Chandler Simpson has built his game on the stuff that doesn’t always jump off a highlight reel, but absolutely changes a game. He puts the ball in play, he doesn’t strike out much, and once he reaches base, he becomes a problem. Now he’s added another line to his résumé: franchise-record holder.
The Rays outfielder quietly passed Jason Tyner for the longest homerless stretch in team history on July 17, when Tampa Bay came back from the All-Star break and Simpson stepped in for his first plate appearance of the second inning. He grounded out, but that trip to the plate was his 797th with the Rays, moving him past Tyner’s long-standing mark.
It’s a strange record, but a real one. Tyner spent his entire Tampa Bay run without a home run, batting .261/.298/.303 over parts of four seasons.
He became popular for his gritty style, and the organization even lined up a bobblehead day for him on June 2. Tyner got an early look at the giveaway in April 2002 and said, “It looked all right.
I’m sure I’ll get ragged about it. Oh well.”
The bobblehead promotion never played out the way the club planned. Tyner was optioned to Triple-A on May 28, just before the scheduled day, after opening the season with a rough .214/.249/.238 line over 180 plate appearances.
The Rays also had to scrap a Toby Hall bobblehead day planned for the same date, though those dolls had not yet been made. Tyner’s bobbleheads, meanwhile, had already arrived at Tropicana Field, and the team later donated all 10,000 to the Pinellas Education Foundation.
Tyner’s path after that was up and down. He bounced between the majors and minors in 2003, got only 102 plate appearances that season, and was claimed off waivers by Texas that December.
He didn’t return to the big leagues until 2005 with the Twins, then put together his best year in 2006 with 1.5 fWAR, still without leaving the yard. His lone home run finally came on July 28, 2007, when he sent a ball barely over the right-field fence for the only homer of his career in 1,318 plate appearances.
He later finished with Cleveland, retired soon after, and has since moved into coaching as the head baseball coach at Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School.
Simpson’s own production has made him more than just a quirky record-breaker. The 25-year-old entered Saturday night hitting .296/.325/.353 in his first two big league seasons, with a 9.4% career strikeout rate and a 90.5% contact rate. Since the start of the 2025 season, among hitters with at least 800 plate appearances, he ranks seventh in average, fifth in strikeout rate, and third in contact rate.
His speed has been just as important. Simpson already has 74 stolen bases since his debut, which leaves him two behind the MLB lead over that span, held by former Rays shortstop Jose Caballero. Baseball Savant says he provides the most baserunning value of any player in the game.
He’s also kept improving in the outfield. After an adventurous learning curve with the Rays last season, Simpson has worked his way into becoming a plus defender. He owns a 93rd percentile OAA and sits among the top half of outfielders with five defensive runs saved this season.
Simpson recently reached 100 hits and 30 stolen bases for the season, putting him in a small group of just 13 players to hit those marks across the first two seasons of their careers. That list includes Bobby Witt Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, and Paul Molitor.
And unlike Tyner, Simpson has already passed the career fWAR mark too, sitting at 2.4. He’s done that while sticking around long enough to see his bobblehead handed out at Tropicana Field.
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