Tampa Bay Devil Rays - The Covid-19 Years (2020-2029)
 
   
 
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        2021 1 100 62   2024 4 80 82   2028                     on Logo  
        2022 3 86 76   2025 4 77 85   2029                        
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  Titles: Top Rays Players of the Twenty Twenties  
  2020-Won Division; WC def Tor; ALDS def NY; ALCS def Hou; WS Lost to LA  
  2021 - Won Division; ALDS Lost to Boston Pitchers:  
  2022 - WC Lost to Cleveland Pete Fairbanks (5.43)  24  
  2023 - WC Lost to Texas  Shane McClanahan (8.54) -  23  
    Drew Rasmussen (11.16) -  17  
  BallPark: Zach Eflin (4.3) -  17  
  Tropicana Field Ryan Pepiot (4) -  14  
    Zack Littell (6.1) -  12  
  Team Name: Tyler Glasnow (5.49) - 12  
  Rays Taj Bradley (0.8)  - 10  
    Ryan Yarbrough (0.14) -   10  
  Owner:  Josh Fleming (-1.22) -   9  
  Consortium led by Stuart Sternberg (2020-2025) Diego Castillo (1.68) -   9  
  Consortium led by Patrick Zalupski (2026) Shane Baz (3.04) -    8  
    Jason Adam (4.55) - 8  
  General Managers: Andrew Kittredge (2.92) -  8  
  Erik Neander (2020-2021) (2022-2025 president and GM) Colin Poche (1.56) -  8  
  Peter Bendix (2022-2023) Corey Kluber (0.77) -  7  
   None in 2024-25 Jeffrey Springs (3.92) -  7  
       
  Managers: Catchers:  
  Kevin Cash  Mike Zunino (2.77)  -    10  
    Francisco Mejia (2.39) -  6  
  No Hitters:    
  None First Basemen:  
    Yandy Diaz (16.05) -   39  
  Hall of Famers: Jonathan Aranda (4.1) -  8  
  None    
    Second Basemen:  
  Rookie of the Year: Brandon Lowe (12.41) -    30  
  2021 - Randy Arozarena Luke Raley (2.81) -   6  
       
  MVP: ShortStop:  
  None Wander Franco (11.53) -  23  
    Taylor Walls (10) -  19  
  Cy Young:    
  None Third Base:  
    Isaac Paredes (9.22) -  19  
  Notable Events: Joey Wendle (5.02) -   11  
    Junior Caminero (0.9) -   8  
  Tampa finished 77-85 in '25 but their runs total indicated they should have gone    
  84-78. That's a big disparity and means you were losing a lot of close ones which Outfield:  
  implies that your bullpen sucked. And, except for a couple of guys, it sort of did. Randy Arozarena (11.79) -   38  
  Pete Fairbanks was last year's closer and it is no surprise that the Rays let him go. Josh Lowe (4.93) -  19  
  Oddly enough, the numbers went the opposite direction the previous year in '24 Manuel Margot (5.36) -   17  
  The Rays went 80-82 but runs projected a 74-88 mark. They were winning the Jose Caballero (3.6) -  16  
  close ones in '24 and Fairbanks was the closer in '24 as well. And, even more Kevin Kiermaier (6.17) -   12  
  ironically, he pitched  much worse in '24 than '25. Go figure. Jose Siri (4.25) -  11  
  Sometimes timing is everything. Harold Ramirez (3.32) -  8  
     
