Tampa Bay Rays Face a POWER DOWNTURN by Returning to Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays Face a POWER DOWNTURN by Returning to Tropicana Field

The Rays return to Tropicana Field comes with a trade-off. Fewer baseballs leaving the yard. You are Locked on Rays, your daily Tampa Bay Rays podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome into the locked on podcast. Locked on Rays is part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. and we are Kevin and Ulissiz and we are lifelong Rays fans who have been podcasting about these Tampa Bay Rays since 2019. Later on today’s show, the Rays must address the catching position to compete in 2026. In a few minutes, the Rays also must find a way to get more power from the outfield position. But to start, it appears that the Rays are on track to play in Tropicana Field come April. And we’re going to talk about all of that thanks to FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app today. Returning to the Trop means power numbers will worsen for the Rays. We have uh today Mark Topkin uh tweeted half of the new roof panels 12 out of 24 are now installed at Ray’s Tropicana Field. A bulk of the interior work will take place after the roof is finished around the end of the year as of now on schedule for April 6 reopening versus the cup. So we’re thinking that’s great to come back to the trop great to see some progress. Great to know that everything is going uh per schedule, but it also makes us think, how about the power numbers? Because the Rays, I got bad news for people. The Rays ranked 16th in team home runs in 2025, 182. Uh just for reference, the Yankees were number one with 274. Pittsburgh Pirates dead last with 117. Um, isn’t that kind of crazy to you that you have Junior Camroero hit as many home runs as he does, Yandi Diaz hitting a career number of homers in a single season, Brandon Lao knocking out 30. Like, that’s a big chunk of change. And yet, the Rays are still middle of the pack uh in 2025 in the long ball. I guess that means it’s an indictment on the rest of the group that they need to start hitting more home runs, which is in our opinion going to be more challenging because you’re going to more of a pitcher ballpark. Not just more of a pitcher ballpark, but a notoriously uh known pitcher ballpark in Tropicana Field. A new roof and new interior does not mean it’s going to be any less of a pitcher ballpark. It’s the same dimensions, baby. We have data, baby. Uh, in 2024 the race were 28th. Um, the Rays were 25th in 2022. And then you’re saying, “Why did you skip 2021 and 2023, man?” Well, I did because I have a narrative, people. On in 2023, they were sixth and in 2021 they were eighth. And you were like, “Okay, so they can they can hit some boppers.” And yes, but let’s remember that the 2021 Rays offense and the 2023 Rays offense was something that we had never seen before. those teams won 100 games and 99 respectively. So like you’re talking about the best of the best. So you that can’t be the standard. You can’t you can’t have the outliers be the standard on anything because then you’re not really grading yourself correctly. But you can look at historically how the race have operated in Tropic and Field and it’s never at the top end of the home run distribution list. So you talked about career high power from Yanni Diaz. We know that right field short porch loved him in 2025. Brendan Laauo stayed healthy Kevin throughout most of the season to the point that he got 31 home runs again right short right field porch and he hasn’t been that healthy since 2021. So can you do that? So you have two guys there that you’re thinking can they stay healthy? Can they do it again? And those are top two of the top three guys. Yeah. And and let me just say this, okay, the Rays rank 16th in home runs in 2025. I’m fine if they stay in that realm going into the trop. I would actually be impressed if they’re able to hold middle of the pack in dingers, but playing in the trop as compared to Steinbrerfield. But they must make up for it in other ways. In other words, you hope that the trop is more friendly to the Rays flyball pitchers on the roster. You hope that the athletic guys, i.e. Jake Bangum and Chandler Simpson are maybe able to get a few more doubles, a few more triples, maybe the occasional inside the park homer. And you hope that the Trop is not kind to the opposition’s defense because we know how much of a home field advantage it can be for uh the Rays in terms of all the mistakes that opposing defenses make with the dimensions, the catwalk, the artificial turf. Uh just crazy things happen when you have especially a National League team that comes into play and they uh they they look like a mess at times out there. So, you hope that what the Rays don’t provide in additional home runs or maybe a decrease in home runs that is evened out by those other factors. The the Park factors won’t be kind to the long ball necessarily, but maybe it is kind to the guys on our roster who have a tendency to give up home runs and it is kind in the respect that um other defenses will struggle a little bit. Exactly. That that’s what you hope, right? That the inverse. I was also if you if we’re going to talk about home runs and power numbers, I think the name Junior Camero must be named here. He had 45 home runs. I wanted to see some, you know, something like what of the pie chart. You know, I love pie charts, Kev. Lockdown race people know I love pie charts. Well, I wanted to see the distribution here. And Junior had 24.7% of the race home runs. And I did some quick math. That is very similar to what big dumpers percentage is with the Mariners. That’s how important Junior Camero is to the race home