Inside The Rays

The Rays return to the postseason for the first time since 2023, and they face off against the New York Yankees in a potential five-game American League Division Series. The series starts with Drew Rasmussen and Gerrit Cole taking the mound, with Tropicana Field expected to have at least 40,000 fans and prepaid parking already sold out. It should be absolutely electric at Tropicana Field, with two of the best arms in the postseason at the helm for their respective teams. We break down the matchups and rosters, give our thoughts on the X-factors, and explain why this could potentially be the best series of the playoffs.

In this episode we break down all 3 games of the Rays-Rockies series, including Liam Hicks’ grand slam in his Rays debut, Tyler Wells’ 4-strikeout debut, Freddy Peralta’s first start in a Rays uniform, and a look at what Jack Suwinski has done in Triple-A. We also touch on Junior Caminero’s 3-home run series at Coors Field and Theo Gillen’s ridiculous numbers in Double-A. All of that plus the full trade deadline breakdown.

The Rays had a really interesting draft. It consisted of high upside prep arms, tall college RHP flirting with triple digits, and tooled up athletes. They killed it, especially with polished mechanical pitchers that are good movers while being able extremely projectable. However, their draft was headlined by Gatorade Male Player of the Year, Grady Emerson. He displays a connected swing & stays extremely balanced with his lower half. He stands 6'3" with more physical projection left and makes excellent In-Zone Swing decisions. He's an easy plus defender, great athlete, & has a knack for the balls to the opposite field. He's also trending towards 200 lbs now. We also touched on the trade deadline, the organization as a whole, and talked about the upcoming Red Sox series.

The Rays were able to split the series against the Yankees with strong pitching performances from Shane McClanahan, Ian Seymour, and Griffin Jax. For McClanahan, it was a season-high in innings and the most emotional he has been on a mound this season. His Changeup had a 60% whiff%, and he held an Avg EV of just 73.4 MPH. He is now tied for second in Rays history for most starts with six or more innings pitched, four or fewer hits allowed, five or more strikeouts, and no walks. Ian Seymour collected a career-high 12 strikeouts and had Whiff rates over 45% on his 4-Seam and Changeup. It was the first time in Yankees history they have struck out 12 times against one pitcher through the first five innings of a game. Griffin Jax, aside from one mistake pitch, also had a strong outing with 10 strikeouts over 16 whiffs.On the offensive side, Yandy Díaz had a four-hit game in Game 3, his 11th career game with Tampa Bay with at least four hits, the second-best mark in Rays history. It was also his 290th career game with the Rays in which he recorded a multi-hit effort, the third-best mark in franchise history. In Game 4, Junior Caminero hit his 27th home run of the season on a pitch that isn't a strike; he sends it 438 feet the other way at 108.3 MPH. There are players who won't pull a ball 438 feet in their career, let alone go the other way. Chandler Simpson has been swinging the bat better over the last couple of weeks, and after his second triple yesterday, he was hitting .362 over his last 16 games with four walks and just three strikeouts.The Rays now take on the Seattle Mariners for their final series before the All Star break, with Yandy Díaz, Junior Caminero, Bryan Baker, and Drew Rasmussen representing them in Philadelphia.

Junior Caminero put on one of the best offensive displays in Rays franchise history over the last week, and with no surprise, took home AL Player of the Week. He joins Bryce Harper, Willie Horton, and Boog Powell as the only players under 23 to hit 7 or more home runs in a 6-game span, and since the start of May, his 1.002 OPS ranks ahead of Nick Kurtz (.996) and Shohei Ohtani (.983) for best in baseball. We also talked about contributions from the whole lineup, a bunch of reinforcements that should come back soon, and touched on some deadline thoughts that we'll get into more once the 2026 MLB Draft is over. It was an action-packed episode.

The Rays have been unable to escape the 1-run loss curse, dropping five straight games by a single run. It was great to see Jonny DeLuca deliver two absolute bombs in his first couple of games back, and Drew Rasmussen and Nick Martinez each delivered gritty outings in back-to-back starts. We also touched on Theo Gillen's recent promotion and how he's the only prospect in the minors with 12+ HR, 25+ SB, and an average over .310 , all while flashing plus defense and sound plate discipline. The offense has been a struggle over the last few weeks, particularly outside of the team's trio of offensive talent. With a stretch of upcoming home games at Tropicana Field, hopefully a big offensive day is right around the corner to snap the Rays out of their funk.

The Rays had a tough start to the west coast road trip, but they salvaged the Angels series with an 8-3 win on Sunday. The offense has been struggling lately, so it was good to see them have a strong game to end the series. We talked about the pitching performances from Griffin Jax, Shane McClanahan, and the bullpen. Next series is the Dodgers on the road, that should be an interesting one.

