'If we bunt, we win': How the Rays developed a secret weapon — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Tampa Bay Rays led MLB with 129 bunts this season, 40 more than the second-place Brewers (89), and paced the league in bunt-for-hit attempts (84), sacrifice bunts (45), and bunt hits (49) — 17 more than the next-closest team and 47 more than the Dodgers' total of two.
- Taylor Walls dropped a perfect bunt against Yankees starter Max Fried on Sept. 22 that scored a runner from third when no fielder covered second, sparking a three-run seventh inning in a 6-1 Rays win; Walls said the frequency of the play forces defenses to shift their positioning.
- Brady Williams, the Rays' third-base coach and son of former Blue Jays and Red Sox manager Jimy Williams, is credited as the architect of the approach after running bunting instruction for 10 years in the minors; daily bunting practice grew from three players early in the season to 10, fueled by the in-house mantra "If we bunt, we win."
- Chandler Simpson (14 bunt hits in 26 attempts), Cedric Mullins (12 in 14), and Taylor Walls (11 in 19) ranked second through fourth in MLB bunt hits behind only the Brewers' David Hamilton (15-for-21); Simpson credited spring-training recognition that the roster's speed could turn the bunt into a weapon.
- Kevin Cash said the bunting emphasis was never a preseason directive but "just kind of evolved" and "caught fire," with players self-selecting into practice; the manager added that he wouldn't ask power hitters like Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz, or Jonathan Aranda to bunt.
- The Rays posted baseball's lowest strikeout rate from hitters and lowest walk rate from pitchers in the same season — a combination matched by only two teams since 1950, the 2006 Minnesota Twins and 1986 Boston Red Sox.
Why it matters: The Rays' small-ball identity delivers a competitive counter-narrative to the home-run era: they combined baseball's lowest strikeout rate from hitters with its lowest walk rate from pitchers, a dual feat matched only by the 2006 Twins and 1986 Red Sox since 1950. For Cash's front office, the open question is whether the model is replicable or requires a rare roster of speed-first players willing to buy into daily bunting reps.
Ask SkimNews
