Tampa Bay Rays Improve Stock After Climbing Back to .500
The Tampa Bay Rays came out of the game hot with a 4-2 record through their first two series of the year. That all came crashing down soon after, however, with two separate four-game losing streaks.
Those struggles may be a thing of the past for the Rays, who enter Tuesday on a five-game winning streak, riding high after sweeping the San Diego Padres over the weekend.
The recent run of success has seen the team's stock steadily rise. Now back at .500 with a 14-14 record, the Athletic ranked Tampa Bay as the 16th best team in MLB, after placing only 20th last week.
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"The one player in baseball putting his barrel on the ball at a higher rate than Judge?" writes Tim Britton. "That would be Morel, whose ability to square the ball up has kept him a viable big-league hitter despite a strikeout rate above 40 percent. While Morel needs to keep hitting the ball this hard when he does make contact, the rewards for doing so should increase. Just three of his 11 barrels have left the yard; over the past two seasons, more than half of his barrels went for homers."
The Rays' third baseman does not lack for power, it has just not shown up as expected to this point in the season. Christopher Morel has 66 career home runs across 1,552 plate appearances and has hit them at a 4.3 percent clip throughout his career. This year, that home run rate sits at "only" 3.4 percent.
For what it is worth, this is the same home run rate he finished the 2024 campaign with across his time with the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Rays. But with his ability to put the barrel on the ball with ease, you still expect many more home runs to come from Morel.
Once the balls Morel barrels begin to leave the yard at a higher rate than they have to this point, the Rays could be off to the races. The American League East is more open for the taking than people think, and the climb back to .500 could be just the beginning for this young squad.
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