{"id":270231,"date":"2025-11-08T15:30:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T15:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/270231\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T15:30:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T15:30:06","slug":"rays-receive-overly-harsh-critique-being-placed-too-low-in-too-early-power-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/270231\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Receive Overly Harsh Critique Being Placed Too Low in Too Early Power Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Rays have already been making some changes to their roster this offseason.<\/p>\n

A myriad of moves were made to clean things up on the 40-man roster to open up spots for players needing to be activated off the 60-day injured list. Two of the players, right-handed pitchers Cole Wilcox and Joey Gerber, were traded to the Seattle Mariners<\/a> and New York Mets, respectively.<\/p>\n

In a shocking turn of events, the Rays decided to decline the club option they had on closer Pete Fairbanks<\/a>. Instead of locking him into a $12.5 million contract for 2026, they paid a $1 million buyout, and he is now a free agent.<\/p>\n

Had that move been announced prior to Matt Snyder of CBS Sports<\/a> putting together his way-too-early MLB power rankings, Tampa Bay may have landed even lower than they were already placed.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Rays came in at No. 22, being jumped by the Athletics and Baltimore Orioles, who moved up three spots apiece to Nos. 20 and 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is overall a similar but lesser operation to the Guardians and even Brewers. They’ll punch above their weight, but they just aren’t very good right now,\u201d Snyder wrote.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Guardians and Milwaukee Brewers, who both qualified for the postseason this year, were ranked Nos. 13 and 2, respectively, to emphasize just how much of a gap the MLB writer believes there is between those two teams and Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

The Rays have missed the postseason two years in a row, but that is an overly harsh assessment of where they stand heading into the offseason. There is a strong core developing for the front office to start building around.<\/p>\n

Third baseman Junior Caminero<\/a> is a star in the making. An All-Star in his first full Major League campaign, he became one of the youngest players in MLB history to reach the 45-home run and 110 RBI plateaus.<\/p>\n

\"Chandler<\/p>\n

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

On the opposite end of the diamond, first baseman Jonathan Aranda looks like a keeper as well. The Rays certainly need more offense to make a move up the standings. If they can find it in the form of a catcher, shortstop or outfielder, they are going to be in business.<\/p>\n

There is a major void now to address at the back end of their bullpen, with Fairbanks\u2019s option being declined. It also takes away a golden trade chip for the team to use to upgrade weaknesses on the roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Griffin Jax and Edwin Uceta should have the first crack at replacing him as the team\u2019s closer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the starting rotation, things look great with two-time All-Star Shane McClanahan healthy heading into the offseason. Ryan Pepiot, Shane Baz and Drew Rasmussen all made 31 starts in 2025, providing a strong core. Joe Boyle and Ian Seymour are two younger arms that could factor into the mix as well.<\/p>\n

If Tampa Bay can find an affordable veteran to slide into the backend of the rotation, they will not hesitate to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n

With a few tweaks, mainly in a lineup lacking some pop, the Rays can be right back in the mix for a playoff spot in the American League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Rays have already been making some changes to their roster this offseason. A myriad of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-270231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}