No disrespect here. The Rays are in first, and they're earning it. No 'it's cause the Yankees suck', no 'where are the stars?', none of that. Junior Caminero's gone on a home run hitting tear, Drew Rasmussen's one of the best pitchers in baseball, Yandy Diaz is a total hitting machine, Jonathan Aranda's finally getting hot, and somehow they've been able to make a closer out of former Orioles bullpen stalwart Bryan 'Shake 'n Bake' Baker. I can't even be mad, they're just really good right now. Won 7 straight, they get to play the Astros this weekend and then we get to see how long the Yankees want to drag out the losing stretch.
Drew Rasmussen has been a key rotation figure for the Rays ever since coming over here. I gave them a lot of shit for trading Willy Adames just so Franco could get playing time, but they were able to, like so many other times, offload soon-to-be-wanting-money talent for a younger, more lucrative piece. So they got Rasmussen at the exact correct time, he had a stellar 2022, missed parts of two seasons with injuries, had a stellar 2023 and is looking at a second consecutive all-star appearance. Dude's just a sneaky-good, hard-throwing workhorse whose ERA hasn't dipped above 3 since coming over. That's honestly the crazy part, he's never finished a season with an ERA higher than 2.85 as a Ray. As a Brewer he was all over the place, but he really nailed things down in Tampa, and became a very consistent guy. I'm not sure if he's the ace, Shane McClanahan is still technically top dog, but Rasmussen is pitching better.
I do think it's slightly worrying that we haven't seen Ryan Pepiot yet this season, but it speaks to the Rays' low-budget dominance that they're keeping the rest of the AL East at bay using guys like Nick Martinez and Griffin Jax. They technically don't have a fifth starter right now, what with Steven Matz hurt, but it's the Rays so they're using 5 relievers in a trench coat, and suddenly that's working. Again, the bullpen's been better, but Kevin Kelly and Bryan Baker have been pretty good. Baker has 21 saves. They wouldn't let him close with the O's but the Rays had an opening. I dunno why they had an opening at closer, I feel like they had a guy for that all set up last year..
I think the biggest twists of this season for the Rays are A.) that the contact game is being led by Yandy Diaz, who's hitting .329 and already has 100 hits, and B.) that this team that's known for its contact game and has two proven starters who have not hit any home runs and are not expected to...also has a pretty decent power core, just from Aranda and Caminero. Caminero has 24 homers right now. He committed to the Home Run Derby before anyone was even thinking about the Home Run Derby. Somebody just said 'hello' to him, and he went 'I WANNA DO THE DERBY AGAIN'. And what the hell do you say to that?? No??? 'I wanna potentially ruin my swing for the rest of the season' 'Okay, go ahead, champ.' There's a reason there isn't one of these for pitchers.
Anyway. The Rays are really good right now. Is it sustainable? Who knows. Yankees are technically the better team, and they do this every June. A month from now, if the Yankees still suck, we'll see. With the exception of 2023, the Yankees remember to stop sucking at some point. We'll see if the Rays can outrun them there, with their four guys that don't hit home runs and their three guys that aren't here to hit at all..
Coming Tomorrow- The Astros, like absolute fools, traded him, right as an opening emerged in his new team's starting lineup. To say he's made the most of it would be an understatement.
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