In a series that most players performed well but didn’t necessarily excel, it makes it difficult to determine a specific player to dole out our Player of the Series honor to. It’s also a struggle when the Rays drop two of the three games in the series. Brandon Lowe extended his hitting streak to 18 games and homered. Christopher Morel, Danny Jansen, Josh Lowe, Junior Caminero, and Yandy Diaz also all had homeruns; Jake Mangum even had an inside-the-park homerun. Shane Baz pitched seven innings and racked up 11 strikeouts, but allowed three runs; Ryan Pepiot pitched six and allowed two runs.

Almost any of those players could be given this accolade.

However, I’m going to go with Yandy Diaz.

Diaz crushed his 14th homerun of the season, matching his 2024 season total. Overall during the three game series, Diaz had two walks and three hits over 13 trips to the plate, including the aforementioned homerun. The blast was a two-run go-ahead homerun that put the Rays in the lead late against the Athletics; Tampa Bay narrowly held on for a 6-5 victory.

Diaz has rediscovered his power stroke in 2025 and is again among the top offensive players in baseball. Thus far over 360 PA this season, Diaz is hitting .291/.347/.474 with 14 HR, registering a 130 wRC+ and has accrued 1.8 fWAR over 81 games. Since the start of play on May 31st, Diaz ranks 3rd in the big leagues with 1.9 fWAR (extremely impressive considering he rarely plays defense) and is hitting .402/.477/.652 with a 217 wRC+. Diaz has also reached base in 26 consecutive games, the 2nd longest active streak in baseball.

DRAYSBAY PLAYER OF THE SERIES

1st: Kameron Misner
2nd: Jake Mangum
3rd: Brandon Lowe
4th: Jose Caballero
5th: Joe Boyle
6th: Shane Baz
7th: Chandler Simpson
8th: Christopher Morel
9th: Chandler Simpson
10th: Mason Englert
11th: Taylor Walls
12th: Yandy Diaz
13th: Travis Jankowski
14th: Brandon Lowe
15th: Drew Rasmussen
16th: Curtis Mead
17th: Junior Caminero
18th: Zack Littell
19th: Zack Littell
20th: Junor Caminero
21st: Christopher Morel
22nd: Yandy Diaz
23rd: Junior Caminero
24th: Brandon Lowe
25th: Yandy Diaz
26th: Shane Baz
27th: Brandon Lowe
28th: Yandy Diaz