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By Ben Watanabe
Contributing Sports Writer
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When a low-payroll team vaults to the top of the standings, it's often assumed it accomplishes it through pitching and defense.
For the Tampa Bay Rays, that's not entirely true.
The Rays, who entered Thursday with MLB's best record, indeed can pitch. But they can score runs, too, in no small part thanks to designated hitter Yandy Diaz, who at 35 years old continues to be one of the finest hitters in the game. And he'll get a slight pay raise to ply his trade in Tampa for at least the next two years after triggering the vesting threshold for his 2027 option, according to MLB Trade Rumors' Anthony Franco.
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By reaching 500 plate appearances this season, Diaz's option rises to $13 million, Franco wrote Wednesday. That's a steal for a player who consistently posts better than an .800 OPS and is on track to bat above .300 for the fourth time as a Ray. He's slashing .302/.371/.466 this season.
No trio carries as much of an offensive load for a postseason contender as Diaz, Junior Caminero and Jonathan Aranda do for Tampa. The Rays' .739 OPS leads the AL largely on the strength of their production alone. Yet whereas Caminero and Aranda are the arbitration-eligible bargains the franchise is known for, Diaz is the Rays' rare aging slugger on a true contract.
While the rest of the world assumes the Los Angeles Dodgers will again lift the championship trophy at the end of the World Series, the small-budget Rays keep offering reasons to consider this might be their year. They continue to outpace much deeper-pocketed rivals such as the New York Yankees, who desperately await the return of Aaron Judge, and the Boston Red Sox, who have slumped coming off their white-hot July.
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