The first home stand came and went, and the Rays season didn’t kick off as expected. But then the Rays rallied to sweep the Yankees and are back to .500, and it’s clear fans shouldn’t be extremely worried. This team has real strengths.
At the moment, however, the bullpen has not been one of them.
Given the injuries, we should not be too surprised that this bullpen sometimes looks overmatched. Plenty of the team’s top relievers haven’t been healthy. We knew the team would be without Oliver Drake, Jalen Beeks and Colin Poche. We did not, however, expect it would also be without Nick Anderson, Pete Fairbanks, Chaz Roe, and now Collin McHugh.