Rays will try to improve offense both internally, externally

ST. PETERSBURG -- Erik Neander sat alone behind a table set up inside the Rays’ pitching lab at Tropicana Field, preparing to break down Tampa Bay’s disappointing season and look ahead to an intriguing offseason.

Or, as the Rays’ president of baseball operations put it, to “see how many different ways I can say we need to score more runs, we have great prospects and we have great pitching.”

That was, indeed, at the heart of Neander’s 35-minute press conference on Friday afternoon.

Coming off an 80-82 campaign, their first losing season since 2017, the Rays feel good about their tremendously talented pitching staff and top-ranked farm system. But they know they need to improve one of the Majors’ least productive lineups to ensure that their absence from the postseason lasts only one year.

“We’re disappointed we won 80 games. We’re not at 60 games and a world away,” Neander said. “If we're talking about getting back to where we've been the five years prior, we're going to need to find a way to score more runs, and that'll be a lot of our focus this offseason. But I don't think we're terribly far off, by any means.”

Here are four takeaways from Neander’s availability.

1. Yes, they know they need more offense
This was, obviously, the main topic of conversation after the Rays finished the season ranked 29th in runs and OPS, 27th in batting average and 28th in homers while batting an MLB-worst .212 with runners in scoring position.

“We’ve got to find a way to cash in opportunities with runners on second and third,” Neander said. “And that'll come from, I think, a lot of the group we have.”

Neander referenced their 2022-23 offseason, when they sought to add offense, didn’t make too many big league signings and wound up with one of MLB’s top lineups due mostly to internal improvement.

Their historically poor timely hitting, he said, is bound to regress to the mean somewhat. But they expect more from players like Josh Lowe, Christopher Morel and Jonathan Aranda, and a full year of Junior Caminero should help.

But Neander said the club will conduct a “thorough examination” of everything they do offensively, and they’ll consider ways to add power while maintaining their “recipe” of pitching, elite defense and athleticism.

“I do think that there's ways that we can maintain that defensive integrity and standard while also injecting a little more power into the lineup and more offensive contributions,” Neander said.

Could that come through trades or free-agent signings?

“There are some players out there we're aware of that'll be available by trade or by free agency that we'll likely pursue,” Neander said. “I don’t want to make any promises that that'll absolutely be done and I do believe it will be improved internally. Ideally, there's a little bit of both.”

And will the Rays have the budget to add from outside the organization after paring down last year’s club-record Opening Day payroll throughout the season?

"That opportunistic sense of operation is still there, and there is some flexibility with the payroll if we think it's the right player and the right time,” he said.

2. They don’t want to waste this pitching staff
The Rays posted the Majors’ second-best ERA after the All-Star break. The majority of the pitching staff remains under club control, they’re heading into the offseason with everyone (including Pete Fairbanks and Jeffrey Springs) expected to be healthy by Spring Training, and they’re set to return ace Shane McClanahan.

“You throw that on top of a group that's been one of the best, if not the best pitching staff in baseball the last couple months here, I don't need to do a whole lot of selling on that side,” Neander said. “I might need to spend a little more time selling the run scoring.”

3. They know they need help behind the plate
The Rays’ catchers hit a combined .194/.272/.291 this year, with a .563 OPS that ranked third-worst in baseball. Neander praised Ben Rortvedt for his work, spoke highly of September callup Logan Driscoll and raved about No. 13 prospect Dominic Keegan, who is expected to start next season in Triple-A.

But it’s clearly a spot the Rays want -- and need -- to improve.

“We’ve got to find a way to be better back there, without question, and that’ll be a priority in terms of where our mental energy goes throughout this winter,” Neander said.

4. The coaching staff is coming back
The Rays are expected to retain manager Kevin Cash’s entire coaching staff. Neander said the organization under principal owner Stuart Sternberg values continuity, as long as it’s not accompanied by complacency.

“If you have the right people going through the frustrating experiences that we went through this year, you can make a lot of them right. You can find a lot of ways to get better,” he said. “As long as we're learning, we're growing, we're challenging each other and doing that productively, then I want to keep going about it with the group we have to ultimately find a way to a championship.”