The Guardians and Rays may both be operating on tight budgets, but the way they got to the ALCS couldn’t look much more different.
Cleveland punched its ticket by coming back from an 0-2 hole and beating the Chicago White Sox in a five-game series, setting up a matchup with Tampa Bay for a shot at the World Series. On the surface, it’s a meeting of two clubs that have learned how to win without spending like the Yankees, Dodgers or Red Sox. Dig a little deeper, though, and the contrast in team-building jumps out.
ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle laid out just how far apart these two rosters really are.
For the Rays, Doolittle wrote: "Homegrown percentage: 18%," Doolittle writes. "First baseman Jonathan Aranda was an international signing.
Left fielder Chandler Simpson and left-hander Ian Seymour were second-round picks, and shortstop Taylor Walls was taken in the third. That's it.
Everyone else on the Rays' division series roster was acquired from another organization or via free agency."
That number tells the story. Tampa Bay’s roster has been built mostly through trades and outside acquisitions, with only a small slice coming from within the organization. The most notable example is Junior Caminero, a trade addition who came to the Rays from the Guardians in a move that now stands out as a major miss for Cleveland.
The Guardians have taken almost the opposite route.
"Homegrown percentage: 58%," Doolittle writes. "According to Fangraphs, the Guardians' 40-man roster is just 1% behind St. Louis for the highest figure in baseball."
That’s a massive gap - 40 percentage points between the two clubs - and it reflects two very different ideas about how to build a contender. Tampa Bay has leaned on deals and free-agent additions. Cleveland has relied more on draft picks and international signings that turned into core pieces.
Doolittle also noted that 16 of the 26 players on Cleveland’s ALDS roster were developed internally by the Guardians, a total that was nearly as high as the combined homegrown output of the Rays, San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers this postseason.
In Other News...
Rays Open ALCS With A Pitching Edge That Could Change Everything
The American League Championship Series opens Monday at Tropicana Field with Tampa Bay already set up the way it likes to be set up in October: leaning on pitching depth and trying to make the other side solve one matchup after another. Cleveland has announced Triston McKenzie for Game 1, with Parker Messick, Gavin Williams and Daniel Espino among the other rotation possibilities, while the Rays are preparing to go with Drew Rasmussen at the front of a group that has given them a clear edge in recent weeks.
Rasmussen has been effective since the All-Star break, and that matters in a series where every early lead can feel decisive. Tampa Bays plan is built to keep arms fresh and pressure constant, and the way the Rays handle the back end of the rotation could end up being just as important as the first pitch on Monday. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Bring One Big Edge Into ALCS Showdown With Cleveland
The ALCS matchup between the Guardians and Rays brings together two clubs that know each other well, and Tampa Bay arrives with a clear regular-season edge in the background. Clevelands pitching was strong enough to keep the series competitive across the summer, with Parker Messick and Gavin Williams helping anchor that side of the matchup, but the Rays also showed they could control games with their own arms and make life difficult for the Guardians.
Tampa Bays deeper lineup is part of what makes this series feel tilted its way on paper, even before the first pitch of Octobers biggest round. The Rays did enough head-to-head damage to build confidence heading into Cleveland, and their starting pitching gave them a formula that worked when these teams met before. What remains to be seen is whether that edge holds when the stakes rise and the margin for error gets much smaller. [Read more 🡒]
Junior Caminero Is Changing How Fans See The Rays Again
Junior Caminero has become one of the more recognizable young stars in Tampa Bay, and his rise has given the Rays another reminder that their player development machine can still reshape how people view the roster. Signed by the Guardians as an amateur free agent in 2019, Caminero was still just a prospect when he arrived in the Rays system, but he has since grown into a premier third baseman and a legitimate MVP-level presence.
The backstory only adds to the fascination around him, because the move that brought him to Tampa Bay was viewed at the time as a fairly small transaction. Now, with Caminero carrying so much of the clubs future and changing the conversation around the lineup again, it is easy to see why Rays followers keep circling back to the details of how he got here. [Read more 🡒]