Topline
The Tampa Bay Rays made history Thursday with their 13th straight win to start the season, tying an MLB record for the longest winning streak coming out of spring training, despite having the fourth lowest payroll this season and fourth lowest team value in professional baseball.
Wander Franco, Randy Arozarena and Manuel Margot helped the Rays capture their 13th straight win, … [+]
Key Facts
The Rays’ 9-3 home win over the Boston Red Sox Thursday sealed off a four-game sweep over their divisional rival, giving them the best record in the league by a longshot and a four-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East.
The Rays are now tied with the 1982 Atlanta Braves and 1987 Milwaukee Brewers for the longest winning streak to start the season.
The Rays, a 1998 expansion team initially called the Devil Rays, have historically traded away or failed to re-sign star players, usually losing them to teams with bigger payrolls, though in recent years they have managed to stay competitive, reaching the World Series in 2008 and posting a club-best .667 winning percentage in a Covid-shortened 2020 season.
Since 2018, the Rays have posted a winning record every year under head coach Kevin Cash, and have built a team around young talent, led by Randy Arozarena and Wander Franco—the Rays are also the youngest team in the league, with an average batters’ age of 26.9, according to Baseball Reference.
Despite their hot start, however, the team hasn’t managed to attract large crowds to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, and are 26th out of the MLB’s 30 teams in club value, at $1.25 billion (well behind the Yankees’ $7.1 billion), according to Forbes.
Big Number
$75.2 million. That’s the Rays’ payroll for the 2023 season—the fourth lowest in the MLB, only ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics. That’s more than $280 million behind the New York Mets’ $355.4 million payroll this year—the biggest in baseball. The highest paid player on the Rays: 22-year-old Wander Franco, with an 11-year, $182 million contract (the biggest contract in MLB history belongs to Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who signed a whopping nine-year, $360 million deal in December).
Surprising Fact
Although the Rays are now tied for the best starting record in MLB history, they are only halfway to tying the 1916 New York Giants (now San Francisco Giants) record 26-game win streak, which was accomplished in September. The two teams with the longest win streaks since 2000 are also small money clubs with 2023 payrolls under $90 million: the 2017 Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) and the 2002 Athletics, the team that inspired the book “Moneyball.”
Further Reading
Tampa Bay Rays Look To Make It 12-0 In Historic MLB Start (Forbes)
The Business of Baseball (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/04/13/mlbs-best-small-money-team-makes-history-with-13-0-start/