'Not where we want to be': Rays' 2024 comes to disappointing end

BOSTON -- For the first time in six seasons, the Rays reached the finish line on the final day of the regular season. They reported to Fenway Park on Sunday knowing that Game 162 would be their last, the end of a disappointing season with no postseason play on deck.

The past five years, the Rays’ season extended into the playoffs. They expected to return this year. Instead, they spent six months hovering around the .500 mark, finished with an 80-82 record and began their offseason after a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park.

“Not where we want to be. Know that we've got some work to do,” manager Kevin Cash said. “I'm confident we will work very hard this offseason and certainly going into Spring Training to find a way to be playing a little bit deeper.”

The Rays were eliminated from the postseason race on Wednesday night, ending their streak of playoff appearances at five. It wound up being their first losing season since 2017, when they also finished 80-82.

Dropping their season finale against the Red Sox also left them in fourth place in the American League East, their lowest finish since a last-place 68-94 campaign in 2016.

“Obviously it's disappointing. I think the biggest disappointment has been not making the playoffs,” said starter Ryan Pepiot, who finished his first season with the Rays with an 8-8 record and a 3.60 ERA in 130 innings over 26 starts. “The goal we set in Spring Training was to make the playoffs, and whatever happens, happens in October. But we fell short of that goal.”

Perhaps a more fitting end for the Rays would have been winning Sunday to finish right at .500. They spent the entire year no more than five games below or three games above that mark and held a .500 record 33 times. They were only the 12th team in the modern era to be within five games of .500 over the course of an entire season -- and just the ninth club to do so over a full 162-game season, according to STATS LLC.

As disappointing as the details were, the Rays’ overarching regret was that their season ended as early as it did.

“It feels super weird not being [in the playoffs],” first baseman Yandy Díaz said through communications director Elvis Martinez. “We’ve been there since 2019, and this is the first year since I’ve been here that we’re not doing that. And it feels weird.

“But I think everybody that’s still here in this room went out there with the mentality of trying to make the playoffs and compete every single day. It just didn’t happen this year for us.”

The Rays were able to find some reason for optimism as the season came to an end, mostly in their excellent second-half pitching and the expected return of ace Shane McClanahan next spring.

With some key arms returning from injuries and others emerging to take on more prominent roles, Tampa Bay put together a 3.14 ERA after the All-Star break, better than every club but Detroit (3.13). Rays starters allowed three earned runs or fewer in 22 straight games to finish the season.

“A lot of young talent, a lot of bright futures, and I would just say experience [that was] needed,” veteran infielder Brandon Lowe said. “I think a lot of guys got that experience to understand what is expected at this level, what this level brings, and this offseason is going to be really good for a lot of these guys.”

But they ultimately fell short, in large part because of a lineup that had too many games like Sunday’s season finale.

The Rays scored only 604 runs (3.73 per game), the lowest full-season total in franchise history, just one year after their highest-scoring season (860 runs, 5.31 per game). Their .668 OPS as a team, better than only the White Sox (.618) this year, was also the lowest mark in club history.

Sunday was the 35th time this season that the Rays scored fewer than two runs. It was their 18th game without an extra-base hit. And it perfectly punctuated a season in which their greatest issue was a lack of timely hitting, as they went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

The Rays hit an MLB-worst .212 with runners in scoring position this season, the third-lowest mark by any team since play-by-play data is available, trailing only the 1969 Padres (.200) and 1981 Mets (.210).

That will be an area of focus from the start of Spring Training, Cash and hitting coach Chad Mottola said, something they’ve already discussed in their end-of-season conversations with players as they look toward a brighter future.

“It provides a platform for a new message, kind of similar to two years ago in Cleveland, that empty feeling we ended the season with,” Mottola said. “This one's been a little slower pain than that abrupt ending in Cleveland. … The expectations are there. We’re all very upset that the season’s over now. Hopefully we won’t go through this again.”