Tampa Bay Rays Lineup Still Lacking Pop in the Early Going

It might be a small sample size, but the Tampa Bay Rays are showing similar signs within their lineup as last year. The Rays have always been a team that is built more around pitching and have never really had one of the best lineups, over an entire season, in baseball. Usually, every year we see the same scenario play out: all or nothing.

Dating back to the 2015 regular season, the Rays have always ranked in the bottom third in runs scored, bottom third in hits with the exception of during the 2015 regular season when they finished 15th, and bottom half in on-base percentage. On the other hand, when it comes to home runs, Tampa Bay is not lacking. In 2016 and last year, the Rays ranked 6th in home runs, while during the 2015, they were 14th. Tampa Bay also has no problems in slugging percentage as they ranked in the top half all three seasons besides last year when they were 20th in the league with a .422 value.

Even though it's only been 7 games so far this season, the numbers still remain bleak and don't seem to be heading in a positive direction here in the early going. Right now over the span of 229 at bats, Tampa Bay ranks 28th with 17 runs scored, come in 29th with a .253 on-base percentage ahead of only the Cleveland Indians, and rank 13th in strikeouts with 67.

After hearing all of that, you might say, "Well it is only a small sample size and Tampa Bay wasn't expected to contend anyways, so whats the big deal?" Well, the problem is that the hitting philosophies for the Rays appear to remain unchanged and offense has always been the thing holding the team back from being competitive amid a tough American League East division. Granted, Tampa Bay doesn't have nearly the same amount of resources as the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, or even the Toronto Blue Jays do, but they still need to focus on putting the ball in play and finding ways to manufacture runs.

During last season, there were stretches where the Rays scored virtually no runs and had trouble at the plate even when they were faced with hitting scenarios that favored them. For example, the Rays were 14th in runs scored in April last year with 111 over 882 at bats, before moving up to 5th in the league for May with 154, and tumbling back down to 15th in the league for June with 130 runs scored. It didn't stop there either as Tampa Bay finished the month of July with only 96 runs scored over 827 at bats, good enough for 5th worst in the league, and came in dead last in August with 94 runs scored in the span of 930 at bats.

Furthermore, with Runners In Scoring Position (RISP), Tampa Bay ranked 29th in the league with 433 runs scored over the course of 1,174 at bats and were 19th with 98 runs scored when the bases were loaded. In addition, 149 of their total runs came when they had no runners on base, which was 2nd best in the league, and when they had runners on base, they scored a total of 545 runs, putting them once again in 29th place ahead of only the San Diego Padres.

This season, it's certainly not going to be easy for Tampa Bay to work on improving those numbers because they have a different looking lineup now thanks to a multitude of different moves the team made this past offseason. Tampa Bay said goodbye to their franchise icon in third baseman, Evan Longoria, lost their home runs leader Logan Morrison, who hit 38 last season, to free agency, and Designated for Assignment easily their best hitter, Corey Dickerson, who was later claimed by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Now that all three of those players are gone, it's up to players like Kevin Kiermaier, Matt Duffy, and Denard Span to make up for the lack of offense and even that's not that impressive. During his career, Kiermaier has been known more for his defense than offense, Matt Duffy missed all of last season recovering from achilles surgery and has never had a batting average above .300 during his 4 years in the big leagues, and Denard Span is 34 years old and likely no longer going to perform at the level that he once did.

From the outside, it's hard to suggest ways that Tampa Bay can work on improving their offense, especially since none of us know the type of hitting program that they have in place, but if the Rays want to be a contender and remain relevant, offense is something they are going to have to focus on. While it is still in the early going and we only have a small sample size to make a judgment on for this year, the numbers thus far aren't that promising and are somewhat concerning.

Tampa Bay might be most noted for their pitching depth throughout the organization, but without a deep, impactful lineup, it will be a while before they are relevant again amid a tough division unless they do something drastic to change their approach at the plate as a team and as an organization.