What Do the Rays Still Need to Add This Offseason?
The Rays have already had a busy offseason, but there's still more work to do. How can they go about improving on their 77-win showing in 2025?
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The 2025 campaign was a weird one for the Tampa Bay Rays, who called a minor league ballpark home all year. As we march on through the offseason, the team has a new owner and seems to be inching closer to finalizing plans to return to Tropicana Field to start the 2026 season.
This should have followers of the Rays feeling good, but their team’s activity early on in the offseason should have them feeling even better.
While the club has certainly not been baseball’s most active, they’ve done a solid job at upgrading around the edges, which is typically what the Rays do best. To date, Cedric Mullins and Steven Matz have been brought abord via free agency; Ryan Vilade, Osvaldo Bido, and Jake Fraley have been claimed on waivers; and Yoendrys Gomez was acquired in a trade.
Speaking of trades, the Rays took the industry by storm a few days ago when they lined up for two significant swaps in under an hour. Shane Baz and Brandon Lowe (along with a few other players with shorter tenures on the team) were shipped out. Baz went to Baltimore for a huge haul of prospects, while Lowe was shipped to the Pirates in an ever-exciting three-team swap.
When you put the entire group of newcomers together, it appears the Rays have both filled organizational holes while simultaneously creating new ones. Fear not, though; this is a team that excels when put into situations exactly like this one.
Let’s take a look around the team’s depth chart and see which spots still need work the most as we inch closer to the new year.
Find a Way to Upgrade Behind the Plate
For years (and years…and years…), the Rays have desperately needed an upgrade behind the plate. Seriously, they have only had two catchers since they became a franchise in 1998 (min. 400 PA) register a wRC+ north of 100, which is league average.
- John Jaso (2010, 115 wRC+)
- Dioner Navarro (2008, 105 wRC+)
End of list.
When you change the parameters to 300 PA, the list grows to six catchers, but none since Mike Zunino pulled it off in 2021. His 133 wRC+ that year was highly impressive from a catcher, but he struck out over 35% of the time. This made his 33 home runs and shockingly high production hard to consistently stomach from Rays fans.
In 2025 specifically, the Rays had five different players register at least one plate appearance as a catcher. Danny Jansen, who made it into 73 games to lead the group, had a 98 wRC+ and was a major three-true-outcomes type of player. That continued a troubling trend for Rays catchers that goes back years.
Fortunately, there are a few players out there that could represent true upgrades for the Rays.
Which Players Could the Rays Target?
On the free agent market, it’s hard to point to anybody but J.T. Realmuto for the Rays to chase after. He’s been the best-available catcher all offseason, and while the likes of Jansen, James McCann, Yohel Pozo, and Andrew Knizner have found new homes, the man at the top of the list remains unemployed.
Realmuto, 34, saw his offensive game decline a bit this past year, but he still posted 2.1 fWAR while hitting 12 home runs, driving in 52, and sporting a 94 wRC+. He was pretty close to average across the board, but he’s only one year removed from being a much better producer.
The Rays could easily bring Realmuto in on a two-year contract and have him be the best catcher they’ve had in years. As is typically the case with players who near their mid-30s, he’s not in his prime anymore, but he’s an obvious upgrade nonetheless.
On the trade front, two players come to mind: Liam Hicks (MIA) and Dalton Rushing (LAD).
The Marlins are inching closer to contention and they have a need for a player like Yandy Diaz, who the Rays are reportedly willing to move. What if the two Floridian teams lined up on a deal that helped the Rays land a catcher and gave the Marlins their best run-producer? I’m in.
Hicks, 26, was a major Rule 5 success for the Marlins this past year. He doesn’t have a whole lot of pop in his bat, but he drove in 45 runs while sporting an 11% walk rate to pair with a 14.4% strikeout rate. His 98 wRC+ was right in line with Jansen’s while he was with the Rays, and he’s got age on his side.
Rushing, a longtime blocked prospect of the Dodgers, isn’t going to get full-time reps behind the plate for them as long as Will Smith is on the roster (which is going to be a long, long time). Rushing’s done nothing but rake on his ascent up the minor league ladder and should have any teams looking for an offensive-oriented catcher salivating.
While he hit just for home runs and had a 62 wRC+ in a 53-game cameo this past year in the big leagues, his 143 wRC+ in Triple-A looks much better. The 26 home runs and 85 RBI he had in 2024 (146 wRC+) looks even better than that.
Rushing isn’t much of a defender behind the plate, but he can seriously swing it. The Rays can afford to bring him in via trade and roster him while he comes into his own at the big league level. Oft-used backup to Nick Fortes while Rushing figures out big league pitching? Sure. Eventual starter if/when he finds his stride? You bet.
