Rays Must Fix This Glaring Issue in Order To Contend Next Season

The Tampa Bay Rays have a glaring issue that they must address this winter

Aug 26, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash (16) stands in the dugout in the first inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. | David Richard-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Rays have started up their offseason and will be hungry to try and make some improvements to a team that despite a losing record was pretty good in 2025. There are a lot of things to like about the direction of the franchise, but they do have some areas to address. 

While the looming questions will be where their new home will be and what new ownership will look like, the Rays are a team hoping to contend once again in 2026. Before their schedule got difficult with a plethora of road games after the All-Star break, this was a team over .500 and in contention. 

They will be trying to get back to that with a relatively young core of talent mixed in with some talented veterans. As always, Tampa Bay might look to move a veteran or two in order to bolster their farm system, but they still might add others to help compete in 2026 as well. 

When looking at the roster, there is a clear need that they must address and that is to help strengthen a lineup that has some talent already in place. Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the biggest roster hole for the Rays being their outfield. 

Offensive Outfield Production Needs to Improve

Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

The need to improve the outfield offensively became very clear in 2025 with not one of their outfielders who played a majority of the time having an OPS over .700. Chandler Simpson, Josh Lowe, Jake Magnum, and Christopher Morel were all under this benchmark and it’s clear some help is needed. 

While it’s not to say that these players all had bad seasons, there is a need to add some slugging capabilities to the outfield. Simpson and Magnum were both excellent on the base paths and brought a lot of speed to the table. 

Simpson was able to lead the team with 44 stolen bases, proving to be one of the best in baseball in that category. Furthermore, Magnum had 27 stolen bases, highlighting that the unit has a lot of speed. However, while having two guys in the outfield that can run like these two is good, help is needed in the slugging department. 

While it’s a bit uncertain whether ownership is going to look to spend this winter, adding an impact slugger into the outfield would be ideal. With some good speed already in the unit, adding someone who could produce 25 home runs would go a long way toward improving the batting order for Tampa Bay.