The Rays have been going through a little skid over the last week and a half, but prior to that they went 21-4 over a 25-game stretch. The Rays trio went absolutely insane in the month of May. Jonathan Aranda posted a .374/.464/.560 slash line with a 1.025 OPS and 183 wRC+, along with 1.2 fWAR. He led all qualified hitters in OBP and AVG and was tied with Nick Kurtz for 1st in wRC+ and OPS. Junior Caminero, on the other hand, posted a 165 wRC+ in the month of May with an 18.1% BB% compared to a K% of just 13.8%. His Avg EV was an absurd 94.1 MPH, the 8th highest mark in baseball. We also talked about Yandy Díaz and why he could be the best hitter in Rays franchise history. We recapped the Orioles series, the recent three-game set against the Angels, and Game 1 of the Tigers series that came down to the wire.

The Rays continue their dominant stretch of baseball, especially at home, where they are an MLB leading 16-5. The pitching continues to perform well as Shane McClanahan, Nick Martinez, Drew Rasmussen and others had productive outings. The offense has been scoring in a lot of ways, including production from Taylor Walls and Cedric Mullins, as well as the trio in Caminero, Diaz and Aranda. We previewed the Orioles series with some interesting pitching matchups like Shane Baz returning to the Trop and guys like McClanahan and Jax going. We also briefly talked about the upcoming MLB Draft, which has a loaded top of the class, including UCLA's SS Roch Cholowsky, Fort Worth Christian SS Grady Emerson, and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey.

The Rays are fresh off a series sweep against the Giants, highlighted by a walk-off in game 3 from Jonathan Aranda, the 200th in club history, a strong performance from Griffin Jax to open game 2 with the bullpen following suit and capped by Aranda's 26th and 27th RBIs of the season, and Shane McClanahan's best start of the season in game 1 with home runs from Yandy Díaz and Junior Caminero. Prior to the Giants series, the Rays took 2 of 3 from the Guardians thanks to strong performances from Steven Matz and Nick Martinez and big games from Ryan Vilade and, yet again, Jonathan Aranda. The Rays open their next series against the Blue Jays tonight at 6:40 PM with Nick Martinez and his 1.70 ERA taking the mound in game 1.

The Rays took it to the Yankees and carried that momentum into Chicago, a place they have struggled at over the last few years. In game 1, Shane McClanahan was able to deliver 5 strong innings, and Ryan Vilade delivered his biggest day at the plate as a Ray with 3 hits, including a 108 MPH EV single. Ben Williamson joined in on the party with two doubles, Nick Fortes and Yandy delivered RBIs, and Jonny DeLuca has looked awesome when he gets playing time. In game 2, Cole Sulser and Jesse Scholtens delivered 7 scoreless innings, Junior Caminero had an absurd one-handed 104.8 MPH EV, 393 FT HR, Jake Fraley got in on the HR action for his first as a Ray, and Jonny DeLuca again had a great day at the plate with a 107 MPH HR. In the series finale, Steven Matz delivered again, and the Rays have won every game he has pitched in. Junior Caminero hit a HR in back-to-back games, and this time it was a game-tying shot. We saw some of the energy that we had seen in the WBC, Taylor Walls collected 2 RBI and has made an impact on the ballclub since returning from the IL. Richie Palacios keeps proving that he deserves more playing time with his approach and results, Nick Fortes had another multi-hit game, Jonathan Aranda collected multiple walks and will look to break out of a little funk, and Hunter Feduccia collected a nice bases loaded walk. The Rays are on fire as they travel to PNC Park to face the Pirates. It's going to be an interesting series with all the great pitching matchups.

Baseball was played at Tropicana Field for the first time in 561 days and the Rays delivered with a convincing win over the Chicago Cubs. Junior Caminero, Jonathan Aranda, and Cedric Mullins all left the yard, Chandler Simpson was amped up for almost every play he was involved in, and the pen was nails after Shane McClanahan's 4 innings. We also talked about the last two games of the Twins series, including a golf swing HR from Junior Caminero and strong outings from both Steven Matz and Nick Martinez. The Rays are currently 5-5 and look to take the series against Chicago before they welcome the New York Yankees.

Shane McClanahan, for the first time in 973 days, made a start in a major league baseball game and looked very promising in terms of his secondaries. Nick Martinez made his Rays debut and was throwing tons of strikes and mixing his pitches effectively in the zone. In game 1, Jonny DeLuca hit his farthest HR at the MLB level after we talked about him on the last podcast, and Nick Fortes delivered a clutch RBI on a pitch that might have been 7-8 inches off the plate. Yandy Díaz smacked a leadoff HR, and according to Baseball Reference (Stathead), Díaz was the first player to have 11 hits in the first 4 games of a season since Adrián González did it with the Dodgers back in 2015. Díaz has collected mostly singles out of his 11 hits. In game 2, Jonathan Aranda continued to work the entire field and smoked a 102.8 MPH EV, 388 FT HR, Jake Fraley had himself a nice day at the plate with 2 hits including a 107.8 MPH double, and Nick Fortes had 3 balls hit over 95 MPH and a 408 FT HR. We also talked about Chandler Simpson and his impact. We also preview today's pitching matchup and will get an episode out tomorrow recapping the series and previewing the Twins series. Thank you guys for the support.