The Tampa Bay Rays are going through a brutal time at the plate right through 38 games this season, there’s no sugar-coating their struggles.
They are hitting .217 as a team, 21 point lower than the lowest total in franchise history (.238 last year), and that number dips down to .201 at home, which is currently 29th out of the 30 major league teams. They’re also striking out at a historic clip, with 397 K’s in the first 38 games this year. That’s on pace for 1,692 for a full 162 season, which would shatter the big-league record set in 2019 by the Detroit Tigers (1,595). And if that wasn’t bad enough, the numbers continue to get worse with runners in scoring position, hitting at a .197 clip, including the current stretch of 5 for their last 74 (.068).
Fans (and even Rays insiders) may be hitting the panic button, but one person not ready to hit eject on the year is hitting coach Chad Mottola.
“It happens a couple of times a year,” Mottola said Thursday. “There’s no panic. It’s a long season. Last year it felt like everything was compressed. This year, it’s much nicer to take the time and work out for long-term. There’s no doubt there’s a build up, but this happens at different times during the year.”
The former first-round pick feels that while different players are dealing with different issues, one thing almost every player is trying to do right now is make up for both themselves and their teammates, which can exacerbate things.
“Mostly, it’s from guys pressing, wanting to carry the team,” Mottola said. “There’s expectations for sure. You look around the league, everybody’s starting a little slow. It’s a little comforting in knowing that pitchers are good right now and in time hitters will catch up. There’s nothing that we can pinpoint and say ‘if we just fix this, everything’s going to be great.'”
The Rays are also concerned that any short-term solution for hitters may actually hinder how they perform in the seasons to come, creating bad habits that could linger.
“It’s easier to build and build and build rather than search for the band-aid,” Mottola said. “I feel like last year we were looking for the band-aid to get through. This year, I’d rather take our time and take the first month or two to build something that will last for the whle season and for their careers. These are young guys. We don’t want a quick fix.”
And for hitters like Brandon Lowe and Austin Meadows who deal with the shift because of their pull tendencies, it may be simple to just say hit the other way, but Mottola feels there’s a way to beat the shift without shifting away completely from what has brought them All-Star Game selections.
“There’s no doubt we are recognizing [the shift,]” Mottola said. “I’d love to tell you when these guys are throwing 100 [MPH] that’s cutting that we can aim the ball in a certain direction, and I understand the frustration from the layman point of view and the fan point of view.
“It gets frustrating for us sometimes, that’s why we’re having them bunt a little more often so that we can get the field to open up some. But if I can aim the ball where I want to aim it, I would aim it over the wall or I’d aim it for a double off the wall. If I had my choice, I wouldn’t want to just beat the shift. It’s a little more complicated than that, but we are recognizing that there are certain ways that we can do it, to simplify it. It might be as simple as a bunt, which we’ve already done a few times just a month into the season.”
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
