To ignite a dormant offense, could the Rays turn to Simpson?

TAMPA, Fla – As a significant factor to explain a disappointing 2024 season, the same trauma appears to follow the Tampa Bay Rays. Here’s a team that qualified for post-season play five consecutive seasons and then fell dramatically from grace a season ago.

Finishing with an 80-82 mark, the Rays descended to fourth place in the American League East and a full 14 games behind division leaders the New York Yankees. The culprit was an offense that generated little production and experienced a marked decline in home runs and RBIs.

With the desire to jump-start a lackluster offense and inject the kind of energy destined to lift his club, manager Kevin Cash initiated a change in direction. Right from the beginning of spring training, the Rays’ offense was charged with finding ways to generate production and manufacture runs.

Thus far in the 2025 season, that has not happened and the results, for Cash and the players, are as telling and as this is frustrating.

In a span of three games in mid-April, the Rays dropped two, 1-0 games, one to the Red Sox and one to the Yankees. That left a bitter and residual feeling and a reality that the Tampa Bay offense was stuck on a perpetual spinning wheel.

“We are putting the good at-bats together,” affirmed outfielder Jose Caballero after one 1-0 loss to the Yankees on April 18. “We just have to drive in the runs. It’s tough, and we have been battling. We need to get better and, right now, it’s not fun for us in the clubhouse. We need to get better at I,t and we’re working on it.”

In the second 1-0 defeat to the Yankees on April 18, the Rays managed only three hits and struck out a season-high 14 times. In all, the Rays managed to put only seven runners on base for the entire nine innings. In their only legitimate scoring opportunity, Caballero led off the fifth with a double, moved to third on a ground out, but was tagged out in a rundown between third and the plate.

In that effort to inject any level of energy, the Rays reached into their minor league system and recalled outfielder Chandler Simpson from AAA Durham. Simpson, at 24 years old and out of Atlanta, arrives in the majors, not for his bat but for his legs. Considered dynamic on the bases, his speed and acumen could ignite a dormant Rays offense that is stuck in the neutral position.

Simpson’s speed is impressive.

In his first full minor league season (2023) at Class A Charleston in the Carolina League, he hit .285 but stole 81 bases in 93 attempts. Last season at AA Montgomery, Simpson managed a .351 batting average and stole 73 bags in 85 attempts. In 2025 with AAA Durham before his recall, he hit 301 with eight stolen bases.

With limited power, his forte is beating out grounders and slapping the ball about the diamond. If he succeeds now at the major league, able to reach base on a rather consistent basis and excited the crowd and teammates with his aggressive, base-running ability, that may be the catalyst needed to get the Rays offense back on track.

“I feel my ability is to be a table-setter, be a guy that gets on base and does the dirty work,” Simplon said just after his arrival in the Rays’ clubhouse. “I just want to be the guy that takes that extra 90 feet, gets on base, score runs, and helps us win games.”

If Simpson can be turned loose on the bases, that would complement Caballero, who led the American League in steals, with 44, a year ago.

“I want to prove that my game plays,” Simpson added. “I know there’s some doubt, but I proved my ability at every level and (the majors) is just one more.”

Play of the year? … If Jose Caballero has concerns about the offense, there is no concern with his defense. An infielder by trade, manager Kevin Cash inserted the native of Panama in right field on April 18 and an extra right-handed bat against Yankees’ starter Carlos Rodon. In the eighth, Caballero turned in one of the highlights of the early season. With a runner on first and one hit in the New York half of the inning, DH Ben Rice launched an Edward Uceta offering toward the right field fence. As the ball cleared and headed for the bleachers, Caballero leaped, put his glove over the wall and brought the ball back to the playing field. That saved a two-run homer but the Rays, for the entire game, went quietly into the night.

The post To ignite a dormant offense, could the Rays turn to Simpson? first appeared on Through The Fence Baseball.

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