  Starting Pitchers: Notable Events:  
  □   RHP Drew Rasmussen, 30, '21 Trade from Milwaukee, '25 10-5 2.76    
  □   RHP Ryan Pepiot, 28, '24 Trade with LA, '25 11-12 2.86 2020 - The decade opens in the middle of a nice six year run where the Rays  
  □   LHP Shane McClanahan, 29, '18 draft 1st round pick, '23 11-2 3.29 make the playoffs the last five of those six years and they top ninety wins in four  
  □   LHP Steven Matz, 35, '26 FA from TB, '25 5-2 3.05 of the five full seasons in that period. Nice work for a small market team with no  
  □   RHP Nick Martinez, 25, '26 FA from Reds, '25 11-14 4.45 money to compete with.  
  □   RHP Joe Boyle, 26, '25 Trade from A's, '25 1-4 4.67  
  McClanahan has been recovering from injury for two years. He was a stud when 2020 - Stuart Sternberg has led a consortium that bought the Rays in '04.  
  he got hurt and, if he can approach what he was, Tampa's rotation will be a Considering the tight income stream that Tampa has had to work with  
  major strength. They already have Rasmussen and Pepiot who are excellent in his seventeen years of ownership, Sternberg's success with Tampa  
  and they made a couple of nice offseason pickups in Steven Matz who is also has been nothing short of remarkable. They've finished over .500 nine  
  excellent when healthy and Nick Martinez who is an innings eater. times with six post season appearances and two World Series appearances.  
  Considering that the first four years of Sternberg's tenure were below  
  Relief Pitchers: .500 as the franchise was gearning up, that's nine of the last thirteen  
  □   Griffin Jax, 31, '25 Trade deadlne from Twins, '25 0-2 3.60 winning seasons. Add in that the Rays have been in the toughest  
  □   Edwin Uceta, 28, '24 FA from Cubs, '25 20-3 3.79 division in baseball with the big spending Red Sox and Yankees   
  □   Garrett Cleavinger, 32, '22 Trade from LA, '25 3-6 2.35 and Sternberg's achievements go to another level of remarkable.   
  □   Bryan Baker, 31, '25 Trade deadline from Baltimore, '25 1-2 4.75 Updating the numbers thru Sternberg's last season owning the Rays, 2025,  
  □   Steven Wilson, 31, '26 Trade from White Sox, '25 1-2 3.42 Twenty two years of ownership. Over .500 twelve times with nine post season  
  □   Hunter Bigge, 28, '24 Trade deadline from Cubs, '25 0-0 2.40 appearances and two World Series appearances and a run of twelve of sixteen  
  □   Cole Sulser, 36, '24 Trade deadline from Mets, '25 2-1 1.99 winning seasons.   
  □   Yoendrys Gomez, 26, '26 Trade from White Sox, '25 303 5.17  
  □   Kevin Kelly, 28 , '23 Trade from Colorado, '25 2-5 5.90 2020 -  Erik Neander has been GM since 2016 and has obviously done a  
  □   Mason Englert, 26, '25 Trade from Detroit, '25 0-1 3.83 fantastic job. One of owner Sternberg's biggest strengths has been   
  There is no obvious closer but the Rays have a knack of cobbling together good putting an outstanding management team together. Andrew Friedman   
  bullpens, so figure that the bullpen will be good. was Sternberg's first GM and after being wildly successful in Tampa,  
  Friedman moved on to LA where he has been wildly successful with  
  Regulars: the Dodgers. Neander was kicked upstairs to President in '22 with  
  □   C Nick Fortes, 29, '25 Trade deadline from Miami, '25 3 11 .213 Peter Bendix promoted into the GM slot. Bendix was whisked away by  
  □   1B Jonathan Aranda, 28, '15 IFA, ;25 14 59 .316 Miami after only two seasons in the GM role. Neander has decided that he  
  □   2B Gavin Lux, 28, '26 Trade from Reds, ;25 5 33 .269 he'll do it all himself next time rather than lose another good one in the   
  □   SS Taylor Walls, 29, '17 draft 3rd round pick, ;25 2 38 .220 organization by promoting them into the spotlight.  
  □  3B Junior Caminero, 22, '22 trade from Cleveland, ;25 45 110 .264  
  □   OF Chandler Simpson, 25, '22 draft 2nd round pick, ;25 0 26 .295 44sb 2020 -  Kevin Cash has been Tampa's manager since 2015. He, also obviously,   
  □   CF Cedric Mullins, 32, '26 FA from Mets, '25 7 59 .216 22sb has done a great job. He took over for Joe Maddon, one of the best,  
