The Rays are one of the top organizations in baseball and have been for over a decade
By Steve Risser
Tonight, the Rays play in game 3 of the World Series which is the 2nd time their in the World Series which is amazing seeing how low their payroll is in sport that doesn’t have a Salary Cap. In the first 8 years of their existence the Rays were the laughing stock of baseball finishing in last place 7 of those 8 years and didn’t win more then 70 games in any of those seasons, things started to change in 2006 when they hired Andrew Friedman to be the GM and Executive VP of baseball operations. He then Hired one of the best mangers in baseball Joe Maddon in 2006 and 2007 the Rays continued to struggle but in 2008 everything came together, their young talent of Evan Longoria, David Price, Carl Crawford, BJ Upton, James Shields and Matt Garza started emerge and with the help of veteran Carlos Pena the Rays made it always to the World Series that year which they eventually lost to the Phillies in 5 games. In the 5 years after the Rays didn’t not get back to the world series but they made the 3 times in 2010, 2011 and 2013 and in the other 2 years they didn’t make the playoffs they had a winning record. In 2014 it looked like their window of success was closing as they traded their ace David Price to the Tigers and the Trade deadline, also Maddon left to go the Cubs and Friedman left to go the Dodgers. In 2015 the Rays made another great decision Hiring Manger Kevin Cash in his first 3 year didn’t have winning season, but the team was more competitive then people thought winning 80 games in 2015 and 2017. In 2018 the Rays did not have high expectations either when they traded long time 3rd baseman Evan Longoria to the Giants but what no expected that year was the emergence of the one of the best pitchers in baseball in Blake Snell he came out of nowhere to win the Cy Young that year going 21–5 with an ERA over 1.89. Their rotation got even better when they traded Chris Archer to the Pirates for Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows, Glasnow has become the Rays number 2 starter even thou the Rays missed the playoffs they won 90 games that year. In 2019 the Rays improved their rotation even more when they signed veteran Charlie Morton, with a solid rotation and one of the best bullpens in baseball they made it to the division series and lost to the Astros in 5. To become a complete team the Rays need to improve offensively and they didn’t know it at the time but they traded for their best offensive player in Randy Arozarena he’s a had a great postseason and was the biggest reason why the Rays got by the Yankees and Astros and Advanced to the World Series. Lastly even if the Rays don’t win the world series, they will still be considered one of the top organizations in baseball.
