After making the playoffs for five consecutive seasons, the Rays have missed the playoffs for two seasons in a row.

That’s not to say that Tampa Bay has nothing to which they should look forward. They have a face of the franchise coming off a stellar season, and they are returning to Tropicana Field with some new improvements.

However, the AL East added a lot of strong players this offseason. Not much of it (if any at all) went to the Rays. While that’s not a shocking statement, the Rays might be behind the 8-ball once again this season as far as standings are concerned. Let’s dive into how things went last year and what new faces they’ve got as the 2026 season kicks off.

The Rays finished with a 77-85 record last season, their lowest win total in a full 162-game season since 2014. They were 11 games over .500 towards the end of June, which kept them in 2nd place in the AL East, but a 7-18 July record coupled with a surging Blue Jays squad kept the Rays out of the top half of the division for most of the rest of the season.

They did a bit of both buying and selling at the trade deadline, dealing away Danny Jansen, Taj Bradley, Zack Littell, and José  Caballero, but also acquiring Griffin Jax and Adrian Houser.

Looking at their statistical ranks, they hovered around the middle of the pack in several areas: they were 16th in home runs (182), 14th in runs per game (4.20), 14th in OPS (.714), and 15th in ERA (3.94). While those seem very “mid”, the Rays had a pair of standout offensive performers that carried a lot of the offense.

We’ll start with Junior Caminero, who had an incredible breakout season in 2025.

He played in 154 games, slashing .264/.311/.535 with 45 home runs, 110 RBIs, and 28 doubles, with his homers and doubles ranking him third and fifth in the American League, respectively. He was granted his first All-Star nod, and he also finished 9th in AL MVP votes. His home/road splits won’t help him dodge the minor league home park accusations, but his home run totals were split almost evenly.

At -3 OOA, Caminero has strides to make defensively, but with the way he swings the bat, Rays fans are willing to make that trade. Baseball fans in general had a chance to see him during the World Baseball Classic over the past few weeks, and more than anything, he’s electric. At just 22 years old, he has so many years left to put it on display.

First baseman Jonathan Aranda also made his first career All-Star team last season, although a wrist fracture held him out of the final two months of the season. When healthy, he hit .316/.393/.489 with 14 home runs, 59 RBIs, and 22 doubles, all career-bests across the board.

Aranda’s counterpart at first base, Yandy Díaz, put up another good season at the plate, hitting an even .300 with 25 homers, 83 RBIs, and an .848 OPS. Looking at his numbers from the start of the decade to now, he’s been one of (if not) Tampa Bay’s most consistent players, hitting over .280 in all but one season while playing at least 130 games in that time frame.

On the mound, the Rays had a trio of 31-start arms in Ryan Pepiot, Drew Rasmussen, and Shane Baz. All three of them were significant in their own right; Pepiot’s solid season is helping the Tyler Glasnow trade pay dividends, while Rasmussen and Baz both logged their respective first fully healthy season of their careers as a Ray.

In Rasmussen’s case, you could tell the Rays were keeping tabs on his workload. He never pitched into the seventh inning in any of his starts, and there were some outings where they used him as an opener of sorts. Nonetheless, a 2.76 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and a four-seamer that sat at 96 mph over a full season’s work is a “W” in Tampa Bay’s book, I’d bet.

The Rays are hoping for a similar fate from lefty Shane McClanahan, who has not pitched in a regular-season game since the 2023 season. Tommy John surgery kept McClanahan sidelined during the 2024 season, and a nerve-related issue that he suffered during last year’s Spring Training (something he would wind up having surgery on last August) would force him to miss all of last season as well. As it stands right now, McClanahan is ready to go for ’26, and it will only make Tampa Bay’s rotation stronger.

In the ‘pen, Pete Fairbanks churned out 27 saves with a 2.83 ERA heading into free agency, and Garrett Cleavinger produced arguably his best season on the mound with a 2.35 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and a 12.0 K/9 over 67 appearances.

To the surprise of no one, the Rays didn’t make headlines with their offseason additions. If anything, their departures via trade were far more notable. Because of that, we’ll start with the trades.

Right after getting a full season out of Baz, they moved him to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for four prospects – C Caden Bodine, OF Slater de Brun, P Michael Forret, and OF Austin Overn – as well as a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick. None of those four prospects is likely to impact the major league roster this season, but Overn is the furthest along level-wise. The speedster hit .266 with a .753 OPS and 64 (!) stolen bases at Double-A Chesapeake last season, and for the entire year, he hit an impressive .330 against lefties as a southpaw himself.

Forret ranks highest in Tampa Bay’s prospect pool from that deal per MLB Pipeline. Between Single-A and Double-A last season, Forret made 19 total appearances with 18 starts, holding an impressive 2.07 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, and an 11.1 K/9. He features a mid-90s fastball with a changeup that is his best secondary pitch, although scouts believe there is “some work to do” regarding his breaking stuff.

