Tampa Bay Rays: Grading Each Player's First Half

Starting Rotation: A-

Shane McClanahan: A+
Drew Rasmussen: A
Jeffrey Springs: A
Corey Kluber: B+
Ryan Yarborough: D

In a season largely marred by inconsistency and a shorthanded roster, the rotation has been even more dependable than advertised, but not in the way many people expected. Its pride and joy is Shane McClanahan, who would be the rightful Cy Young Award winner if the season ended today without question. He leads the entire sport in just about every category possible, with an exemplary 1.71 ERA, 2.11 RA/9, 0.80 WHIP, and 147 strikeouts in 110.2 innings. He has pitched at least 6 innings in 14 of his 18 starts this season, and he has walked more than 2 batters in a start just once. The 25-year-old has blossomed into a surefire ace, and he was deservedly picked to be the starting pitcher for the AL at the All-Star game.

With injuries to Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz, the Rays have had to transform many of their relievers into starters, and it's a project that has worked beautifully with Drew Rasmussen.

That transition started last year, and this year, he has been exclusively part of the rotation. He has averaged just under 5 innings per start, which is a pretty impressive swing for someone who was a mid-leverage reliever just over a year ago. He had a brilliant stretch in May, going at least 5 innings and allowing no more than 1 run for 4 consecutive starts.

He missed the second half of June with a hamstring strain, but has since returned to the rotation, and he has a 3.22 ERA and a 3.75 FIP in his 15 starts so far. One red flag is that his Statcast xERA sits at 4.22, nearly 60 points higher than last year's and a full run over his actual ERA, which indicates that he's giving up too much quality contact. Hopefully he can fight the regression that some of the numbers would argue is coming his way.

The team embarked on a similar change with Jeffrey Springs. He was just placed on the IL with right leg tightness but he was having quite a season before then. He transitioned to a starter's role over the course of May after beginning in the bullpen, and he has put up a 2.53 ERA in 19 appearances (11 of those were starts). He allowed just 7 earned runs in his first 8 starts of the season despite being less effective lately. The Rays hope to get Springs back right after the All-Star break.

Meanwhile, Corey Kluber has held up quite well for his age. He has provided some much-needed durability, leading the team in starts alongside McClanahan with 18. With an ERA of 3.73 and a FIP of 3.45, as well as a walk rate of 3.9% (97th percentile), he has been the epitome of "very slightly above average" this year. His glory days in Cleveland are long gone, but at age 36, it's impressive that his stuff is still as effective as it is, and he has been on the mound every 5 days when the Rays have needed him.

Unfortunately for Ryan Yarborough, he has been the one letdown in this rotation. He has bounced back and forth between AAA and MLB, and the recent injuries to Springs and Baz (the latter of whom was around for just a month before getting sent right back to the 60-day IL with an elbow sprain) have necessitated that he fill a roster spot on the big-league club for the foreseeable future. He made encouraging strides when the Rays started to get competitive in the late 2010s and peaked in 2020, but fell out of favor last season and he has slipped up even further since.

He simply does not have the swing-and-miss in his arsenal to get by (his 5.5 K/9 would be a career-low), and his ERA has ballooned to 5.49 in 39 innings this season. It's a tough and competitive business to stay in the big leagues as a pitcher, but if the pitching staff was healthy, he probably wouldn't be there.

Bullpen: B+

Jason Adam, A+
Brooks Raley, A+
J.P. Feyereisen, A+
Jalen Beeks, A-
Shawn Armstrong, B+
Colin Poche, B+
Matt Wisler, B-
Ryan Thompson, C

The Rays have a reputation for acquiring pitchers and turning them from afterthoughts to key relievers, and this season has been no different.

Jason Adam and Brooks Raley have been the best that this year's edition of the bullpen has had to offer, and given the team's track record, it's no surprise that reclamation projects from the Cubs and Astros respectively have ended up leading the relief corps. Adam (1.41 ERA, 2.33 FIP, 46 K, 4 SV, 38.1 IP) and Raley (2.79 ERA, 2.01 FIP, 40 K, 6 SV, 29 IP) have taken over much of the high-leverage duty with former closer Andrew Kittredge out with Tommy John surgery.

J.P. Feyereisen was handling a lot of that as well early on, but he's still not throwing as a result of a shoulder injury that put him on the 60-day IL. He hasn't seen, and won't see, action for a while but 24 innings pitched is a substantial enough amount for half a season that he qualifies for a grade, and an A+ at that since he hadn't allowed a run all season before he went down.

Shawn Armstrong might be the most Rays-y acquisition of them all. After being picked up mid-season by the Rays off waivers in 2021, he was DFA'd in early September and picked up by the Marlins. He started off 2022 quite poorly for Miami, who outrighted him to AAA, causing him to elect free agency.

The Rays then re-acquired him for nothing, and since coming up to the big-league roster on May 31, he has pitched 19.2 innings with a 3.20 ERA and over a strikeout per inning, which is outstanding compared to the 10.80 ERA he had through 7 appearances with Miami.

The other two pitchers who have been tag-teaming late-inning responsibilities are Colin Poche and Matt Wisler. Poche and his famous wipeout slider are finally back from an elbow injury that sidelined him starting after his rookie season in 2019, and the early returns are encouraging. He has 6 saves and a 2.35 ERA, but he has given up a concerning amount of home runs, leading to a FIP of closer to 5.00.

