{"id":526989,"date":"2026-03-16T14:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/526989\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:38:09","slug":"are-the-rays-a-good-defensive-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/526989\/","title":{"rendered":"Are the Rays A Good Defensive Team?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the question \u2026 are they good? We give an overview of team strengths, weaknesses, and other things to know, using Defensive Runs Saved and other stats as the basis for our evaluation. To see the full series, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2025 Team Defensive Runs Saved Rank: 6th<\/p>\n

Team Strengths<\/p>\n

Shortstop Taylor Walls has not played 100 games at shortstop in a season. But he\u2019s been so good defensively that he\u2019s totaled more than 10 Runs Saved there in four of his five MLB seasons. He\u2019s tied for the most Runs Saved at shortstop over the last three seasons despite having played less than half as many innings as the player he\u2019s tied with, Dansby Swanson. He\u2019ll be valuable as a starter or reserve.<\/p>\n

Most Defensive Runs Saved \u2013 Shortstops \u2013 Last 3 Seasons<\/p>\n

Player
\nInnings
\nRuns Saved<\/p>\n

Taylor Walls
\n1,600
\n31<\/p>\n

Dansby Swanson
\n3,939
\n31<\/p>\n

Zach Neto
\n3,122
\n26<\/p>\n

Corey Seager
\n2,739
\n25<\/p>\n

Anthony Volpe
\n4,067
\n23<\/p>\n

The Rays are waiting for Carson Williams to take over the position from Walls. Williams led minor league shortstops in Runs Saved in 2024 and was solid again in 2025. But he hit .172 in a 99 at-bat MLB stint last season, and he\u2019s being watched carefully in spring training. Whether it\u2019s Williams or Walls, the Rays are in good defensive shape at the position.<\/p>\n

Catcher Nick Fortes has had 5, 5, and 4 Runs Saved the last three seasons. Though he hasn\u2019t done well at controlling the running game, he\u2019s had one season of being one of the top pitch blockers in MLB and others of being an above-average pitch framer. He\u2019s not in the top tier of defensive catchers in MLB but he might be in the second tier.<\/p>\n

Ben Williamson figures to play a utility role for this team. He had 8 Runs Saved in 85 games at third base as a rookie last season. That wasn\u2019t surprising given that his last two seasons in the minors he had 10 and 7 Runs Saved, respectively.<\/p>\n

Jonny DeLuca had 6 Runs Saved in 57 games in right field two seasons ago and has a penchant for making great catches. He\u2019ll likely be in a backup role.<\/p>\n

Besides Williams the Rays also have first baseman Tre\u2019 Morgan, who has been heralded for his defense. Every scouting report we\u2019ve read pegs Morgan as a terrific defender, even if our minor league numbers don\u2019t back it up so far. He\u2019s totaled -3 Runs Saved in 116 minor league games measured at the position.<\/p>\n

Team Weaknesses<\/p>\n

One of the Rays free agent signings this offseason was a buy-low on Cedric Mullins, who was coming of a rough 2025 both offensively and defensively. Mullins has slipped defensively the last two seasons, totaling a combined -19 Runs Saved, including -14 in 2025.<\/p>\n

Given Chandler Simpson\u2019s blazing speed, you\u2019d have figured he\u2019d have fared better in the outfield than -9 Runs Saved between center field and left field. He had 21 Misplays and Errors last season between the two positions. That\u2019s a lot. So he\u2019s got some improving to do.<\/p>\n

The Rays could also use better from the corner infield slots, where they\u2019ll be playing Yandy D\u00edaz\u00a0at first base (-7 Runs Saved the last two seasons) and Junior Caminero at third base (-5 Runs Saved last season). They\u2019ll also have Gavin Lux at second base, which didn\u2019t go well the last time he played it full time (-2 Runs Saved in 2024 and then -4 in 17 games last season)<\/p>\n

Other Things To Know<\/p>\n

Jonathan Aranda has 138 career games at first base and 8 Runs Saved, with 7 of those coming in 93 games last season so he could have made the strengths list too.<\/p>\n

Are the Rays A Good Defensive Team?<\/p>\n

I think they have too many weaknesses to be considered a good defensive team right now, but the Rays always seem to defy the conventional wisdom. They could really use a bounceback from Mullins and for Simpson to make fewer mistakes. With both of those things and good contributions from Williams and Morgan, I think they\u2019d be above-average.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-526989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}