David Lennon: How the frugal Rays keep shocking the baseball world
Yankees shortstop Jose Caballero looks on from the dugout against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium on May 4, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
After all that time spent worrying about the Blue Jays being the defending American League champions, the Yankees have stumbled upon an unforeseen obstacle in the AL East.
But hasn’t that always been the Rays’ calling card? Routinely shocking the baseball world? As of Thursday, first-place Tampa Bay had MLB’s best record at 33-15 along with a four-game lead on the Yankees.
Dollar-for-dollar, nobody does it better than tiny-market Tampa Bay, a franchise that wears its frugality like a badge of honor, much to the chagrin of the sport’s top-spending disappointments.
While two of the AL East’s big-money juggernauts were slugging it out Thursday night in the Bronx, the Rays were off — and, given their budget, maybe dining on curbside falafel somewhere in Manhattan.
Yes, the Rays are unapologetically cheap. Their $108 million payroll is the third-lowest in the majors and a fraction of the Yankees’ $340 million investment. Tampa Bay’s highest-paid player is Friday’s starter, Nick Martinez (4-1, 1.51 ERA), whose salary this season is $13 million. He’ll oppose Gerrit Cole, who will earn $36 million this year and will be making his first start since Game 5 of the 2025 World Series in his return from Tommy John surgery.
We’ve been anticipating Cole’s debut since February, when he first climbed a mound again and nobody expected the Rays to be a legitimate threat in the AL East.
The Yankees’ run-it-back strategy for 2026 was designed with Toronto in mind, thinking that MLB’s most dangerous offense — which lost the division title to the Blue Jays on a tiebreaker — would be capable of overtaking them with a healthy Cole fronting the rotation again.
Instead, the Jays — whose $308 million payroll ranks fifth — wound up decimated by injuries through the first two months and limped into the Bronx this week. That’s not to say Toronto can’t be a factor later this season, but the real menace for the Yankees is shaping up to be the Rays, who not only have rediscovered their winning small-ball formula but especially love tweaking their big brother in the Bronx.
Jose Caballero, who is expected to come off the injured list (fractured finger) on Friday against his former team, remembers how the Rays would get amped up to beat the New Yorkers during his tenure on the other side.
“Every time they play the Yankees, there’s a little extra, you know?” Caballero told Newsday before Thursday’s game. “When I was outside [the Yankees], this was the stage you wanted to be a part of because you know they’re a bigger market and you’re going to be seen.”
Standings-wise, it’s the Rays who currently are the headliners, and their three-game sweep of the Yankees last month at Tropicana Field was their first since 2021. That series also served as a preview to what Tampa Bay has been doing to the rest of the league, riding an aggressive mix of solid pitching, sturdy defense and finding ways to win on the margins.
The Rays’ plus-40 run differential ranks fifth in the majors, just below the Yankees (plus-69), but they’ve also excelled in areas in which their Bronx rival has not. Their 9-1 record in one-run games is MLB’s best, as opposed to the Yankees’ 5-11 mark. They’re also 13-11 against teams .500 or better to the Yankees’ 1-8.
Tampa Bay’s 41 homers are the fourth fewest overall, and last year’s Derby runner-up, Junior Caminero, has hit 13 of them. But they do put the ball in play — which was the Jays’ recipe for success a year ago — with an 80.6% contact rate that is tops in the majors. Also, their 18.7% strikeout rate is the lowest.
“They’re obviously playing incredibly well,” manager Aaron Boone said Thursday afternoon. “They’re the cream of the crop right now in the American League and all of Major League Baseball.”
When the Yankees plucked Caballero from the Rays last season, it was basically to add some of that Rays mojo for the stretch run. Caballero is Tampa Bay’s prototype player — a versatile defender with speed who can disrupt other teams on the basepaths as well as get under their skin by being an on-field agitator.
Caballero has done that since coming to the Bronx, even swiping the starting shortstop gig from the rehabbing Anthony Volpe, who filled in during Caballero’s IL stint. It sounds as if Boone intends to go back to Caballero at short when he returns Friday, and he’ll be a needed weapon against his former club, sort of like fighting fire with fire.
“It’s all about winning with them,” Caballero said. “It doesn’t matter what’s being said about the team — they always believe they can win. There’s so much confidence there.”
That starts at the top with president of baseball operations Erik Neander, who is well-versed in The Rays’ Way after spending two decades with the organization, and filters through Kevin Cash, a two-time Manager of the Year who’s had the job since 2015.
Being on a tight budget forces the Rays to operate differently — small ball is a considerably cheaper brand — but no one is winning more efficiently this season.
Having MLB’s best rotation ERA (3.00) certainly helps. Former Ward Melville star Steven Matz is 4-1 with a 3.70 ERA. But the Rays also lead MLB in sacrifice bunts (17) and have the third-most stolen bases (53).
“That’s definitely part of their DNA,” Boone said.
And something the Yankees will have to contend with all year, and again this weekend.
n Grisham OK
Trent Grisham will avoid the IL after Thursday’s MRI revealed no structural damage to his left knee, which caused him some discomfort as he legged out a double in the previous night’s 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays and forced his removal in the fourth inning.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
