Rays changing up camp for hitters, focusing on final 90 feet

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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- This Spring Training will look a little different for the Rays’ hitters.

Some of the changes have already been put into practice. They’ve taken a few rounds of batting practice on the main field at Charlotte Sports Park off a pitching machine typically reserved for indoor cage work, for instance. Rather than launching well-placed lobs from coaches and staff, they’re taking swings against high-velocity fastballs and breaking balls sprayed all over the strike zone.

There’s more in store, too. Instead of just watching a handful of pitches from their teammates during live batting practice, the Rays will treat them like at-bats. They’ll have scenarios, like a runner on third base with less than two outs or runners on first and second with one out. They’ll have goals, like doing whatever it takes to get that run across the plate or finding a way to advance the runners. And they'll make it a competition, splitting the hitters into teams and keeping score based on how often they accomplish those goals.

They’ll do more of the same when Grapefruit League games begin this weekend. Manager Kevin Cash and hitting coach Chad Mottola can’t guarantee that someone will come to the plate in a certain situation, but they can tell the hitter to treat it that way to help prepare him for those moments when they really matter in six weeks.

After producing historically poor results with runners in scoring position last season, the Rays are doing whatever they can to get more out of those situations this year.

“You can hope for better, but I think we’ve got to put the work in to practice it,” Cash said. “It’s way easier said than done to simulate getting in the mindset when there’s a guy on third and less than two outs, but we’re going to do it in games. We’ve already altered some of the BP routines. … It’s a little bit more challenging, but hopefully the reward of doing that is to be a little bit more timed up when games start.”

The Rays started kicking around these ideas late last season, and for good reason. Their .212 average with runners in scoring position was the eighth-worst mark by an MLB team dating back to 1901, according to Baseball-Reference data. That played a huge part in them dropping from 860 runs scored in 2023 to 604 last year.

Asked last week what one area he’d like to see their lineup improve on, Cash immediately answered, “Finding a way to get the guy in from third base.”

Indeed, with a runner on third and less than two outs, the Rays scored 173 runs -- only better than the White Sox and A’s -- and posted an MLB-worst slash line of .239/.290/.378.

Their batting average on balls in play in those situations was an MLB-low .263, which would indicate some bad luck considering there were 26 teams over .290 and 24 over .300. But as Cash said, “You’ve got to change your luck a little bit.”

“A clean start is going to be huge for a lot of guys … and then a focus on just kind of reading the situation,” outfielder Josh Lowe said. “If the infield’s back, like, a ground ball is going to work. Just doing what you can to get that runner in, no matter how it looks.”

Even if the Rays don’t return to the slugging success they found in 2023, better timely hitting would give them a much more competitive offense. Thus, the emphasis on increasing the intensity of their preseason practice, even in the early days of camp.

“It's more of a focus on the team at-bat. We were really good at passing the baton two years ago, really didn't have much of a turnover in the roster, and we went from basically first to last,” Mottola said. “I put that on me, on the environment that we created … and just kind of thinking, 'Let's just carry where we're at.' And you get humbled in this game. So, it's more of resetting where we were.”

Mottola said he hopes the break from some traditional practice methods will better prepare them for the season, provide “feedback through failure” and create more competition in camp. Second baseman Brandon Lowe can already imagine the last part playing out in a good way.

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“It'll definitely be a change of pace,” Lowe said. “Even if a guy says that he doesn't care, he'll walk out there like acting like he doesn't care. He'll get ragged on the first time, because he didn't get the job done, and then that competitive aspect will kick in. 'I'm going to do the job here.' … Putting (in place) a reason to go out there probably changes things up a lot for a lot of guys and kind of gets them locked in a little bit earlier.”