3 Tampa Bay Rays playing their way off the postseason roster

The postseason is just weeks away. This postseason, like always, separates the contenders from the pretenders, and these three players seem like pretenders.

The Tampa Bay Rays were set for a deep playoff run, but due to some suspensions and injuries, they could be eliminated early if they can't step up.

No. 3 Tampa Bay Ray playing their way off the postseason roster: Jonathan Aranda

Jonathan Aranda has not been good since debuting in 2022, but he has been consistent—consistently bad. While he is just 25 and has much potential, you can't have him in the postseason because he doesn't have experience and hasn't been good enough to risk.

Aranda has only been able to hit .194 in 2023. It would be common to hit that if you often hit home runs, but Aranda has only hit one home run in 2023 with six RBIs. He holds an OPS+ of 74, meaning he is 26 percent worse than the average player while also not being good defensively.

Aranda has been able to walk more but is striking out at a career-high of 32.1 percent, while he has made that up with a 14.8 percent walk rate. He has still been a terrible contact-hitter with no power, who chases the ball often. Aranda also has no speed and can't play defensively, as well as being a terrible hitter.

Hitters should have a high average against fastballs, but in 2023, Aranda has not been able to hit fastballs at all. Pitchers know he can't hit a fastball, so they've been throwing them to him at a rate of 66.3 percent. He has only been able to hit .114 against it. He has been a dominant breaking and off-speed pitch hitter but doesn't often see those.

His main problem with the fastball is he isn’t a good sweet-spot hitter. He keeps getting under or over fastballs, leading to a whiff rate of 36.4 percent. By comparison, his whiff rate on breaking balls and off-speed pitches is 26.2 and 20.7 percent respectively.