run numbers. Like if if there was ever an issue health-wise with Junior Cimeo next year, the production in the power numbers would be incredibly scary because I will say it again, he had the same very close percentage. I think Junior had 24.7 and and Cal had about like 25.1. So basically, if you round each number, 25% that’s how important Junior is. Just like a guy who had 60 home runs in a home run hitting club, they had the same percentage. So it let’s just be aware aware that if this is not addressed, going to the to Tropicana Field will worsen the raise power numbers. Yeah. And that’s a lot of quite frankly pressure to put on a 2020 or 21 22 year old. Not to say that he’s not ready for it, but really it’s the onus is on the rest of the offensive roster to pick up their weight because you can’t totally expect to rely upon Junior Cro in the trop to hit another 45 homers or having half your games being played in the drop that he’s going to replicate what he did. I would still expect them to give me assuming health, you know, 35 to 38, but that discrepancy is going to have to be made up somewhere else. You can’t just say, “All right, yeah, uh, Junior Camero, you you’re you got to be responsible for 25% of the home runs.” Yeah. Yeah. Or you hit 45 at 21 and 22 years old. You can definitely do like that’s not how it works. Unless the Rays want to get really creative and adjust the dimensions of Tropicana Field to make it more friendly to Junior Camroero of, you know, look at his spray charts and look at where and how he’s hitting home runs. Uh we do know Junior Camro has the ability to hit a home run in any ballpark. But just like everybody, I mean, anybody that hits 45 home runs, there’s going to be some home runs that you that probably got a little bit lucky there. That got lucky. And hopefully um you know that lux remains with him at Tropicana Field next year. But let’s spotlight right now a weak area of the club that theoretically should be bringing some pop, but it’s not. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. So, let’s not do that. And you can avoid that by using Monarch Money. It’s an all- in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Even when you’re on the go and you want to know what’s going on, you can just look at the Monarch Money app and there it is. So, do not let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com using promo code locked on MLB. Thank you so much for joining us at locked on race, part of the locked on podcast network. your team every day. Yeah, let’s highlight the outfield, Kevin, because power should be coming from out from the outfield position, especially left and right, and that’s not the case right now, Kev. No, it’s not. Uh, in fact, I saw an interesting stat that offensively this past season, Tampa Bay’s outfielders hit only 29 home runs. And you guessed it, that was the fewest in the majors. A couple other stats here. Uh the Rays outfielder 663 OPS was 26th in baseball. The unit hit for the sixth highest average, however, in stole league leading 116 bases, but they ranked among MLB’s worst in walks in slugging percentage. All that told, not to mention, uh you know, sidetracking here, uh the defensive runs saved weren’t all that great from the outfielders this season. But all that told, the Rays, they’re going to have to find a way to boost the offense uh in the outfield. Like you mentioned, in the corners and in center field, it it appears by everything we’ve seen and read and heard that uh the Rays love Jake Bangum and Chandler Simpson. They are coming off impressive rookie seasons, but we know they are limited in the power department. So the question is if you’re going to keep those guys around and they’re going to play meaningful roles and provide their value in in contact and speed and so forth, you’ve got to have some sort of answer for who is going to provide some semblance of pop out there. Who can you trust and rely upon to do that? And over the last couple years, we’ve we’ve asked or demanded that Chris Morurell would be that guy. Josh Low would be that guy. And as we’ve seen in the last couple years, they haven’t been those guys. So that is a major question and a major hitting point um that the Rays I think are going to have to figure out and address this off seasonason. I mean, if they want to stay status quo, okay, go for it. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a game plan to make it to the playoffs in 2026. Right. Exactly. You have to be serious about what what your end goal is. If if it is to go to the playoffs, you can’t have Christopher Morurell and Josh Low giving you 105 108 games and then each one of them hitting 11 home runs, right? Like that’s that’s not I mean Kevin Kiermire used to get more home runs than 11 home runs. So like this is the point like that he he’d only play uh you know 70 games a season, 80 games a season. He would save you a crap ton of runs in the outfield and would give you more than 11 home runs. So that’s where we are starting here. Now you mentioned Chandler Simpson, you mentioned Jake Mangum. Yes, they’re not power hitting guys at all. I am going to not put the onus on them because that’s not their game. That’s not who they are. Keep being you, Jake. Keep being you, Chandler. However, I need you Chris Morurell. I need you, Josh Low, to be those guys. You’re supposed to be those guys. And you’re not being those guys. So, what do the Rays do right now? Do they still bet on Chris Morurell and Josh Low saying, “No, they got it in them. They’re going to be more healthy. They know what they have to work on and then we can expect 20 25 bombs from them from each of them. or does one or the or both of them no longer fit what we’re trying to do and