Slater de Brun and Bodine were both first-round picks in last year’s draft for Baltimore, with the latter getting an 11-game stint in Single-A Delmarva at the end of last season. Overall, time will tell how good the return was for Baz, but, at the risk of using the exhaustive word “upside”, that’s what this deal has for the Rays.

The Rays got their foot in the door on a trio of three-team deals. First off, they acquired OF Jacob Melton and P Anderson Brito from the Astros as part of the deal that sent Brandon Lowe, Jake Mangum, and Mason Montgomery to the Pirates.

Melton, who has already been assigned to Triple-A Durham, made his major league debut last season and played in 32 games total. He slashed just .157/.234/.186 with 7 RBIs, a triple, and 7 stolen bases, but he had a .945 OPS during a similar amount of games in Triple-A, and he also had his first stint in the majors halted by an ankle sprain. Between his quality outfield defence and his speed around the bases, he sounds like a Ray already.

Brito was one of the higher-ranked pitchers in Houston’s system, and he is still just 21 years of age and has only spent two years in pro ball. Last season, he started 12 games at High-A Asheville, posting a 3.28 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, and an 11.9 K/9. While the strikeout numbers have been high, he’s also been handing out a generous amount of free passes (28 walks through 49 1/3 innings), which isn’t foreign to young pitching prospects.

They also acquired 3B Ben Williamson from the Mariners in the deal that sent Brendon Donovan to Seattle. Like Melton, Williamson made his major league debut last year, hitting .253/.294/.310 with one home run, 21 RBIs, and 13 doubles through 85 games. A lot of his praise through his minor league journey was given to his defense, and since he played multiple positions in the infield in the minors, Kevin Cash can plug this reliable glove in different spots.

Finally, Tampa Bay parted ways with another one of their longer tenured pieces by sending OF Josh Lowe to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for pitching prospect Chris Clark, a deal that also featured picking up OF Gavin Lux from the Cincinnati Reds. Lux got 140 games under his belt last season, slashing .269/.350/.374 with 5 home runs, 53 RBIs, and 28 doubles. Now on his third team in three years, Lux will likely enter this season with a starting spot at second base.

This one features only two teams, but the last “major” trade for Tampa Bay was grabbing RPs Steven Wilson and Yoendrys Gómez from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for CF Everson Pereira and 2B Tanner Murray. About to enter his fifth year in the majors, Wilson had a rough 2024, which led to a DFA by the ChiSox, but after clearing waivers, he was retained in the minor league system and turned things around in 2025. He owned a 3.42 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, and 8.3 K/9, which played closer to his averages before the tough ’24 campaign.

Gómez bounced around between three different teams last season, but got the most run with the White Sox at the end of the year.

Amongst several other trades from this offseason, the Rays brought in OF Justyn-Henry Malloy and OF Ryan Vilade, as well as claiming OF Jake Fraley off waivers from the Atlanta Braves. Malloy has already been sent to Triple-A Durham, but could very well join the other two in playing for the Rays this season.

The free agent additions were few for Tampa Bay, with one of their biggest being signing CF Cedric Mullins to a one-year, $7 million deal. Mullins spent seven and a half years with the Baltimore Orioles organization before being traded to the Mets at last year’s deadline. He wasn’t particularly great with either team last year, hitting .216/.299/.391 with 17 home runs, 59 RBIs, 23 doubles, and 22 stolen bases.

Mullins still has value on the base paths as well as his occasional pop in his bat, although he has moved further and further from the 30-homer season he had in 2021.

Finally, the Rays added two veteran starters to the back end of their rotation in Steven Matz and Nick Martinez. Matz concluded a four-year deal with the Cardinals last season, which included a stop with the Red Sox after being dealt there at last year’s deadline. He finished the season on a high note, posting a 2.08 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, and just two walks over 21 outings, bringing his season figures to good levels.

Martinez made 40 total appearances last year for the Reds, splitting time as a starter and bulk reliever. He owned a 4.45 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, and 6.3 K/9 in those appearances, although his numbers were far better as a reliever than as a starter (albeit significantly fewer innings). Both Matz and Martinez have experience pitching in a variety of roles, so if the Rays require some flexibility at any point during the year, they’ve got candidates.

I feel like Tampa Bay is still right where everyone wants them – underrated and hard to predict. While it’s worked for them in the past, they’ve seemingly been eclipsed over the past couple of years by the talent that the AL East possesses. Even with Baltimore taking a step back last season, the Blue Jays and Red Sox jumped on their opportunity to make the playoffs, leaving the Rays in the dust.

I can only see the same happening this year with the other four AL East teams staying the same or getting better on paper. But again, isn’t that exactly what Tampa Bay wants me to believe?

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