ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays’ season came to an end with a two-game Wild Card series sweep in Cleveland. This was the franchise’s fourth consecutive playoff appearance but its earliest exit, leaving plenty of questions of "what could’ve been."
“There is some disappointment that comes with that,” Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said. “At the same time, I’m really proud that we’ve re-established and maintained that winning culture here.”
Neander priced together a team that won 86 games and clinched the third wild card spot.
But much of the story this season was overcoming a slew of injuries to star players. Shortstop Wander Franco, second baseman Brandon Lowe, centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier, and catcher Mike Zunino were only on the field together for 12 games this season.
“Nearly half this roster that we had in the postseason wasn’t even with us in camp,” Neander said.
The Rays pitched extremely well and will have an established starting rotation next season with Shane McClanahan, Tyler Glasnow, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffery Springs. But the position players did not hit well enough to take advantage of the team’s pitching.
Case in point, the Rays score only one run in 24 innings in their playoff series at Cleveland.
“There has to be an open-mindedness to that. I spoke to Z’s injury, to Kiermaier’s injury," Neander said. "They are free agents to be here. Brandon, we expect to be back and to be healthy and to have no lingering effects to the struggles he had with his back. I don’t think it’s in us to just stand pat and assume things will get better. I think there is an acknowledgment that our standards offensively, we want to raise them. That includes taking a look at the group we have and figuring out ways to do that.”
Free agency will begin five days after the final game of the World Series. The team will report to spring training on Feb. 13.