that means shipping them off. Yeah, that’s the million-doll multi-million dollar question. And you know, due respect to Josh Low, I know he’s had, you know, the oblique issues and other ailments here and there. I I’m willing to give him, like we’ve talked about before, a little bit of a reprieve and give him another shot, another chance in 2026, but I feel like we’ve seen enough sample size of Chris Morurell to say that his days are are numbered in a raise uniform. And it’s so disappointing, too, because he was the theoretical headliner in the return for Esacho Perez. Man, how talk about power issues that we wouldn’t be having this conversation if we still had Iso Pedes on this roster. Again, you I know you got to carve out a spot for Junior Cabanero, but you can find a spot for both of those guys on your roster. You can be creative with how you utilize uh their positioning in the infield or as a DH with the Rays outfield, man. You got to do something, Kev, because you’re going to see the numbers drop. Like we said in segment one, you’re going to see that just by just moving your home to drop again. You’re going to see the numbers dip. But if th the if this part of the club, the the outfield does not increase those numbers, you’re going to see a lot of issues in in to score some runs in Tropicana field. Yeah. And I’m okay with, you know, using Chandler Simpson and Jake Mangum to manufacture runs. I don’t need to see home runs from them necessarily, but you get bogged down. not to, you know, pinpoint Chris Morell, but the fact that not only is he not hitting homers like we expected, but it’s that 35 40% strikeout rate in the way that he strikes out that is really frustrating and and ultimately why, you know, his role has decreased over time. And the other thing to to think about, you know, as we’re going back to the Trop, you wonder how that is going to impact certain players who have not played in the Trop before in terms of their vision and eyesight. And we know how much of an issue that was with Willie Adamis. I mean, totally different environment than playing outdoor baseball at Stein Brener Field that, you know, 99% of these guys are used to. Like it’s really an unknown how Jake Mangum and Chandler Simpson are going to handle uh you know seeing a ball at Tropicina Field. Chris Moro we pretty much seen what he can or can’t do. I mean he had a worse 2024 than 2025 in a race uniform. Exactly. So there and plus you know not to add insult to injury but we we talk about Josh Low’s lower body issues. Well if you’re playing a lot of outfield on the artificial turf I mean you got to have a contingency plan or You you got to find power one way or the other. Ideally in one of the corner outfield spots, but if not that, somewhere else. That’s exactly where I was going. Yes, it it does seem like we do talk about the Rays uh quite often, you and I, Kevin, because we’re on the wavelength tonight. Um yeah, the turf is back, baby. The turf is back. And a guy that’s going to be injuryprone and you’re trying to say, “No, I’m going to bet on you for power.” Oh, that does seem kind of like a risky move because if something were to happen, then you don’t have that. And then who steps up behind Josh Low? Who? Well, we’ll have to find out this off seasonason. Now, what the Rays could do, you know, if they just want to stand pat with the outfield or make uh limited adjustments there. I guess they’re going to have to look at the catching position for offensive upgrades if they want to be more competitive in 2026. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer that you do not want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Uh, it undoubtedly makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little extra something riding on the action. And whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel, they make the game day experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. Thank you for listening to the Locked on Rays podcast and making us your very first listen every day. We appreciate it. We are of course part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. We mean it. Your team every day. Tampa Bay Rays. We are your team. Locked on race there. Um in addition or beyond the outfield, uh we are in agreement that the Rays must and I mean must focus on catcher upgrades or upgrade this off season if they want to be more competitive in 2026. We spent the first couple segments about the Rays moving back into Tropicana Field on schedule beginning in early April. So, expect all 81 home games to be in the pitcher friendly confines of Tropicana Field. And that just makes me wonder that, you know, the the the catching position after Danny Jansen was traded at the deadline uh left a lot to be desired. And I can only imagine or think that those offensive numbers would decrease if we roll out the same two guys that we did towards the end of last season in Nick Forez and your boy Hunter Fiducia. Um and and I would think something has to give. I mean, if you look at past history with the Rays and when they’ve made the playoffs, they’ve had goodish to extremely productive offense from the catching position. I mean, you look at 2019, we had the Travis Darno experience. You look at 2021, we had the Zenino Allstar career year where he hit 31 bombs. Uh, or maybe more than that. He he hit over 30 home runs. I know that. Um, you look at 2022 and 2023, you had Beth & Court and Mahia who I think did enough. Um, you know, it wasn’t anything that, you know, blew you away, but I think they held for it and were serviceable enough. um as far as offense goes at the catching position, but you look at the combination of Forez, who I think is fine. Um but what Fiducia added or didn’t