ST. PETERSBURG -- When the Rays gathered inside the visitors’ clubhouse at Busch Stadium for a meeting before their Opening Day matchup with the Cardinals, nobody seemed to be expecting much of them.
Nobody, that is, except for themselves.
Widely picked to finish last in the American League East after a pair of disappointing seasons and a typical Tampa Bay offseason, the Rays felt from the beginning that they were going to be more competitive than anticipated. They believed there was too much talent on their roster and too much chemistry inside their clubhouse to fade away like they did the previous two years.
President of baseball operations Erik Neander vocalized those sentiments in a rare preseason speech to the team in St. Louis.
“It was sincere. Just shared a message that we believed. That was it,” Neander said. “Don’t do it every year, but felt it was important to let them know.”
On Friday night, a season that began with confident speeches took a turn toward champagne showers. With a 3-1 win over the Astros at Tropicana Field capped by Junior Caminero’s 40th home run of the season, an electric walk-off shot into the left-field seats, the AL-leading Rays became the first team in the Majors to clinch a spot in the postseason.
Do you believe in them now?
“They might have thought I was an idiot, but we did have a genuine belief that this team was a lot tighter with the other four [AL East] teams than certainly the public had it,” Neander said. “No matter what happens from here, they’ve proven that to be correct.”
The Rays still have bigger goals, namely holding off the Yankees and Red Sox to win their first AL East title since 2021 and making a deep run into October after three straight early exits from 2021-23. But they have secured a place in the playoffs for the 10th time in franchise history and the first since ‘23.
The Rays have often said they do their best work when little is expected of them. Add this season to the evidence in favor of that argument, even if they were higher on their own odds than the publicly available projections and predictions.
“I think it instilled a lot of confidence in where Erik stands, where the front office stands and this coaching staff stands. I think that's great for players,” said starter Nick Martinez, who has made an incalculable impact on the mound and in the clubhouse since signing with the Rays in February. “And they were, from the beginning, expecting us to win and be a good ballclub. I think that set us off in the right direction.”
The Rays (88-59) hold a three-game lead over the Yankees (85-62) in the division with 15 left to play, including four at Yankee Stadium to begin the final week of the season. But if the season ended today, Tampa Bay would be the top-seeded team in the AL field.
“We don't have the opportunity to relax and be satisfied with where we're at. We’ve got to stay focused, and we want to win the AL East,” starter Drew Rasmussen said. “That's what it is, and so we’ve got to take care of business every single day.”
Nobody can argue that they haven’t earned their place in the postseason. The Rays have spent 116 days leading the AL East, and they’ve held the AL’s best record for a franchise-record 115 days and counting.
“This team has been a lot of fun to be a part of, that's for sure. I mean, the way that they have just gelled from Spring Training throughout the course of the season,” manager Kevin Cash said. “They're a joy to be around. Easy team to really pull for.”
And a remarkably well-constructed team, even if nobody else seemed to realize it in Spring Training.
The top of their lineup is loaded with talent, led by AL MVP candidate Caminero and the perennially underrated Yandy Díaz. The bottom of the order is a relentless combination of contact hitting and speed, both personified by Chandler Simpson. With Rasmussen at the front of the rotation and All-Star closer Bryan Baker at the back end of the bullpen, Tampa Bay’s pitching staff has been one of the best in the game.
Neander and the Rays’ front office bolstered their roster with a trio of key Trade Deadline additions in catcher Liam Hicks, starter Freddy Peralta and reliever Tyler Wells. And their unheralded acquisitions have delivered key contributions, like the game-tying homer Victor Mesa Jr. hit in the fifth inning of Friday night’s clincher.
They have benefitted greatly from a return to a rebuilt Tropicana Field, their home dome, after the damage caused by Hurricane Milton forced them to spend last season outdoors at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field. That made it all the more meaningful to clinch at home, which they hadn’t done since 2021.
And the camaraderie the Rays saw as early as Spring Training has sustained them throughout the season, breeding positivity and a selfless style of play.
“I believe there's a direct correlation to the type of clubhouse you have to how guys play on the field. Man, we play for each other,” Martinez said. “We've been playing for each other since the beginning of the season and even through the dog days of the summer.”
Now, the goal is to keep doing it in October.