Acquire a Right-Handed Hitting Outfielder
Taking a look at the Rays’ projected lineup (and bench) if the 2026 season started today, there are a whole lot of left-handed bats. Junior Caminero, a right-handed swinging slugger, is their best power hitter, but otherwise you’re looking at a ton of lefties.
Sure, Vilade and Jonny DeLuca are on hand as platoon bats for any of Mullins, Josh Lowe, and/or Chandler Simpson, but they’re not necessarily needle-movers. Vilade currently sports a career wRC+ of 29 against LHP, while DeLuca is at 75 for his career.
The need for more is apparent.
The very best outfielders available on the free-agent market right now are Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger, who are both left-handed swingers. Miguel Andujar, Austin Hays, Harrison Bader, and even Randal Grichuk are all right-handed bats who are going to cost significantly less than the top names.
The Rays aren’t going to go out and spend a ton of money (although they’ve occasionally been willing to at least make big offers to free agents), so any of this bunch would fit nicely. Andujar is solely a left fielder, while Hays and Grichuk are also limited to the corners.
This leads me to Bader, who I believe would be the best fit for this Rays team. He’s not going to break the bank, he’s an incredible defender all over the outfield, and is coming off of the best season of his nine-year career.
Bader, 31, split his 2025 campaign between the Twins and Phillies and was at his very best. In 146 games, he hit 17 home runs, drove in 54, stole 11 bases, and posted a 122 wRC+. This was all while posting 6 Defensive Runs Saved and 3 Outs Above Average in a full-time center field role.
Having a player who can swing it, can steal bases, and play Gold Glove-caliber defense in center field is extremely valuable. This in mind, Bader’s still not going to command a wild amount of money in free agency. In fact, we’ve got him predicted to land a contract between one a three years at an AAV of between $12 and $17 million.
Sign An Innings Eater For the Rotation
When the Rays traded Baz, this need got underlined even more. If the season started today, Matz would be pushed from a relief role, where he excelled on the Cardinals last year, back to the rotation. This is by no means the end of the world, but he’s going to need to be built up to a full-time starter’s workload again, and this feels like an obvious case of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
According to Rays’ president of baseball operations Erik Neander, Matz wants to start, though, and will be given a shot at a rotation spot in spring. More power to him if he wants this role back, but Matz was great as a full-time reliever last year. Instead of shifting his role around again, why not target one (or at this point, two) veteran innings-eaters to fill out your rotation?
Fortunately for the Rays, there are still options on the open market that are both A.) going to be cheap and B.) still effective pitchers.
Top fits: Zack Littell, Patrick Corbin (L), Justin Verlander, Zach Eflin
On the Rays, Littell is a known commodity. The right-hander has already reportedly been receiving interest from the club on a reunion after having previously spent parts of the past three years in Tampa.
Littell, 30, saw his career do a complete turnaround after joining the Rays via waiver claim in 2023. He went from a decent reliever to a great starter seemingly overnight, and posted a combined 3.68 ERA and 111 ERA+ across 65 starts (and eight relief outings) as a member of the Rays.
The past few seasons haven’t been all that kind to Corbin, but he’s been just about as durable as they come despite the results. He’s made 30 or more starts in every non-COVID year dating all the way back to 2017, which is not something very many pitchers can say. As a matter of fact, he leads the way in games started dating back to 2017.
Corbin’s six-year stint on the Nationals was … not great, to say the least. He regularly looked like the worst pitcher in the game and led the league in losses three straight years. In 2025, he began to show a bit of potential once again, and ultimately finished with an ERA that was over a full run lower than it was the year prior. His ERA+ raised from 72 to 83 and his FIP also came down 16 points.
There were a few random months where Corbin seemed to have been on the cusp of figuring it out, highlighted by a 2.30 ERA across five July starts. With the Rays being where pitchers go to find themselves, this could be a match made in heaven, even if it’s only on a single-year pact.
Verlander, who will be 43 by the time Opening Day comes around, is obviously near the end of his playing career. From here on out, he’s only going to want to sign with a contender, so it’s not exactly a guarantee he’d give the Rays a look.
Still, he turned in an outstanding year in 2025, and got even better as the season marched on. Miraculously, the ageless wonder turned in a sterling 2.99 ERA across 14 second-half starts, and he made at least 29 starts for the first time since 2019. Verlander is an obvious Hall of Famer once he hangs it up.
The Rays love familiarity more than most teams, so Eflin could be another player they look to bring back into the fold. The right-hander signed a three-year contract with the team only to be traded halfway through and spend the second half on the division rival Orioles.
Over the course of that contract, Eflin posted a 3.95 ERA and 3.76 FIP while making 28 or more starts in the first two years. The 2025 campaign saw him miss the second half due to a lumbar microdiscectomy procedure.
Written by
Eric Treuden (troy-din) is one of Just Baseball's Managing Editors and Facebook manager. After previous stops at FanSided's news desk, Yardbarker, and Jays Journal, he has…