The Rays are one of the more mesmerizing units to project almost every year. Next season should be no exclusion. Tampa Bay led 40 -2 0 in last year’s shortened season, recruiting the postseason as the American League’s top seed. The Rays made good on that status, beating off the Blue Jays, Yankees and Astros in subsequent succession to claim their first pennant in twelve years. A six-game defeat at the entrusts of the Dodgers in the Fall Classic prevented the franchise from their first World Series title, but there’s no doubt the 2020 season was a success.

Whether they follows that up with a quality offseason is debatable. Tampa Bay waned a organization alternative on Charlie Morton and sold away Blake Snell, subtracting two of their top three pitchers. Tyler Glasnow and Ryan Yarbrough are back, likely aided by offseason additives Chris Archer, Rich Hill, Michael Wacha, Collin McHugh and Luis Patino. The bullpen was an area of strength for the Light in 2020. That chassis to again be the case, with Nick Anderson, Pete Fairbanks and Diego Castillo extending a talented radical that propels wildly varying profiles and appendage angles at defending lineups.

There’s a lot more persistence on the position player side. The Rays bring back nine of the ten participates who took at least 100 sheet illusions last year( Hunter Renfroe being the musician who differed ). Yet while the pique was very good during the regular season in 2020, the bats predominantly get cold in the playoffs( with postseason whiz Randy Arozarena an self-evident exception ). Should we expect a return to form from those regulars who propped up a lineup that was the league’s eighth-best( by wRC +) in the regular season? There’s also the potential for baseball’s top potential, Wander Franco, to make an impact this year, although that unsurprisingly won’t be at the start of the season.

Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA organisation foreshadows a season in the 87 -win range; their median outcome has Tampa Bay finishing second in the AL East( behind the Yankees) but sticking a Wild Card spot. FanGraphs’ Depth Charts aren’t as rosy, pegging the Rays at 84 winnings and behind the Yankees, Blue Jays and Red Sox in the department. Splitting the difference, we’ll adjusted the over/ under at 85.5 makes. Should we expect another postseason run for the Rays in 2021?

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