A year in a half into the only 11-year contract the Rays ever felt the need to give out after years of letting people walk, a funny thing happened.
The Tampa Bay Rays have been a lot of things since changing their name and becoming one of the most crafty and interesting teams in the majors. But I don't think anyone would really be able to call them 'unlucky'. A lot of their aesthetic is things falling into place at the exact right time. Randy Arozarena landing in Tampa and becoming a hero right before a World Series run. Evan Longoria being ready for the majors right when things are moving towards the Rays' first ever division title. That Delmon Young trade that netted the Rays essentially 15 years of overwhelmingly good prospects in exchange for a power hitter they at one point thought was the future. Most famously, Joe Maddon leaving, Kevin Cash entering, and an entirely new outside-the-box managerial regime beginning without there being even the slightest misstep in between [like a Bobby Valentine year in between Francona and Farrell].
But the Rays' biggest misstep may have happened now, in the midst of a season that began with the team's monumental winning streak and proceeded with some killer seasons. The heartbreaking thing is many of these seasons have stopped in their tracks. Noted bigot Jeffrey Springs got injured after being damn near untouchable. Then Shane McClanahan got injured after a Cy Young-caliber campaign. And then, 112 games into a season that could result in MVP votes, Wander Franco gets caught in a teen's DMs and now the guy they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on for the next ten years probably will never play baseball again. That is the single worst snowball of luck that the Rays have ever encountered, and need I remind you how many seasons Evan Longoria stayed healthy for?
Just yesterday I saw an ESPN profile on a Rays player, and it was Randy Arozarena. And in the back of my head, I had to think, 'was that supposed to be Wander and things got shifted?'. This happened this week as well, Empire released a big magazine rollout on Dune Part Two a day after its release was shifted, and they had to sort of go on with it anyway. So as good as Arozarena was, I have to think about the narrative around the Rays. Initially a lot of the story of this team centered around Franco, the unstoppable prospect that rocketed up to the bigs, had a great run as a rookie, battled injuries his sophomore year, and became an MLB fixture. And now that Franco's a no-no, there has to be a different narrative. Like, now it's back to 'well look at all these pieces they made a great team out of'. That's been the narrative for the past five years. We thought we had something new, now we don't.
So now this Rays team is sort of back to where it was, and it's trying to win that way, and that's all well and good but why do I have this sneaking suspicion that the Rays are gonna trade a bunch of these guys anyway during the offseason. Y'know, Brandon Lowe and Harold Ramirez thinking they're safe, suddenly they're thrown somewhere else just cause the Rays wanna save money. And this'll happen even if the Rays still do well this year, which is likely considering they're still within reach of Baltimore.
The thing is, without Wander it's hard for them to seem wholly legitimate. Look, it's very nice that Jose Siri's got 24 home runs with only 88 games under his belt, but it'd look a lot better if Siri was any good of a defender. Without McClanahan, the team's best pitcher is Zach Eflin, who can still get roughed up by the Yankees every so often. I still think the rotation's incomplete and I still think the bullpen pales in comparison to past iterations. And while Jason Adam and Jalen Beeks are no longer the most morally reprehensible people on the active roster, they're also struggling to recreate their 2022 magic.
It's been up to people like Arozarena, Isaac Paredes, Yandy Diaz and Josh Lowe to keep things rolling for the Rays, and while they're still very much in the race, they're not the overwhelming favorites they once were, and there's still a ton of internal problems that could keep them back. Also, any attempt to make them likable has failed now that the Wander stuff has arisen.
The Rays could still go far this year. But I'll always wonder what they could have been had they not banked so hard on someone awful.
Coming Tonight: Someone that makes me a lot happier than the Rays, and he's been hitting so well recently as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment