First of all, this is just an odd picture. Not just Cedric Mullins on the Rays, though that is pretty odd. It's a 90s Rays jersey...but an early 2000s Rays cap. It's mismatched eras. I kinda wish for the HOF weekend thing, they'd have done full throwbacks, and do the vested early 2000s Steve Cox Rays uniforms, but no, it's gotta look weird.
Here's a fun fact about the Rays' schedule going forward. Six of the teams they're set to play going forward are below .500. The Jays, Orioles, Athletics [TWICE], Mets, Tigers. They will eventually play good teams [Braves, Yanks, Sox], but by that point they'll probably have an unreachable lead from playing the A's a ton of times, and the AL East will be called for them. I'd accuse the MLB of rigging the system for the Rays, but they are a very cheap team with a low payroll who'd get very few eyes on them if they made a World Series, so who even knows how this happened.
The Rays did help this by sweeping the Mariners, an actual good team [or at least they were supposed to be], and now they can coast a bit going forward. The O's may chase them a great deal in a couple weeks. I'll be at one of the games in Baltimore, so I sure hope so.
The trade deadline strengthened what was already an extremely well-engineered Rays team, and now they're looking even better. They already didn't have a ton of issues scoring runs, but now they have Liam Hicks on the team and he's scored like 6 since getting here. Aranda, Caminero and Diaz make up one of the most formidable run-scoring tryptics in the game, which is widely when you consider that Yandy Diaz is 34. Caminero has 33 homers right now and is in no position to slow down. Even Cedric Mullins is helping out with the power game, with 13 homers and 35 RBIs, plus 18 steals. This isn't peak, early 2020s Mullins, but he's still very helpful, and he can still do some cool things. I also think the bench's array of guys like Ben Williamson, Victor Mesa Jr. [who, contrary to my earlier belief, is a different guy than former Marlins prospect Victor Victor Mesa], Jonny deLuca and Ryan Vilade, is extremely helpful. Vilade especially is just built like a ballplayer, this massive thing who can hit really hard.
The bullpen has overcome some early-May struggles and mellowed into a really nice unit, with Bryan Baker, Kevin Kelly, Ian Seymour and now Tyler Wells working on great seasons. Steven Matz has swung back into the rotation to replace Griffin Jax, and he's not doing too badly. I do worry about Freddy Peralta, because he's still struggling the way he did in New York, but hopefully things even out. Martinez and Rasmussen are still excellent though, and solving a ton of problems.
Again, even as the Yankees threaten, I don't see the Rays giving up 1st anytime soon, even if there are minor flaws. This team's really blossomed, and come together in a way I wasn't expecting early on. I don't think they're THE favorite in the AL going into October, but they're one of the only teams acting like it this year.
Coming Tomorrow- The Braves really corner the market on 'life begins at 30' guys, don't they?
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