By The season is still young. We are only six games into the 2026 season. But we have seen enough to start getting a feel for how this Rays team will perform in 2026.
There have been positives, some negatives, and some surprises over the first six games with the Rays going 2-4.
The Good:
-The Offense: The offense has been better than advertised. The Rays are third in the American League in batting with a .274 batting average.
The team combined for 41 hits in their three-game series at St Louis to begin the season, averaging over 13 hits a game.
However, the team could not maintain that torrid pace, getting just 19 hits over the three games in Milwaukee.
Nick Fortes is hitting .350 with a homer and 4RBI’s and is off to a hot start. Last season, Fortes hit .219, collecting just 50 hits in 218 at-bats.
Yandy Diaz has started the season strong, hitting .429 with 2 homers and 8 RBI’s.
Jonathan Aranda is off to a good start, hitting .304 and tied with the team lead in home runs with two.
Chandler Simpson is hitting .476 and has had a hit in every game. Simpson worked extremely hard on his bunting this offseason to try to generate more infield hits, and so far, so good, as Simpson has ten hits on the season.
Ben Williamson is hitting .308, Jonny DeLuca is hitting .357, and Jake Fraley checks in at .308.
Disappointments:
Junior Camienero: he is hitting .238 but has struck out in some big spots early this season. Granted, pitchers are being more careful, pitching to Camienero, and are not giving him good pitches to hit at times.
Cedric Mullins: After a disappointing 2025 campaign, Mullins has just one hit in 21 at-bats this season.
Richie Palacios: The Rays are counting on Palacios to be a key piece on the team because of his ability to play multiple positions. But Palacios is still looking for his first of the season in 8 at-bats.
Pitcher Gavin Jax: Jax has imploded in two games, leading to two losses early in the season. In two innings of work, Jax has been blasted for five hits and given up five runs with a 22.50 ERA.
Mason Englert has been just as bad, giving up four runs and five hits in two innings. Englert has an ERA of 18.00.
Yoendrys Gomez, Bryan Baker, and Kevin Kelly have been the only bullpen pitchers with any consistency this season.
The Bullpen as a whole has been a huge disappointment. The Rays were counting on the bullpen to be a strength of this team, and it has been anything but to start the season.
The Rays will need to see a huge improvement overall from the bullpen pitchers, or that Durham shuffle may get going quicker than we thought.
Starting pitching has been solid to begin the season, especially the first start of Shane McClanahan.
McClanahan, who took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, gave up three runs and did not factor in the decision in the Rays’ loss in Milwaukee.
The defense, which is usually a strength of this team, has been abysmal to start the season.
The Rays lead the majors with nine errors. They have given up the second-most earned runs with seven.
St. Louis and Milwaukee had no fear of running on the Rays, as the team has allowed ten stolen bases. They have yet to throw out their first baserunner.
Manager Kevin Cash said he is not worried and was quoted in the understatement of the year after an error-filled 8-2 loss to Milwaukee on Wednesday.
“We just haven’t been as good or as crisp as the standard so far.”
With the ten errors made by the Rays’ defense so far, Junior Camienero has five of those errors. He has struggled both offensively and defensively to begin the season, possibly the worst stretch of Camienero’s young career so far.
The good news is that there are still 156 games to play and a lot of baseball left.
The bad news is that if those first six games are an indication of how this season will go, it will be an extremely long season.
