Inside The Rays

The Rays return to the postseason for the first time since 2023, and they face off against the New York Yankees in a potential five-game American League Division Series. The series starts with Drew Rasmussen and Gerrit Cole taking the mound, with Tropicana Field expected to have at least 40,000 fans and prepaid parking already sold out. It should be absolutely electric at Tropicana Field, with two of the best arms in the postseason at the helm for their respective teams. We break down the matchups and rosters, give our thoughts on the X-factors, and explain why this could potentially be the best series of the playoffs.

In this episode we broke down the full West Coast road trip, recapping every game of the Mariners and Athletics series, including the 8-run 8th inning comeback, Taylor Walls' multi-home run game, Junior Caminero tying the major league home run lead, and Nick Martinez's complete game. we also touch on the Rays having five prospects in the MLB Pipeline Top 100, including Grady Emerson debuting at No. 10.

In this episode we break down all 3 games of the Rays-Rockies series, including Liam Hicks’ grand slam in his Rays debut, Tyler Wells’ 4-strikeout debut, Freddy Peralta’s first start in a Rays uniform, and a look at what Jack Suwinski has done in Triple-A. We also touch on Junior Caminero’s 3-home run series at Coors Field and Theo Gillen’s ridiculous numbers in Double-A. All of that plus the full trade deadline breakdown.

The Rays have been firing on all cylinders over the last few series. They took 3/4 against the Blue Jays and swept the Guardians thanks to strong performances from Drew Rasmussen, Nick Martinez, and Shane McClanahan. The offense got contributions from 1-9 and the pen was able to keep everything in order. This team can get real dangerous with a few moves before the August 3rd deadline.

The Rays had a really interesting draft. It consisted of high upside prep arms, tall college RHP flirting with triple digits, and tooled up athletes. They killed it, especially with polished mechanical pitchers that are good movers while being able extremely projectable. However, their draft was headlined by Gatorade Male Player of the Year, Grady Emerson. He displays a connected swing & stays extremely balanced with his lower half. He stands 6'3" with more physical projection left and makes excellent In-Zone Swing decisions. He's an easy plus defender, great athlete, & has a knack for the balls to the opposite field. He's also trending towards 200 lbs now. We also touched on the trade deadline, the organization as a whole, and talked about the upcoming Red Sox series.

The MLB Draft is tomorrow, and it is maybe the most exciting part of an MLB season, especially when you are the best team in the American League. We highlighted the top three consensus names and broke down some advanced data from their 2026 seasons.

Roch Cholowsky is a premium defender at shortstop who, in 61 games, hit 21 home runs with 36 walks to 36 strikeouts while slashing .320/.452/.636 with a 1.088 OPS and a 146 wRC+. He has been the consensus first overall pick for the last several months up until the last couple weeks, depending on which outlet you look at. It is really hard to find a flaw in his game on either side of the ball.

Grady Emerson brings an extremely smooth left-handed swing, with the ability to let the ball travel and shoot offerings the other way into the gap. He is a fluid mover at shortstop with lateral range that projects to improve as he develops physically. Already standing at 6'3"/185, he has plenty of room to add strength once he enters an MLB development program. Emerson has an advanced understanding of the strike zone with a high contact floor, and as his body matures, the game power should follow.

Vahn Lackey looks to be one of the most complete catchers to enter the draft since Buster Posey. In 61 games, he hit 20 home runs with 50 walks to just 38 strikeouts while slashing .397/.519/.772 with a 1.291 OPS. He stole 15 bases as a catcher and is a well-rounded defender with consistent pop times under 1.90. By all accounts, he is a great person, a hard worker, and one of the best characters in this draft class.

It is hard to decide which direction the Rays will go, but you really cannot go wrong with any of these top three options.

The Rays were able to split the series against the Yankees with strong pitching performances from Shane McClanahan, Ian Seymour, and Griffin Jax. For McClanahan, it was a season-high in innings and the most emotional he has been on a mound this season. His Changeup had a 60% whiff%, and he held an Avg EV of just 73.4 MPH. He is now tied for second in Rays history for most starts with six or more innings pitched, four or fewer hits allowed, five or more strikeouts, and no walks. Ian Seymour collected a career-high 12 strikeouts and had Whiff rates over 45% on his 4-Seam and Changeup. It was the first time in Yankees history they have struck out 12 times against one pitcher through the first five innings of a game. Griffin Jax, aside from one mistake pitch, also had a strong outing with 10 strikeouts over 16 whiffs.

On the offensive side, Yandy Díaz had a four-hit game in Game 3, his 11th career game with Tampa Bay with at least four hits, the second-best mark in Rays history. It was also his 290th career game with the Rays in which he recorded a multi-hit effort, the third-best mark in franchise history. In Game 4, Junior Caminero hit his 27th home run of the season on a pitch that isn't a strike; he sends it 438 feet the other way at 108.3 MPH. There are players who won't pull a ball 438 feet in their career, let alone go the other way. Chandler Simpson has been swinging the bat better over the last couple of weeks, and after his second triple yesterday, he was hitting .362 over his last 16 games with four walks and just three strikeouts.

The Rays now take on the Seattle Mariners for their final series before the All Star break, with Yandy Díaz, Junior Caminero, Bryan Baker, and Drew Rasmussen representing them in Philadelphia.

Junior Caminero and Drew Rasmussen capture the AL Player and Pitcher of the Month; the Rays have won 8 straight games and are now 4 games up in the AL East. Junior Caminero had one of the best stretches we have ever seen in Rays history: 9 HR in his last 8 games exiting game 2, and is now the youngest player since 1900 to have a 6-game HR streak, passing Griffey. He's trending to be the 6th player in MLB history to have 300+ hits, 75+ HR, and fewer than 240 Ks before turning 23 years old, joining Mel Ott, Al Kaline, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, and Bob Horner. It was awesome to see Chandler Simpson showing some life at the plate and on the bases. Cedric Mullins since May 1st: has 8 HR and a 125 wRC+ with a .800 OPS and a .358 OBP. Shane McClanahan had a nice bounce-back outing using his changeup more; Ian Seymour had another unbelievable start against the Royals, and Griffin Jax did too. In 51 innings since April 26th, he has a 2.65 ERA — 16th best mark in baseball over that time and 2 places behind Drew Rasmussen's 2.44. The Rays are now in Houston and play the Astros for a 3 game set.

Junior Caminero put on one of the best offensive displays in Rays franchise history over the last week, and with no surprise, took home AL Player of the Week. He joins Bryce Harper, Willie Horton, and Boog Powell as the only players under 23 to hit 7 or more home runs in a 6-game span, and since the start of May, his 1.002 OPS ranks ahead of Nick Kurtz (.996) and Shohei Ohtani (.983) for best in baseball. We also talked about contributions from the whole lineup, a bunch of reinforcements that should come back soon, and touched on some deadline thoughts that we'll get into more once the 2026 MLB Draft is over. It was an action-packed episode.

The Rays split the Royals series after dropping the first 2 games. Junior Caminero had 3 HRs, and the Rays pitching staff carried a no hitter into the 9th inning. Ian Seymour had arguably the best game of his career, and Casey Legumina got the first 4 outs of the game. The trio continues to be one of the best in. the sport, as Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda were hitting the ball all over the field, and Junior Caminero displayed his elite power. The bullpen continues their strong performance lately. The Rays will finish the homestand playing a 3 game set against the Diamondbacks.