The Tampa Bay Rays are who we thought they were, and something more. They are a team that has spent the first half flirting with .500 while in transition on the position player side of the roster. They are also entertaining as hell.
How did we get here?
The Rays traded their franchise stalwart in Evan Longoria. They shipped traded Corey Dickerson and Jake Odorizzi in deals that were widely panned, but did have some support from guys like Jeff Sullivan at Fangraphs who wrote that the moves in total (including the Rays trade for CJ Cron) didn’t make the Rays worse, effectively shuffling the deck chairs.