Opening of spring training; what to expect from the Tampa Bay Rays

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – With a sudden flip of the calendar, we hear the ball popping into leather gloves, witness the masterpiece of wooden bats at work, and fans clamoring for autographs from their heroes.

Welcome to spring training, 2025.

With all Major League teams opening camp this week, some have the intriguing task of rebounding from a recent, dismal past. On the top of this list is the Tampa Bay Rays, who finished out of the post-season in 2024 for the first time in six years.

Here’s a team that experienced a sudden fall from grace and struggled for most of last season.

After a 99-63 mark in 2023 and a .611 winning percentage, the Rays dipped to 80-82, a .494 winning percentage, and 14 games behind the New York Yankees, the AL East division champions. With a decline in home runs, batting average, and runs batted in from the 2023 season, the Rays’ demise was as difficult to accept as to explain.

“This is not where we want to be,” said manager Kevin Cash after the 2024 season concluded. “We know we have some work to do and confident we’ll work very hard in this off-season. We’ll go into spring training to find ways to go deeper into the season. I talked to the pitchers separately and the position players, as well. They all agreed that when you get a taste of playing in the post-season it’s a lot of fun. They want to get back there.”

Going forward, Cash and his players now have a month and one-half to right their ship. Ahead, there are significant challenges and the least of all is finding a comfort zone in their new home. For the upcoming 2025 season, the Rays will play their home games in George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa and await repairs to Tropicana Field. Perhaps the biggest adjustment is playing an entire home schedule outside in the heat and humidity of tropical Florida.

Not withstanding such physical challenges, Cash and Erik Neander, the club’s director of baseball operations, must find answers to several nagging questions.

Off season movement

The biggest need for the Rays was improvement behind the plate and how to generate more offense. Transactions in the off-season yielded only marginal results and moved the needle ever so slightly. The Rays were able to find help when catcher Danny Jansen signed on Dec. 12 for two years. For the second year, Jansen, who will be 30 on April 15, can opt-out.

The Rays hope Jansen can supply power and that was a commodity lacking last season. In seven major league seasons with Toronto and Boston, Jansen, a native of Appleton Wisc., batted .220 with 74 homers and drove in 220 runs.

Defensively, the opposition will run and Jansen threw out runners at a 24.1 percentage. The average for a major league catcher is between 25 and 30 percent and Roy Campanella, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1947 to 1957, threw out 57 percent of runners. That’s the highest among catchers in the history of the game.

To address marginal production in the infield, Neander signed shortstop Ha-Seong Kim to a two-year deal for a reported $29 million. In four seasons with San Diego, the 29-year-old hit .242 with 47 homers and 200 runs batted in.

Because of surgery to repair a tear in his labrum, Kim is expected to miss the start of the season and his return is expected sometime in May.

In the meantime, the Rays could experiment and help their top prospect shortstop Carson Williams gain major league experience. One possibility is to have Williams open the season at short and await Kim’s return. This could be one of several decisions on the table over the coming weeks.

While the starting rotation is strong and considered one of the best in the game, the Rays strengthen the mound corps with the addition of right-hander Joe Boyle, who is expected to compete for a slot in the rotation. In the bullpen, Neander added right-handers Tampa native Alex Faedo, Eric Orze, Mike Vasil and Nate Lavender.

It’s time … pitchers and catchers report to the Port Charlotte Sports Park training facility on Tuesday, Feb. 11 and their first workout is scheduled for the next day. Position players report Sunday, Feb. 16 and have their initial workout the following day. The Rays open their spring slate Feb. 21 against the Yankees at Steinbrenner Field. The regular season opener is scheduled for Friday March 28, in their new 2025 home at Steinbrenner Field at 4:10 p. m. against the Colorado Rockies.

The post Opening of spring training; what to expect from the Tampa Bay Rays first appeared on Through The Fence Baseball.

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