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<\/a><\/p>\nJul 26, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Bryan Baker (47) reacts after beating the Cleveland Guardians in the ninth inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Reliever runs per batter faced<\/p>\n
The overall performance of the bullpen has been negatively skewed by the performance of some middle relief options over the last month. Rather than just looking at just team reliever ERA, it can be beneficial to account for workload by factoring in total batters faced. ERA and FIP miss the workload aspect as they are calculated on a 9-inning basis.<\/p>\n
Since 8\/1, the Rays bullpen ranks 21st in the league in runs allowed per batter faced. Some of that is brought down by mop-up outings in blow outs, but that can\u2019t really happen as we head into October. Despite ranking in the bottom 10 in this metric, the Rays bullpen is only slightly below average. Additionally, there are plenty of internal candidates that could improve the bullpen.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll need at least one of Cleavinger, Booser, Sulser, Matz, or Legumina to step up and be the bridge to the back of the bullpen. I\u2019m not concerned about this area; there\u2019s currently a surplus in the rotation with multiple players who will need their workloads managed as we approach the end of the season. A postseason pitching staff really only needs three true starters, so whoever isn\u2019t starting could transition to a relief role. Jax, McClanahan, and Seymour all make sense to move to multi or single inning relief roles to support the bullpen when fewer rotation spots are needed.<\/p>\n
The Rays bullpen is currently at 0.126 runs per batter while the best bullpens are below 0.100. I\u2019d like to see them closer to that number, so it\u2019ll be something to watch as the middle relief roles get sorted out over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
While the Rays might not have the roster to out-slug some of the other contenders, they can make up for it by maintaining an efficient offense. One way to measure efficiency is by looking at how many runs a team scores for each base they earn.<\/p>\n
The Rays have the 4th best offensive efficiency since 8\/1 in terms of runs per base at 0.277 and the league average is 0.255. They move runners well by bunting, stealing, and having productive outs more than most other teams. This has helped them maintain an above average offense for the season as a whole with a 105 wRC+. I\u2019ll be looking for them to maintain above-average offensive efficiency through October.<\/p>\n
Overall, this team is in a good position with room to improve. I\u2019d like to see the Rays get their outfield defense back to where it was earlier this season. The return of Mesa should help with that. I\u2019d also like them to continue to hold leads and close games at the back of the bullpen while keeping games closer in middle relief. Rodriguez should help in that area, and I\u2019m interested to see which of the current members of the rotation could transition to a relief role in October. I\u2019ll also be watching the group of Cleavinger, Booser, Sulser, Matz, and Legumina for those roles. And lastly, I want the Rays to stick to their identity and continue to manufacture runs with productive outs and taking an extra base as much as possible. We already know what we have in this team – they\u2019re legit World Series contenders, but performance in these four key areas is what will make or break their postseason run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August and September are two of the most important months of the regular season for contenders. Rosters are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,123246,137,136],"class_list":["post-388617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays-analysis","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388617","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=388617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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