As MLB’s second half begins for the Tampa Bay Rays in Boston this weekend, there shouldn’t still be any surprise about their continued success.
When training camp opened for the Rays in Port Charlotte, Florida in February, the club that finished 77–85, good for fourth place in the American League East (and no postseason play) in 2025, wasn’t supposed to be as good as they are coming out of the All-Star Game break.
Coming into Boston on Friday for a three-game series with the hometown Red Sox, Tampa Bay had the best record among all 15 AL clubs. At 56–40, after dropping a split doubleheader on Friday in Boston, the Rays remained at the top of the East division, 2.5 games ahead of the second place New York Yankees.
This was quite an accomplishment given that the Rays rank 26th among all 30 MLB clubs in team payroll at $89,632,420, as opposed to the Yankees who are in third place among spending—topping $300 million.
A multitude of factors are jelling for the Rays that, as a whole, are making them the “little engine that could” in 2026.
Probably the biggest factor for why Tampa Bay is winning this season as compared to the 2025 campaign, and the most obvious, is the club’s return home to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. While a ballpark can’t swing a bat or make a catch, having a permanently closed-roof stadium and a constant temperature between 72 degrees and 74 degrees for 81 games a season, qualifies as a home team advantage.
Running up a 35–15 home record in the season’s first half illustrates how well a club can play when they return to familiar grounds. Last season, when displaced to Tampa’s outdoor Steinbrenner Field due to extensive weather damage sustained by Tropicana Field, including having its dome roof blown off by Hurricane Milton, weather obviously mattered in how the Rays played.
As Fox Sports baseball field reporter Ken Rosenthal surmised, Tampa Bay’s fourth place finish in 2025, missing the postseason, had much to do with having a temporary home in 2025.
“Maybe the biggest difference is that they’re back at Tropicana Field after spending last season outdoors.”
As valuable as a familiar workplace is, having the best record going into Saturday’s matinee at Fenway Park has come with an elite starting pitching rotation, and an offense led by sluggers Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz, and Jonathan Aranda.
Tampa Bay sent three pitchers to represent them at the All-Star Game earlier this week: starters Drew Rasmussen and Nick Martinez, and reliever Bryan Baker. All three were inserted into the game by manager John Schneider who, by leading the Toronto Blue Jays to last year’s American League pennant, assumed the post.
Martinez, who pitched one inning of the American League’s 4–0 victory over the National League’s best, is tied for seventh place among American League pitchers with eight wins. He told reporters earlier this season why the Rays, collectively, have been on a lengthy winning roll.
“We’re playing for each other,” Martinez said. “We’re having a lot of fun doing it. No one is taking any selfish at-bats or thinking of themselves. They’re doing what the game is asked of them. We’re passing the baton and playing for each other.”
Martinez’s eight wins, Rasmussen’s 3.26 ERA (eighth best in American League), Baker’s 25 saves (second best among American League relievers), and reliable, quality starts from Shane McClanahan continue to cause headaches for opposing lineups. When you add Chandler Simpson’s 22 stolen bases (tied for seventh place in the American League), Caminero’s 29 home runs (tied for third best in the American League), Diaz’s .314 batting average (good for second place in the American League), with Aranda’s 64 RBIs (fifth best in the American League), it’s clear that the Rays are getting the most out of their offense and defense.
Earlier this season, Rays manager Kevin Cash echoed Martinez’s take on the club’s unselfishness.
“I do think guys are pushing each other a little bit more,” he said. “There’s a sense of urgency. Not many guys that were with us last year are feeling great about how their seasons ended. There’s an eagerness to go out and perform.”
Since 2020, the pandemic-shortened season that saw the Rays win the American League pennant and play the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, Cash’s club has captured two division titles, qualified for the postseason four times, and experienced only two losing seasons (2024 and 2025). Playing outdoors in 2025 in the “loaned” 10,000-seat Yankees spring training ballpark, Tampa Bay went 41–40 at home in 2025.
From Boston, after Sunday’s series finale, the Rays fly north for a series with the Blue Jays before returning for nine games at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay hits the road on Aug. 3, the trading deadline for all MLB clubs, to be hosted by the Colorado Rockies in Denver.
