In a Rays season loaded with headline names, the loudest story hasn’t been the only story.
Tampa Bay has been powered by stars all year - Junior Caminero, Yandy Díaz and Jonathan Aranda at the plate, with Liam Hicks now making it four; Drew Rasmussen, Nick Martinez and Shane McClanahan in the rotation; Bryan Baker finishing games; Kevin Kelly setting them up. That kind of top-end talent naturally grabs the spotlight. But what’s made this club stand out is that the support crew has been every bit as important.
A few of those under-the-radar pieces deserve their own shine.
Richie Palacios is one of them. The Rays sent him to Triple-A Durham near the end of Spring Training, and if that move slipped your mind, you’re not alone. Tampa Bay came into the spring expecting Gavin Lux to handle the left-handed second-base job, but Palacios has been the guy all season.
He’s brought energy, defense and enough offense to keep the lineup moving. Entering Tuesday’s series opener against the Blue Jays, Palacios was hitting .242/.344/.358 with a .702 OPS. He had the team’s fourth-most walks with 38 despite ranking seventh in plate appearances, and he was tied for sixth in RBIs with 36 while sitting fifth in steals with 11.
“We probably don't talk about him enough, how valuable he's been for us and the defense that he's played and the amount of big hits he's come up with,” manager Kevin Cash said. “[He’s been] right in the middle of a lot of our big rallies. It seems like Richie does a lot of good things for us.”
Ryan Vilade has carved out his own lane, and it’s a useful one.
Sunday at Tropicana Field, even in a loss, he showed exactly why the Rays keep finding ways to use him. First, he ran down Gunnar Henderson’s line drive deep in the right-field corner, took a hard collision with the fence, and still managed to throw back to first for an inning-ending double play. Then, three innings later, he put Tampa Bay on the board by blasting a 2-2 fastball from Trevor Rogers to center field for his 10th homer.
That one traveled 441 feet, which made it the Rays’ seventh-longest home run of the season. Only Junior Caminero has hit six longer balls for Tampa Bay this year.
Vilade doesn’t play every day, and most of his work comes against left-handed pitching. Even so, he’s been one of the club’s most productive bats, trailing only the Rays’ “Big Three” with an .814 OPS. He’s also fifth on the team in home runs with 11 and RBIs with 37.
For a player acquired in a cash deal with the Reds last November and carrying just 28 Major League games of experience, that’s plenty of value.
“He's been such a big component to our team,” Cash said. “He's not in there every day.
He's making the most of his opportunities. … He's done a tremendous job, he's always prepared, and his desire to help the team in any way is off the charts.”
On the pitching side, Ian Seymour has become a real stabilizer.
He had some early-season turbulence out of the bullpen, but over the last two months he’s been a key part of the Rays’ rotation and bulk-inning mix. Since moving into the rotation on June 8, Seymour has posted a 3.58 ERA with 82 strikeouts and 16 walks in 65 1/3 innings. Tampa Bay has gone 8-5 in his 13 outings.
He’s also put together three straight quality starts, and in six of those 13 appearances he’s worked six innings while allowing three runs or fewer. With Shane McClanahan and eventually Griffin Jax expected back in the rotation, Seymour may get squeezed at some point. For now, he’s shown he can handle just about any job they ask of him.
Then there’s Cam Booser, who has quietly helped steady a bullpen that needed it.
Casey Legumina arrived in a late-April trade with the Mariners, and Booser was brought up from Triple-A Durham at the end of May. Since then, Booser has done one thing over and over: get outs.
The 34-year-old has been excellent in pressure spots, giving Cash another dependable left-handed weapon. After collecting four big outs Monday night, Booser owns a 1.84 ERA with 38 strikeouts and six walks in 29 1/3 innings across 28 appearances. Twenty-two of those outings have been scoreless.
Among American League pitchers with at least 20 innings this season, his 0.82 WHIP and strikeout-to-walk ratio both rank fourth-best.
In Other News...
Rays Fans Just Got Their First Real Look At Emersons Path
Grady Emersons first stop as a pro is now clear, and it gives Rays fans their first real glimpse of how the organization plans to handle one of its most important young pieces. The second overall pick in the MLB Draft has been assigned to Single-A Charleston to open his career, a logical landing spot for a player Tampa Bay believes can grow quickly if everything goes to plan. Emerson, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 10 prospect, arrived with plenty of attention after signing for a record high school player bonus.
For the Rays, the assignment is about more than just getting Emerson on the field. Charleston should give him a first taste of the day-to-day demands of pro baseball, from the routine to the travel to the pace of a full minor league season. Tampa Bay has long been deliberate with young talent, and this looks like the start of that familiar process, with each stop designed to help Emerson adjust before the next test arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Ian Seymour Has Become A Rays Rotation Answer Nobody Saw Coming
Ian Seymour arrived in the middle of the season as a bullpen arm, but the Rays saw enough to give him a turn in the rotation and find out what he could do over a longer stretch. Since that first start on June 8, he has looked more and more like a pitcher who belongs in that lane, carrying a 3.58 ERA across 65.1 innings while missing bats at a strong clip and giving Tampa Bay a useful, unexpected option in a role the club did not seem set on when the switch was made.
For the Rays, the significance goes beyond one hot run. With other pitchers back in the mix and the rotation getting fuller, Seymour has still held his spot by keeping hitters off balance and giving the team a steady answer it did not appear to be counting on. What makes this development notable is not just the numbers, but how quickly he turned a trial into something that now looks a lot more permanent. [Read more 🡒]
Theo Gillen Is Giving Rays Fans One More Reason To Pay Attention
Theo Gillen has become one of the more intriguing names in the Rays system, and the buzz is only growing as the season moves along. FanGraphs now ranks him as the organizations top prospect, and he is also being mentioned as a candidate for Minor League Player of the Year, a sign that his performance has started to separate him from the rest of Tampa Bays deep farm group.
There is plenty else to watch behind him, too, with Aidan Cremarosa still holding the top spot among pitchers after his recent return, while other young players continue to move through milestones of their own. Grady Emerson and Blake Morgan have logged recent debuts and promotions, and Xavier Isaac is drawing notice for the way his bat has taken a step forward, which only adds to the sense that the Rays prospect pipeline keeps finding new ways to matter. [Read more 🡒]