With the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 2026 season right around the corner, it\u2019s time for some fun team award predictions. They\u2019ve got an interesting ball club, with plenty of room for variance. While they might not compete for any of these awards at the league level, it\u2019s still a good exercise to try to predict who will be among their best players.<\/p>\n
The roster features enough upside to have a variety of answers at each award. But there can only be one, so let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n
Predicting Team Awards for the 2026 Rays
\nRays MVP: Junior Caminero<\/p>\n
Junior Caminero<\/a> might be the easiest pick on this list. He\u2019s coming off a season where he blasted 45 home runs and had a 129 wRC+. His defense started as one of the worst gloves at third in the league. But, he managed to rebound and settle into a -3 OAA. Sounds bad, but considering where he started, it\u2019s actually a remarkable improvement.<\/p>\n Getting back to his offensive performance, it was anything but a fluke. Folks might focus on the fact that George M. Steinbrenner Field was a hitter\u2019s park. And that\u2019s true, but Caminero has some of the best bat speed in baseball to go along with excellent bat control.<\/p>\n His main issue was the lack of loft on some of his swings. He grounded into a brutally high number of double plays, and his Launch Angle Sweet Spot rate was one of the worst in baseball. He just wasn\u2019t always able to get the ball in the air as someone with his power should.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s a potential area for improvement, but even if he\u2019s unable to fix it, there are other areas he could work on to further improve. While replicating last year\u2019s production will be difficult, it\u2019s also possible for a 22-year-old to get better.<\/p>\n He chased far too much last year, meaning his swing decisions could lead to even more production. If pitchers have to respect his command of the strike zone even a little bit, it\u2019ll make him an even more dangerous hitter.<\/p>\n Some other fun candidates for Rays MVP include Yandy D\u00edaz<\/a> and Jonathan Aranda<\/a>, but Caminero has the most upside of that group.<\/p>\n Rays Cy Young: Drew Rasmussen\u00a0<\/p>\n Drew Rasmussen<\/a> was the best pitcher the Rays had last year, so like the Caminero pick, it\u2019s a bit lazy. It\u2019ll be tough again for Ras to replicate his fantastic 2025, but he has the stuff to do just that.<\/p>\n His main issue is just staying on the field. His xERA has never risen above 4.00, and in the 2 seasons he\u2019s pitched over 100 innings, he\u2019s been around a 3-WAR player.<\/p>\n So the solution is simple: stay healthy! Obviously, that\u2019s much easier said than done, but Rasmussen is so good that it\u2019s really that straightforward. He gets his outs through a fastball-heavy approach, using a 4-seam, sinker, cutter combination around 90% of the time.<\/p>\n While for Caminero, the offensive production might come down a bit due to a return to Tropicana Field, for Rasmussen and the Rays rotation<\/a>, it\u2019ll be a boost. Hopefully, for the veteran righty, he can capitalize on both his health and a more advantageous park to have a tremendous 2026.<\/p>\n Rays Rookie of the Year: Carson Williams<\/p>\n With incumbent starting shortstop Taylor Walls<\/a> starting the season on the injured list, the starting shortstop job is open. And it seems like top Rays prospect<\/a> Carson Williams<\/a> is the main option to fill it.<\/p>\n There are a few other contenders for this spot that aren\u2019t going to start the season in the majors. Former Houston Astros prospect<\/a> Jacob Melton<\/a> and Brody Hopkins<\/a> could both be excellent and are supremely talented. But for them, the opportunity might not arise, and the Rays have every reason to be patient.<\/p>\n So while Williams might not set the world on fire or be elite, he could do enough to earn the starting shortstop role for the 2026 season. His contact issues are still there, but they looked less egregious in spring training. It\u2019s hard to take much from exhibition games, but it\u2019s enough of a reason for hope.<\/p>\n The defense will be elite, and if he can make his contact more below-average than awful, some power should pop, as well. Overall, the combination of playing time and upside for Williams is enough to give him the nod for this award.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Main Photo Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 2026 season right around the corner, it\u2019s time for some fun team award…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,30917,17802,1999,18418,307,4682,4,297,2550,68,2551,2549,5521,3348],"class_list":["post-632994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baseball","tag-brody-hopkins","tag-carson-williams","tag-drew-rasmussen","tag-jacob-melton","tag-jonathan-aranda","tag-junior-caminero","tag-mlb","tag-rays","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays","tag-taylor-walls","tag-yandy-diaz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116259682142325265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}