The Tampa Bay Rays have started up their offseason with the goal of improving for the 2026 campaign.
Coming into the winter, there is still a lot to like about the Rays. This is a team that was a contender in the first half of the campaign in 2025 but was unable to sustain it for a full year. Injuries and some poor scheduling in the first half played a part in that, but this was a franchise that finished the season with a positive run differential.
As the team starts to gameplan for what 2026 will look like, they have already made a couple of notable decisions this winter. Firstly, the team exercised options on shortstop Taylor Wells and star slugger Brandon Lowe. These were some relatively easy decisions to make for the team, but they did make one surprise decision.
After a great start to his career with Tampa Bay, the team elected that the price tag was too high for them to retain closer Pete Fairbanks, who will now be a free agent. The overwhelming thought was that the team was going to pick up his option and then trade him. However, the trade market for Fairbanks apparently never developed, and the team elected not to pick up his option.
As a very talented player for the franchise, this certainly doesn’t make the team better right now, but the money that they saved might be able to be allocated elsewhere to improve overall. Chad Jennings of The Athletic (subscription required) recently wrote about the Rays being a strong team coming into the 2026 campaign, ranking them 14th overall.
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Being ranked 14th with the offseason just starting up is a solid place to be for the franchise and showcases that they can be a contender in 2026. The Rays might have finished with a record below the .500 mark in 2025, but the talent to compete is there.
Even though losing Fairbanks is a blow to the bullpen, this is a unit that has a lot of depth, and manager Kevin Cash will likely go back to his closer-by-committee strategy. Furthermore, with Lowe coming back, this is an offense that should have a good upside.
Overall, the Rays being predicted to be slightly above the middle of the pack makes a lot of sense currently. While they likely won’t make a significant splash in free agency to improve, a couple of savvy moves could help the franchise in 2026.