The Tampa Bay Rays' defense has improved after a shaky start in 2026, currently ranking 4th in converting batted ball events into outs and 6th in framing strike rate. However, they still struggle with caught stealing and outs above average.
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ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - APRIL 20: Cedric Mullins #31 of the Tampa Bay Rays dives for a ball during the game against the Cincinnati Reds at Tropicana Field on April 20, 2026 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) | Getty Images
After a rocky start to the year, the Rays team defense has started to settle in some areas, and nowhere is that clearer than the defense. Here’s how the 2026 Rays currently rank in various key defensive stats:
To make more sense of the team’s defensive performance, we’ll break it down by position group.
This was a group I was particularly excited about heading into the season. The 2025-midseason additions of Fortes and Feduccia gave them plenty of time to get acclimated to the Rays pitching philosophy and get to know the staff. In 2026, both have been solid receivers so far but have struggled to control the running game. Part of that is on the pitching staff and their inability to hold runners or at least vary their times to the plate with a runner on. Regardless, this has culminated in the team allowing 34 stolen bases so far – second only to the Marlins at 37. Their 11% caught-stealing rate is the fourth lowest in the league too.
Even with the ABS challenge system, the number of framing opportunities per game is significantly greater than the number of opportunities to steal a base in a game, so I do understand prioritizing stealing strikes, even if it comes at the expense of controlling the running game, as plus framing and late glove movement can still help catchers better present pitches as strikes — as opposed to setting up at a location and stabbing at the ball to bring it back towards the zone, and thereby the catcher’s throwing hand.
The Rays rank 4th in converting batted ball events into outs, 6th in framing strike rate, and 7th in defensive runs saved.
After a rocky start, the Rays' defense has settled in, showing improvements in key defensive stats.
The article breaks down the Rays' defensive performance by position group to provide a clearer understanding.
The Rays currently rank 27th in caught stealing above average per throw and 26th in outs above average, indicating areas needing improvement.
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Unless you’re blessed with elite hand speed and a plus-plus arm like Patrick Bailey, there’s often a tradeoff between maximizing pitch presentation and being in position to throw. One possible way to counter that could be increasing the frequency of throws to first base from Rays catchers. While they might not throw the runners out, it might at least make them think twice about their secondary leads.
This is where the Rays have struggled the most defensively.
Tampa Bay has -4 DRS, -10 OAA, and rank 18th in converting ground balls into outs. They have improved a bit since the beginning of the season with Taylor Walls returning from the IL and with Ben Williamson getting more comfortable at 2B. I think this group has a reasonable path back to average, especially if Junior Caminero finds more consistency with his throws – as he did over the course of last year – and as Williamson continues to develop at second base. In fact, over the last three weeks, the Rays have converted 73.6% of ground balls into outs – ranking 13th in the league (average is 73.4%).
I’ll check back in on this near the end of May.
This group has been up to the Rays standard so far. Chandler Simpson has taken a significant step forward thanks to plenty of offseason work, Jake Fraley has been solid aside from an Opening Day misplay – posting his best jumps of his career, and Jonny DeLuca looks plus-plus again after injuries robbed him of his 2025 season.
On fly balls and line drives to the outfield, the Rays rank second at converting those balls into outs at 66.8%, just behind the Rangers at 67.0% (average is 60.5%). The Rays outfielders are also 11th and 12th in DRS and OAA respectively.
Here’s the tough part: This is already one of the best defensive units in the league, but one potential way to raise the ceiling further could be swapping the playing time for DeLuca and Cedric Mullins.
Mullins is going to be under scrutiny after a tough April at the plate, and I do think Mullins will improve offensively as his underlying data is pretty much in line with his career averages, but the defense does appear to look like it has taken a step back. His success rate added on catches is currently -2% (the first time in his career he has had a negative value) and his jumps are the worst he has ever had. All this being said, and aging Mullins is still roughly an average centerfield defender, and he is likely close to league average as a hitter across a larger sample. He’s still a viable major-league option; however, it’s going to be difficult to ignore an increasing case for giving DeLuca more starts in center field, even with the platoon advantage Mullins often provides.
I think we’ll continue to see DeLuca start in center only against left-handed starters, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start eating into Mullins’s playing time against right-handed starters based on the underlying defensive data or pitcher profiles.
The Rays defense as a team has profiles as roughly average overall. They’re strongest in the outfield with room to improve at catcher and on the infield. I think they’ll settle in as an above average defensive team by the end of the summer, and here are three things to follow:
If those areas trend in the right direction, the underlying metrics suggest there’s a path for this to be a clearly above-average defensive unit.