{"id":243738,"date":"2026-04-23T20:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243738\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:11:15","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-should-be-concerned-about-struggles-of-key-offseason-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243738\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays Should Be Concerned About Struggles of Key Offseason Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">With 24 games in the books for the Tampa Bay Rays, the team should be pleased with how things have gone so far, with a 13-11 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Even though there have been some ups and downs for the team so far, the Rays are over the .500 mark and very much an early contender in the American League East. Tampa Bay had a bit of an interesting offseason and made a plethora of moves both to improve the team this season and for the future as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">After a terrible performance by most of their outfield in 2025, it was a main goal for the team to improve that area this offseason, and they made multiple moves in order to try and do so. In free agency, they added Jake Fraley and Cedric Mullins. Furthermore, in the trade that sent Brandon Lowe to the Pittsburgh Pirates, they got back a talented prospect in Jacob Melton.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">Even though Melton was given some opportunities this spring, the Rays went with their free agent signings, along <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/rays\/onsi\/chandler-simpson-is-2nd-player-in-mlb-history-to-achieve-incredible-feat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with Chandler Simpson<\/a>, as the starters. So far, Simpson is having an early breakout season for the team, but Mullins has not lived up to expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mullins Hasn\u2019t Got It Going Yet<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpw1ygg9heq820eznf.jpg\" alt=\"Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins running \" title=\"Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins running \" width=\"4702\" height=\"2644\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"74\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins  | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">After a terrible second half of the season with the New York Mets, Mullins didn\u2019t have quite the offseason that he was likely hoping for. The former All-Star for the Baltimore Orioles played some great baseball over the course of his career with the Orioles, but he really struggled following the trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">Those struggles resulted in him getting just a one-year deal with Tampa Bay to prove himself, and so far, he hasn\u2019t been able to do so. This season, he has slashed .156\/.205\/.286 with two home runs and eight RBI. The numbers so far are not great for the veteran outfielder, but luckily, those struggles <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/rays\/onsi\/rays-yandy-diaz-moves-up-all-time-list-for-franchise\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">haven\u2019t hurt the team too much<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">However, considering he was brought in to be an offensive spark, he has yet to be able to accomplish that. While it hasn\u2019t been a massive sample size, the Rays have to be concerned that the numbers look more like what he did with the Mets rather than what he accomplished over the course of his career with the Orioles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">As he continues to get acclimated to his new team, hopefully, production will increase. However, if it doesn\u2019t, Tampa Bay likely won\u2019t hesitate to try someone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With 24 games in the books for the Tampa Bay Rays, the team should be pleased with how&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-243738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}