add, that’s a problem. Now, maybe the Rays have faith that Fiducia will get it turned around, but how much of a leash are you going to give them? My my thought, my vantage point on this is you gotta find you got to go out and resign the next Danny Jansen in 2026. And if if the season is out of reach by mid-season, then you trade him and try to get a prospect or two. But I feel like they have to make some sort of move like that, whether it’s through free agency or trade. And Eric Neander said that at the end of the year press conference, right? Like, hey, yeah, the the catching position did some good stuff, but we’re definitely looking um what we can add in that position because you have to I mean, Nick Forez had three home runs in 38 games. So, let’s extrapolate that. Okay. Let’s say he gives you a hundred games. He might touch 10. Okay. Okay. That’s that’s all right. That’s all right. It’s not it’s not it’s not fantastic. It’s not great. I mean, I think Roarvet had around the same numbers a year prior and we weren’t jumping for Joey either for his power numbers. But I’ll say this with Hunter Fiducia, I think you have to give him some an off season to to just clear his head. He big move from LA to to the Rays get his feet on. He’s a guy who’s who’s shown he can hit in in Triple A. Could he be a quad A guy? Yeah, of course. There’s there’s thousands of stories that we could all tell of guys like that. I would still give him a shot. I think Fidoo has the the the ability to do so, but I wouldn’t just bet on Fortz and Fid. have to go out there and then create that competition between Fortz and Fiducia there. And then if something happens, well, you have one of the two guys hopefully that can that can step up if injury beat. But you have to go out there because Danny Jansen had 11 home runs with the Rays. By the way, that’s the same number as Josh Low and Chris Morell if you were paying attention earlier in the program. So Danny Jansen 11 home runs. Where’s that coming from next year? Where’s that coming from? And he did that in half a season. I’m saying extrapolate a 100red games of four test to maybe touch 10. Jensen had 11 before August, right? Yeah. And what the Rays might have to do, as we talked about earlier this week, you know, with Forz arbitration number maybe being $2.5 million or so, maybe they say, “Okay, Fiducia, you’re you’re still green. You’re still learning the game. We’ll keep you around as a backup, but we’re going to try to upgrade that 1A spot in the catcher, and that’s where we offload Fortez and and find your Danny Jansen 2.0. I would be fine with that. I would be cool with that. Um, but you there’s got to be some sort of plan in place because again, if you’re I if you’re just doing the status quo for the outfield and the catching position, among other issues, I don’t I don’t see how you’re going to be that much more competitive in 2026. If you don’t do anything in the out win there, you get to 79 wins maybe. Yeah. If you don’t do anything in the outfield and if you don’t do anything in the catching position, the power numbers are going to drop just by the case of you moving to the drop like we said in segment one, right? But I hope that it’s not either or situation, Kevin, because I think that could be a really a big mistake. I really hope that they’re trying to improve both areas now. What those names look like, what those numbers should look like. Well, guess what, folks? We got like four months to talk about it and we’re here Monday through Friday because lockdown races your team every bleeping day. Yeah, that that’s what happens when uh we were we we had that early September run of being competitive and having meaningful baseball and then before you know it, we fell off a cliff. And the Rays of course are nowhere to be found in October. uh they’re licking their wounds presently and and hopefully going to the batting cages and uh maybe checking out the trap, doing a walk through here and there and and making sure that’s uh on track and in progress. But uh I I guess you know to put a bow on it, it is sort of a nice feeling. And I know we talked about how much the offense could decrease at the drop, but it will be um nostalgic to be able to watch a game from Tropicana Field after all that happened and seeing uh seeing the repairs made especially after a catastrophic event. Um, you know, a lot of people that, you know, maybe from a different state might not understand uh what we went through, what uh all of Tampa Bay went through and and the drop, but uh seeing that going through repairs and being on schedule, u it’s it’s nice to see and witness and hear about. So, 100%. All right, on that note, hope you all have a wonderful day. Stay safe and we will talk to you later.

Tampa Bay Rays face power-hitting challenges as they return to Tropicana Field in 2026. Will the move derail their offensive production?
Kevin Weiss and Ulises Sambrano analyze the Rays’ concerning outfield stats, with only 29 home runs last season – the lowest in MLB. They debate the futures of Chris Morel and Josh Lowe while exploring potential upgrades at catcher to boost offensive output. The hosts also examine how Tropicana Field’s unique environment might impact players unfamiliar with its quirks.
Tune in for expert insights on the Rays’ roster decisions and strategies to maintain competitiveness in their pitcher-friendly home park.
0:00 Intro: Rays return to Tropicana Field
5:59 Junior Caminero crucial for Rays’ power numbers
10:09 Outfield struggles with power production
17:51 Catching position needs offensive upgrades
21:30 Evaluating catcher options for 2026 season
25:28 Nostalgic return to repaired Tropicana Field

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