This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BALTIMORE -- If anybody understands the importance of pitching depth, it’s the Rays.

They used 41 arms in 2021, and only three were position players. They sent 38 different pitchers to the mound last season. Nearly 40 games into this season, they’ve already called upon 22 different pitchers (plus first baseman/outfielder Luke Raley).

“It takes a little bit of creativity, but, I mean, for a fairly long period of time, the next-man-up philosophy has been a big contributing factor to some of the success that we've had over the years,” pitching coach Kyle Snyder said. “I don't see this year much different than that.”

Still, this season has already thrown a bunch of curveballs at the Rays’ front office, coaching staff and their pitching plans for the season.

Tyler Glasnow went down in Spring Training and likely has two more Minor League rehab starts between him and his season debut. Jeffrey Springs is out for the season. Reliever Shawn Armstrong still hasn’t pitched due to a neck issue. Zach Eflin and Ryan Thompson each spent a little time on the injured list. They already knew they’d be without Andrew Kittredge for the first half and Shane Baz for the season.

On April 30, the Rays optioned reliever Calvin Faucher to Triple-A Durham to focus on his conditioning between outings. On Wednesday, they lost high-leverage reliever Pete Fairbanks to the IL. Finally, on Sunday, lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger went down with a right knee injury that was revealed on Monday to be a season-ending ACL issue.

But hey, take a quick look at the stats. Despite all the injuries and best-laid plans gone awry, the Rays entered play Tuesday leading the Majors with a 2.93 ERA, a .209 opponents average and seven shutouts. Yes, as many shutouts pitched as games lost.

“It's kind of that next-man-up mentality,” said high-leverage reliever Jason Adam, who recorded his fourth save Monday while pitching for the fourth time in the last five days and the fifth time in the last seven days. “We know the Rays are great at maximizing our stuff and maximizing the situations for us, so it doesn't matter who's down there.

“We trust them to get the job done. Big situation, up by a lot, down by a lot, close game -- we don't care. We're going to execute our game plan. And, I think over the course of the year, it's going to play out well.”

It plays out in different ways. The same day they put Fairbanks on the IL, for instance, they made a minor cash trade for veteran Chase Anderson, called him up from Triple-A and watched him pitch three innings to secure his first big league save.

As Adam put it: “Learn his name, and then go watch him dominate.”

Or it might mean much more high-leverage work than expected for someone such as Rule 5 rookie Kevin Kelly, who took a loss Saturday in a high-leverage spot against the Yankees, then immediately bounced back Monday by striking out two of the three hitters he faced in a clean eighth to help the Rays beat the Orioles, 3-0.

“I feel like we have been piecing this together, and the guys down there have done a good job of holding the fort down, knowing that we're battling through some injuries,” manager Kevin Cash said. “[We will] continue mixing and matching, and hopefully guys can continue coming in and throwing strikes.”