Chandler Simpson is one of the most exciting players in baseball, who is rounding out his overall game in his rookie year with the Tampa Bay Rays. Simpson tantalizes you with raw ability, and the remainder of the regular season will focus on his continued evolution. His defense and offense have progressed at varying paces, even as the speed component remains steady. Going forward, will Simpson make better reads in the outfield? Will he continue making good decisions on the bases while diversifying his offensive game?
Rays Rookie Chandler Simpson Does Many Things Well
Simpson made himself at home in the confines of West Sacramento in putting together a fantastic series. He went 6-for-10 with two walks and two runs scored in Tampa Bay’s recent series against the Athletics. In the month of August, he has a .333 average along with an RBI and four runs scored. Simpson impacts the game in multiple ways as he legs out infield singles and stretches singles into extra base hits.
Chandler Simpson’s last 37 games:
.326-BA/14-SB/.766-OPS
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Since his recall from Triple-A Durham on June 24, he has been posting solid production and helping the team in many ways. The Rays said one of the things Simpson needed to work on when he was sent to the minors was the swing and miss in his plate appearances. So how’s that going? Simpson is an aggressive hitter who looks like he is swinging with one arm as he departs the batter’s box. It has been interesting to see Simpson put the burden on the pitcher to make good pitches, and his plate discipline is improving. His 9.6% strikeout rate is in the 98th percentile of MLB, as is his 11% whiff rate. If he can keep up that pace while playing every day, then Simpson can vault himself into the pantheon of stars in baseball.
Nonexistent Power
This is one of the unfortunate blemishes in an otherwise solid resumé. Simpson has a giant doughnut hole in the power column of the stat sheet. It’s hard to see anything in the underlying metrics that suggests he is just missing a few dingers. His average exit velocity, barrel, and hard-hit readings are all in the bottom 1% of baseball. That’s not exactly promising when you consider that he infamously swatted exactly one home run during his three-year minor league career (1,119 plate appearances). Of course, it’s not a huge problem if teammates Brandon Lowe and Junior Caminero keep outdoing themselves with their enormous power. Besides, his speed should get him at least one inside-the-park home run.
How’s That Defense?
The defense is getting better, even if the metrics aren’t as optimistic. When you watch him play every day, you see the slow but steady improvements being made. There are plenty of highlight plays. The real question over the course of the remainder of the regular season is how Simpson improves his defense on the margins. Is he making better reads and taking good routes on the balls hit to him in the outfield? In the Athletics series, we saw him take a route to a ball that scooted under his glove and permitted the A’s to score an extra run. There’s no doubt it was a tough play and the Rays ultimately lost the game 6-0, but plays like that are an example of something he can continue to get better at.
Last Word On Simpson
Simpson is a tantalizing player because he shows you so much potential in one sequence and a few unpolished aspects of his game in another. In the middle game of the A’s series, he swatted a one-out single in the third inning. But soon after, he got caught straying too far off first base and was caught stealing. That moment felt like it took the starch out of a potential offensive rally. On the other hand, sometimes his speed at first base causes opposing pitchers to commit throwing errors when trying to control the running game. Overall, Chandler Simpson’s introduction to the Rays fandom has been one of the more pleasurable things to watch on a 2025 team that still faces a tall task in order to make the postseason.
Main Photo Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
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