However, he's still limiting quality contact overall as evidenced by his xERA of 2.99, so with some increased command and control, he should have a better second half. Wisler, known for only throwing a slider, is effective when he's on but his cold stretches are extremely ugly, so he has fallen out of favor with some fans this year. He does a great job generating harmless contact, which mostly explains his 2.36 ERA, but his predictability has led to poor strikeout and walk rates, indicating that he might not be performing as well as that ERA would say.

Position Players: C

Yandy Diaz, A+
Isaac Paredes, A+
Harold Ramirez, A+
Ji-Man Choi, A
Manny Margot, A
Randy Arozarena, B-
Wander Franco, C
Francisco Mejia, C
Kevin Kiermaier, C
Josh Lowe, D+
Taylor Walls, D
Brett Phillips, D-

This is the area that has been the core of any Rays-related frustration. Half the regular lineup has been hurt for what feels like all year, and any satisfaction that came with finally getting Brandon Lowe back has been offset by another long-term loss of Wander Franco due to a hamate injury.

That said, there have been bright spots. At the forefront is Yandy Diaz, who altered his approach at the plate to drop any semblance of power and make getting on base his only goal. It's working: he leads Rays position players in bWAR and he's currently rocking an OPS+ of 137 despite his OBP being 17 points higher than his slugging percentage. He has 49 walks to just 35 strikeouts, and the plate discipline master has been one of just 3 players in this lineup to stay healthy all season. It's rare that a player with just 3 home runs would get an A+, but Diaz is having a great season in his own unique way.

In other news, the Rays inexplicably keep winning trades that seem awfully lopsided at first. While former Tampa Bay slugger Austin Meadows has battled underperformance and injury over in Detroit, Isaac Paredes has done nothing but hit since finding his way onto the MLB roster in June. He has 13 homers in just 51 games, and has blown fans' expectations away despite cooling off to start July. Harold Ramirez was a career-below-average-hitter before coming to the Rays in 2022 and he is also somehow mashing at the DH spot, sporting a .329 average and a 143 OPS+ through his first 78 games.

Ji-Man Choi has remained consistent, establishing himself as one of the best first basemen in the game. He still doesn't see lefty pitching much, but like Diaz, he has a knack for walking a lot (.107 difference between his OBP and AVG) and ranks 2nd among Rays' position players in bWAR despite the slightly abbreviated playing time.

Manuel Margot was having a career season (132 OPS+) before going down with a knee sprain that came from crashing into the wall in right field; he will unfortunately miss significant time. Randy Arozarena hasn't been a bad hitter, but his all-or-nothing approach on the bases (leading the AL in times caught stealing for the 2nd straight year) and the abundance of swings and misses in his approach have cost the team on occasion. Still, his .744 OPS is above league average, and the Rays will hope for some more progression as he gets more experience in the big leagues.

From there, the drop-off is steep. It's not necessarily Wander Franco's fault that he only managed a C; he has had to play catch-up all year and is already on his 2nd lengthy IL stint. That still doesn't take away from the fact that he was not an effective hitter when healthy, despite not losing a step in the field.

Francisco Mejia isn't a terrible hitter as far as catchers go, but that doesn't make a .660 OPS any good. He has been below average on both sides of the ball and he strikes out a ton for a guy who has only managed 2 walks all season. He's still young, so the game-calling and framing abilities will come with time, but the team has missed Mike Zunino's presence behind the plate. Kevin Kiermaier is possibly done for the season with a hip injury which is tough to see since he has survived the team's constant wheeling-and-dealing patterns for 8 years, making him the longest-tenured Ray. He started off the season incredibly well, but struggled at the plate during the team's losing month of June. That isn't necessarily surprising since he has always been a great defender first and foremost, but even his field in the play has been a lot closer to average this year (just 1 Statcast Out Above Average).

The team has high hopes for prospect Josh Lowe, but he has an OPS under .600 through his first half-season in the big leagues. That says pretty much nothing about how good he'll be in the future as prospects take time to adjust, but it has been a tough go so far. Walls was getting extended playing time when Franco and Lowe were both hurt at the same time, and he's a wizard at shortstop, but his .178/.257/.295 slash line shows that he has not been a big-league caliber hitter.

Brett Phillips has always been outstanding defensively and he's a greater ambassador for MLB off the field than most of the people running it, and for that, he deserves a passing grade. However, he's a non-factor at the plate: he has a 41 OPS+ on the season, which is over 50% below league average. That suggests he probably wouldn't even be one of the best hitters at the AAA level.

Final Grade: B+

The Tampa Bay Rays have pitched well this season, as they have during this now-lengthy window of contention. That has come with an overall disappointing (and quite injured) lineup, but despite all of the health issues, they still sit 10 games over .500 and are currently the best team in the AL that isn't leading their division. With the context of this season taken into account, that's pretty good.

They have shown resilience and enough fight to stick around up until this point, and their depth will be tested further. However, Jeffrey Springs and Jalen Beeks should return to the pitching staff after the all-star break, and Brandon Lowe has rejoined the lineup. Reinforcements are coming, possibly via trade as the Rays have put themselves in a position to be buyers again at the deadline.

Many Rays fans probably did not expect that they'd win the division in 2022; in fact, being in a top wild card spot by the all-star break was essentially what many people were predicting. It becomes more impressive, however, that this is when considering the adversity they have faced. While they might not make a deep run into the postseason, they have proved even further that they should stick around in the playoff race until the very end, regardless of where they end up.