How the Tampa Bay Rays can fill the holes in the batting order

Tampa Bay Rays – How to make the three and four-holes, not holes.

Hunter Renfroe has been most productive over his career from the fifth and seventh spot in the lineup, posting an OPS of .899 and .860 respectively.

Jose Martinez has excelled as a cleanup hitter. In 152 career plate appearances from the spot, he slashed .328/.408/.515 with five homers and 32 RBI. He also posted an OPS of .884 as the number two-hitter in the lineup.

Guys like Nate Lowe and Brian O’Grady could fill in as a middle-of-the-order bat if they can find room for both on the roster. O’Grady is a lefty who hits left-handed pitching better than he does righties, and he crushes righties! As impressive as Nate Lowe’s 27 minor-league homers were in 2018, O’Grady set the Louisville Bats’ single-season record last year with 28.

The Rays are hopeful that Yoshitomo Tsutsugo will be able to handle major-league pitching as easily as he did in Japan, but that remains to be seen.

Brandon Lowe had his plate appearances spread out up and down the lineup last season. He slugged over .500 from six different spots. Now that his rookie year is behind him, he could serve as a stabilizing middle of the order bat. Lowe slugged .514 last season with 36 extra-base hits in just 296 at-bats.

Ji-Man Choi earned the majority of his plate appearances as the third hitter in the lineup last season and he disappointed with a sOPS+ of 82. He was even worse from the cleanup spot with a sOPS+ of just 68.

However, in his 87 PAs from the fifth spot in the lineup, Choi slashed a silly .368/.437/.803 with nine homers.

Tampa Bay Rays – Where do you go Manuel Margot?

Manuel Margot has a career OPS+ of 87. He’s a great defender with fantastic speed and range in the outfield and on the basepaths. Conventional wisdom tells you that the contact-hitting speedster should leadoff, but the Rays are anything but conventional. 48% of Margot’s career plate appearances have come from the first spot in the lineup. In those 733 PAs, he has slashed an uninspiring .244/.288/.392.

On the other hand, Margot has excelled at the bottom of the lineup for some reason. In 208 PAs from the eight-hole, Margot has posted a .324 OBP and a .437 slugging percentage. Those are both vast improvements over his career averages of .301 OBP and .394 SLG.

With the move to the American League, Margot might be the perfect fit as the ninth hitter in the lineup.

Tampa Bay Rays – Yandy Diaz

Don’t forget about Yandy! Yandy Diaz came to the Rays with tons of power and an inability to get the ball in the air. His natural approach profiles as a top of the order bat. Sure, he has power, but he’s always been an on-base machine. Despite consistently hitting over half of his batted balls on the ground, he hits them so hard he maintains a high average. He is also very capable of taking a walk.

The added homers were a bonus last season. By far, he was at his best in the first two spots in the lineup. As a leadoff hitter, he slashed .337/.396/.590 (not counting his two-homer performance in the AL Wild Card game against Oakland. He posted a 151 sOPS+, far outperforming the rest of the league from the leadoff spot.

The Rays will dazzle us with a wide variety of lineup concoctions, but I expect to see a lot of Yandy Diaz and Austin Meadows at the top. What are your thoughts on how the rays can improve the production this season?