the season, but outside of a few nitpicky critiques, the Tampa Bay Rays have shown themselves to be worthy of their status as World Series favorites through the opening stretch — and it isn’t just because they’re the first team in the majors to hit 50 wins.
A major reason for their success has been a roster that combines star power and depth to a degree that front offices around the league can only dream of. Their lineup is headlined by Yandy Diaz and Randy Arozerana, who have both maintained on-base percentages over .400 while sharing the team-lead in home runs. That particular leaderboard is quite crowded, however; Tampa Bay is the only team in the American League to have at least six players with 10 or more home runs on the season. All of this has combined to make up an offense that is second to only the Texas Rangers in runs scored per game.
Their roster boasts seven qualified batters with an adjusted on-base-plus-slugging (OPS+) over 100, which means that those seven batters are hitting better than the league average. No other team in the entire majors has as many besides the Los Angeles Dodgers, who also have seven. Wander Franco has bounced back from what was a down year by his lofty standards in 2022, and leads MLB in wins above replacement, a stat that attempts to quantify a given player’s production into one number.
If a lineup that should terrify pitchers across the league wasn’t enough, the Rays pitching staff is also allowing the second-fewest runs per game across the major leagues. Headlined by an early American League Cy Young candidate in Shane McClanahan, their rotation and bullpen have very few weak points to exploit. The return of Tyler Glasnow post-Tommy John surgery has just added to Tampa’s embarrassment of pitching riches.
With all that being said, they’ve hit 50 wins before any other team in the majors has hit 44. They started the season off with a 13 game win streak, and have yet to lose more than two games in a row. For all the nit-picking about the underlying statistics about their win-loss record, the Rays have a lot to feel confident about heading into the second half of the season. Whether or not they’ll reach the World Series for the first time since 2020, however, is another question entirely.
