Roundtable: DRaysBay’s Bold Predictions for 2021

We are hours away from watching the American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays (I really like writing that) begin their 2021 season. We gathered our writers to share their hottest Rays predictions for the coming year.

For some more traditional predictions from some of our writers, you can find Brian Menéndez’s here; JT Morgan gave a full preview of the major league season here.

Ashley MacLennan

My bold prediction is that the World Series will be Padres/Rays and the Rays will win it when they break open a scoreless game against starter Blake Snell, who is left in to face the order for the third time.

Mister Lizzie

The Rays pitching staff in August will look nothing like it does on April 1 (for those losing sleep over which pitchers made the Opening Day roster).

Of the 13 or so pitchers who will be on the active roster on August 1, I predict that only 6 of them would have been on the roster on April 1. I also predict that at least one of the Rays games at Fenway next week will be delayed or postponed by something cold and slushy that they label a “wintry mix.”

Ian Malinowski

Michael Wacha is the second best pitcher on the staff, with over 3.0 rWAR in 160 innings. People will wonder how this happened and opine that the Rays are magic. (Narrator: It wasn’t magic, the stuff was already there, in plain site). Meanwhile, Dietrich Enns is the breakout reliever of the year, and receives 5-7 saves, third on the team.

Jared Ward

Ryan Yarborough gets Cy Young votes this year as the Rays win the American League East, again. Oh, and Ryan Thompson finishes the year with the most team saves.

JT Morgan

The offense is very deep and be what carries this team. The Rays will end the season in the top five in runs scored. They will outscore the 2009 Rays team (803 runs) for most runs scored in team history.

Darby Robinson

The Rays will finish the 2021 season with a better team offense than the Yankees.

Brett Phillips

Josh Fleming is the second best starter on the team by May.

Adam Sanford

Randy Arozarena has a 30/30 season. Yoshi Tsutsugo hits 30+ HR. Rich Hill is released by June (sorry!). Wander Franco isn’t promoted until September. Michael Wacha is a Cy Young candidate.

Andrea Arcadipane

The Rays win the American League East; Wander Franco will not be called up to the majors in 2021.

Jamal Wilburg

Rays win the American League East and Tyler Glasnow is the American League Cy Young Award winner.

Brian Menéndez

The Rays win the American League East and beat the Padres in the World Series.

This Rays team may be a slightly worse team than it was last year, but so is pretty much every good team in the American League except the Blue Jays and possibly the White Sox—neither of whom I am quite ready to classify as a top tier team.

Despite their subtractions, the Rays are still pretty comfortably the deepest and best team in the league. All of this ‘transition’ talk is an elaborate deep fake. This is a team that can field not one but two competitive major league rosters. Wait... is that what Sternberg really meant by two cities?

Danny Russell

Following in the footsteps of LeBron James in becoming a GOAT who owns a share of a baseball team, Tom Brady buys a stake in his local team, the Tampa Bay Rays...

Oh, and Willy Adames is the third best hitter on the team in 2021.

And perhaps the hottest take of all:

John Ford

The All Star Game will be moved from Atlanta, and will be relocated to Tropicana Field. Between the Home Run Derby and the game itself, the catwalks will come into play 17 times. However, instead of complaining, the broadcast team will wax poetic about how wonderfully quirky the park is, and how it does not deserve its reputation as a dump.