They don’t get headlines or awards, but Rays bullpen is looking invaluable

ST. PETERSBURG — They have a batting champion at first base and a former Rookie of the Year in leftfield. The second baseman finished in the top 10 of MVP voting in back-to-back seasons, and the guy at the top of the rotation led the American League in wins last season.

And do you want to know who you should pay particular attention to in Tampa Bay in 2024?

The drifters and roustabouts in the bullpen.

Counting on relief pitchers to carry your team into the postseason is not the normal opening day wish, but then again the Rays are not your typical MLB team. And their collection of largely nondescript relievers could be the strongest feature on a team coming off a 99-win season.

No, that doesn’t mean Pete Fairbanks will win the Cy Young Award or Jason Adam will lead the team in WAR, but there is a chance the eight guys in the bullpen could outperform every other collection of relievers in the AL.

“We feel really good about our bullpen,” manager Kevin Cash said. “(Pitching coach Kyle Snyder) and I are going to work really hard to keep them healthy and trust that, if we can keep them healthy, they will be a pretty dominant group.

“The way we viewed the starters last year coming out of camp, we view the bullpen like that coming out of this camp. Now, that can go sideways pretty quick, but there’s so many guys that are really, really good and have a ton of been-there, done-that, which really matters.”

This shouldn’t be a surprise. While it’s been seven years since Tampa Bay has had a reliever with more than 25 saves in a season, the Rays have annually featured one of the game’s top collection of arms in the bullpen. Since 2020, Rays relievers are first in the majors in innings pitched (2,313), wins (170), winning percentage (.627), second in WHIP (1.167), third in ERA (3.45) and sixth in saves (154).

“Going into any given year we’ve had some arms step forward and provide us with a pleasant surprise,” said president of baseball operations Erik Neander. “The current group is as accomplished and known as we’ve had in some time, without question.”

On a team that usually skews younger than most because of payroll concerns, this bullpen is an outlier. The Rays will likely have 10 players over the age of 30 when the season begins, and eight of them are relief pitchers.

Some of that is simply clubhouse seniority. Fairbanks and Colin Poche are up there with Brandon Lowe and Yandy Diaz as the longest-serving Rays.

But some of it is also the way Tampa Bay puts its bullpen together. The front office is always on the lookout for pitchers who have been overlooked in other situations. So they have guys who have previously been designated for assignment (Adam, Shawn Armstrong, Jacob Waguespack), released (Chris Devenski) or acquired in trades (Fairbanks, Poche, Garrett Cleavinger). Of the eight current relievers, not a single one was originally drafted or signed by Tampa Bay.

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And that’s not unusual around here. In recent seasons, the Rays have found gold with relievers such as Andrew Kittredge, Robert Stephenson, Jake Diekman, Matt Wisler and others who arrived at a low cost, pitched well for a season or two, and then moved on.

“Reliever performance is certainly volatile from year to year, and we try to spend as much time as we can focusing on what players can do rather than what they might not be as good at,” Neander said. “We stay really close to their strengths, and those areas that might need improvement we really don’t sweat.

“It’s mostly just spending a lot of time on the attributes and abilities that belong in a major-league bullpen. And from there it’s building confidence and helping them appreciate those attributes.”

While the roles are loosely defined (Fairbanks will get the bulk of save opportunities; Adam, Poche, Phil Maton and Shawn Armstrong will pitch in high-leverage situations in the 6-7-8 innings; Devenski, Cleavinger and Waguespack can throw multi innings), the Rays are not afraid to mix things up.

The Rays have had 32 different pitchers record a save in the past four seasons, which is five more than any other MLB team.

“It’s a group that is very flexible but has also grown into our roles,” said Fairbanks. “We know what’s expected of us, and we know where we’re supposed to get outs on any given night. We’ve kind of matured together as a group, which is kind of fun and a little unique around here.

“It’s not like we’re necessarily sitting down with Kevin and having a conversation about pitching in different roles. But nothing is immutable and written down in stone either. For the most part, this group understands the when and where of our jobs.”

John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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