PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The Rays are talking a lot these days about raising bars.
In terms of the talent they have on their roster. The quality of players, such as Freddie Freeman, they are pursuing as additions. And their expectations and ultimate goal for this season.
Baseball operations president Erik Neander addressed the topic in detail during Tuesday’s annual spring opening media conference.
Manager Kevin Cash made it simple as he wrapped up Monday’s meeting with the full team:
“We’re built to win.”
When you’ve made the playoffs for three straight years (after just missing in 2018), when you’ve got the best record in the American League (236-148, .615) over that span, and when you’ve got a core of talented young impact players with more coming from a deep farm system, you can think that way.
While it’s not quite a Yankees-like “World Series or bust” mantra, it’s clear the Rays go into this season focused solely on raising something else:
A championship banner.
“We got a taste of the World Series in 2020; it had been some time (since 2008),” Neander said. “Last year, we had a wildly successful regular season, a disappointing postseason. We are trying to find a way to take that last step that this organization hasn’t found a way to get done yet.”
In 2019, the Rays — in their first playoff appearance after a five-year absence — got beat in a five-game first round by the eventual American League champion Astros. In 2020, they traversed the COVID-19-impacted schedule to reach the World Series but lost to the Dodgers in six games. And in 2021, they won an AL-most 100 games and a second straight East division title, but were ousted by the wild-card Red Sox in a four-game Division Series.
Just about every team is optimistic early, even in a condensed spring training, but the Rays feel legitimately confident in their championship chances.
That’s partly due to the what was learned (good and bad) last year by their top-shelf, but still relatively young players, such as Randy Arozarena, Shane Baz, Wander Franco, Shane McClanahan, Luis Patino and others.
“A lot of them were young and gained invaluable experience,” Neander said. “And so far, what we’ve seen in camp, (we) have every reason to believe that they’re on their way up.”
And it’s also partly due to the moves they made early in the offseason, targeting and being aggressive in signing the veteran starter (Corey Kluber) and versatile lefty reliever (Brooks Raley) they felt they needed.
“Those were, in our opinion, the most acute needs we had,” Neander said. “We satisfied them early.”
Maybe the rest has yet to be determined, as they are at least in the conversation for some of the most impactful players still available: A’s third baseman Matt Chapman via trade, Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki and Freeman, the longtime Braves star first baseman.
Realistically, it would be a shock if the Rays won the bidding for any of them.
But just that they‘re trying, especially since they typically have one of the lowest payrolls in the majors, illustrates the raised level they feel justified in shopping at.
“It’s a pretty high bar to upgrade the group we have based on — for better, for worse — our assessments here,” Neander said. “But we’re going to use the time to see if there’s anything out there that makes sense. But we feel like this is a really complete group as is, and I think last year plus some of the additions that we made in ‘Offseason Part I’ should point to that.”
There could be a case made that if the Rays truly want to win a World Series and really feel one of the available players could be the key addition that puts them over the top, they should go “all in” and spend the money or trade the prospects to get him.
But the Rays feel there is a better way to get there.
“We believe our best chance to win a World Series is to have as many chances to do that as possible,” Neander said. “Maybe that’s not quite so ‘all in,’ but if we continue to raise the bar with our group, and we have a shot in as many years as possible, eventually we feel like we’re going to knock that door down.”
And raise that banner up.
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