  □   OF Jake Fraley, 31, 'FA from Braves, ;25 6 23 .241 who took over for the legendary Lou Piniella. These have been the three  
  □ 1B Yandy Diaz, 34, '19 trade from Cleveland, '25 25 83 .300 field managers during Sternberg's tenure, you couldn't do better.   
  □   3B Ben Williamson, 25, '26 Trade from Seattle, ;25 1 21 .253  
  □   IF Ryan Vilade, 27, '26 Trade from Reds, '25 0 0 .077 2023 - Superstar Wander Franco is suspended from baseball for serious  
  □   C Hunter Feduccia, 29, '26 Trade deadline from LA, '25 0 8 .151 misdeeds. He is unlikely to ever play again in the Big Leagues. This is a   
  □   OF Jonny DeLuca, 27, '24 Trade from LA, '25 0 4 .333 monumental blow to the Rays who immediately start to flounder and haven't   
  □   OF Richie Palacios, 29, '24 Trade from STL, '25 1 3 .333 been the same team since.  
  □   SS Carson Williams, 22, '21 1st round pick, '25 5 12 .172  
  □   OF Jacob Melton, 25, '26 Trade from Houston, '25 0 7 .157 2023 - The offensive numbers for the Rays are huge and would have been even  
  It is no coincidence that the two seasons this decade when the Rays were much better if Franco hadn't missed the last two months of the season.  
  bludgeoning the ball and they were well over a hundred runs over the league They score 112 runs more than the league average. Even without Franco, their  
  average were the two seasons ('21 and '23) when they won 100 and 99 games lineup is loaded with 1B Yandy Diaz,  2B Brandon Lowe, 3B Isaac Paredes,   
  respectively. Tampa was six runs under the league average last year so what's OF Randy Arozarena, CF Jose Siri, OF Josh Lowe and OF Harold Ramirez.  
  the chances? To start with, they've got a big time slugger in 22 year old Murderers row with Franco in the middle of it all.  
  3B Junior Caminero and they've got a big time speedster in 25 year old OF  
  Chandler Simpson. They'll need 21 year old SS Carson Williams to go stud. 2024 -   
  They'll need 34 year old DH Yandy Diaz to continue to rake. Tampa won 99 games in '23. They fell off a cliff and won only  80 in '24  
  Maybe they can get 32 year old CF Cedric Mullins to turn his declining career around. And worse, their run differentials indicated a whopping 26 game drop off   
  Anyway, not seeing where all these runs they need to be a true contender are between '23 and '24 from 100 to 74. What happened?  
  going to come from. What happened was that the Tampa offense scored an incredible 256 runs less  
    in '24 than they did in '23. And that happened with almost the identical lineup  
    in '24 than '23. The only significant difference in the lineups was SS Wander Franco  
    was not there in '24. But, as talented as he is, his war was 5.5, not 26.  
    Every single player, save 2B Brandon Lowe, who held steady, fell off a cliff  
    offensively. This kind of thing rarely happens and I believe this  
    is the second biggest year to year drop off in big league history.  
    The 1931 Cubs dropped 278 runs. The 1919 Red Sox dropped 244 runs.  
    The 2024 Braves dropped 233 runs. The 1951 Red Sox dropped 223 runs.  
     The 1931 Phillies dropped 214 runs. The 2024 Rangers dropped 198 runs.  
    The 1962 Yankees dropped 191 runs. The 1936 Tigers dropped 189 runs.  
    So the question is - what the hell really happened?  
    The answer is the reality of 2024 baseball happened.  
       
    2025 - The Rays, after a year playing in minor league George Steinbrenner field  
    will move back to a renovated Tropicana Field. At the end of the '25 season,  
    Sternberg's consortium sold the club to a consortium led by Peter Zapulski.  
    Zapulski is a developer whose obvious ulterior motive is to get Tampa to give  
    him a bunch of land for a mixed use development the focal point of which will  
     be a new stadium for the Rays after the Tropicana Field lease ends in 2029.  
     
    2026 - Zapulski isn't doing this as a baseball guy and has indicated that he will  
    have no input into the running of the club on the baseball side, that will remain  
    Eric Neander's baby.