Joey Wendle led the West Chester Golden Rams to a Division II Championship in 2012, and he followed it up with a pro career, first with the Oakland Athletics, where he played minimally before he was traded to Tampa.

Wendle won the Second Base job out of Spring Training in 2018, and the versatile defensive player was fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting while batting an even .300.  Wendle was hurt through much of 2019, but was a top player on the 2020 team that won the Pennant.  In 2021, Wendle had another good year with Tampa, going to the All-Star Game, with an 11 HR/.265 year.  

After the 2021 Season, Tampa traded Wendle across the state to Miami.  With the Rays, the infielder had 371 Hits.

Austin Meadows was part of the trade that sent Chris Archer to the Pirates at the 2018 Trade Deadline, and the young Outfielder is showing the skills to be the top player of the transaction.

Meadows became an All-Star in 2019 on the strength of a 32 Home Run/.291/.346/.558 year where he was 14^thin MVP voting. Meadows helped Tampa reach the World Series the following year, and in 2021, Meadows was a large part of the team that went back to the playoffs, as he had 27 Home Runs and 106 RBIs, although he had a less-than-desirable Batting Average (.235), and On Base Percentage (.315).  Tampa dealt Meadows to the Tigers during 2020 Spring Training, ending his run in the state of Florida.

With the Rays, Meadows had 308 Hits with 65 Home Runs.

Selected by the front office in the third round of the 2015 draft, Brandon Lowe quickly developed into one of the most feared left-handed power threats at his position. Armed with an explosive, high-effort swing that targeted right-handed pitching, "Bamm-Bamm" overcame immense physical roadblocks to anchor multiple pennant chases under the tropical sun.

His initial phase marked an immediate national breakthrough, earning an award. Debuting late in 2018 and remaining rookie-eligible into 2019, he made checking inside fastballs a key personal habit. Lowe adapted his stance to hit a strong .270 with 17 home runs, earning his only American League All-Star selection and placing third in Rookie of the Year voting. This impressive achievement is notable given that severe shin and quad injuries limited him to only 82 games.

He brilliantly demonstrated that his short peak was no lucky break during the pandemic-shortened 2020 schedule. As the driving force behind an energetic lineup that made it all the way to the World Series, Lowe hit 14 home runs with a fantastic .554 slugging percentage. These achievements earned him a spot on the All-MLB Second Team and an eighth-place finish in the AL Most Valuable Player voting.

Once the season resumed according to the standard calendar, his offensive identity achieved its definitive peak. His 2021 regular-season performance served as a comprehensive demonstration of middle-of-the-order power. Lowe systematically dominated junior circuit pitching staffs, resulting in a remarkable career-high of 39 home runs and 99 runs batted in over 149 games, earning him a well-deserved tenth-place finish in the American League MVP voting.

The subsequent trajectory required confronting a highly frustrating physical crossroads. Across the 2022, 2023, and 2024 schedules, a brutal gauntlet of lower-back inflammation, oblique strains, and a fractured kneecap repeatedly sapped his mobility and mechanical leverage, turning his middle-ground reality into a choppy, injury-plagued stretch in which he struggled to maintain high-volume durability.

Faced with external doubts, Lowe delivered a resilient bounce-back during the 2025 campaign. Playing away from Tropicana Field due to storm damage from Hurricane Milton, his body was fully stabilized. He put on a magnificent offensive showcase, mashing a stellar 31 home runs with 70 runs batted in, highlighted by a career-best 20-game hitting streak that tied a franchise record and his fifth career grand slam to move into a tie for the most in Rays history.

As Lowe enters his final guaranteed season of his contract, Rays president Erik Neander made a major winter trade. In December 2025, the Rays traded Lowe, their veteran second baseman, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for top prospects, including Jacob Melton. During his eight seasons with Tampa Bay, he amassed 598 hits and 157 home runs.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Tampa Bay Rays. 

Entering the American League as an expansion team in 1998, the Rays were originally the “Devil Rays”, before dropping the demonic portion of their name in 2008.  Saddled in the ultra-competitive American League East, Tampa has managed to make the playoffs five times, including an American League Pennant in 2008.  They have yet to win the World Series to date. 

As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2019 Season.

The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. Evan Longoria

2. Carl Crawford

3. Ben Zobrist

4. David Price

5. Kevin Kiermaier

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.  

Look for our All-Time Top 50 Boston Red Sox coming next!

As always we thank you for your support.

Tommy Pham was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals at the 2018 trading deadline, and at the time, he was batting .248.  With the Rays, he finished the season batting .343, with a Slugging Percentage of .622.  Pham played the entire 2019 season at Leftfield for the Ray, belting 21 Home Runs with 25 Stolen Bases with a .273 Batting Average.

Steven Souza Jr. played three of his five Major League seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays, where he showed decent power.  Souza Jr. had 16 and 17 Home Runs in 2015 and 2016, respectively, and he would nearly double that with a 30 Home Run year in 2017.  As good as his power was, he never batted over .250, and his defense was just average.

Willy Adames was traded early in his fourth MLB season from Tampa to Milwaukee, and it remans to be seen whether this is a transaction that the Rays will regret in the future.

A Tampa Bay Ray for the first six seasons of his career, Jake McGee debuted in the Majors in 2010.  The southpaw only played eight Games for the parent club that year, but he managed to hurl more innings in 2011, and by 2012 he was a permanent player in the Rays bullpen.  From 2012 to 2014, McGee appeared in at least 69 Games, peaking with a 19 Save and 1.89 ERA year in 2014. 

In the up and down career of Fernando Rodney, the two seasons that the Dominican closer spent in Tampa Bay were mostly up.   

Jake Odorizzi played two Games with the Kansas City Royals in 2012, and he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for the 2013 season.  He played in the minors for most of that year, and he became a part of Tampa's starting rotation the season after.   That year, with his four-seam fastball, he would go 11-13 with a 4.13 ERA and was eighth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

Sean Rodriguez was a bona fide utility player in every sense of the word.  He suited up at Second, Third, Short, First, and in the Outfield, and he could be plugged in anywhere to suit the defensive needs of the Rays.  In his first season in Tampa, he was fifth in the American League in Defensive bWAR (2.3).  He would play with the Rays until he was traded to the Pirates after the 2014 season.  Rodriguez never had 400 At Bats in a season with Tampa, but his overall value with his glove made him a player that Tampa wanted to keep for five years.

Before his arrival to Tampa, Greg Vaughn had three 40 plus seasons of Home Runs.  While this was late in his career, and the Outfielder would still have pop in his bat and would go to his fourth and final All-Star Game in 2001 as a Ray.

From Japan, Akinori Iwamura played for years with the Yakult Swallows before he joined the Tampa Bay Rays in the Majors.  Iwamura played at Second Base and Third Base and had 140 Hits as a Major League rookie in 2007.  Iwamura had a better second season in the NL, with 172 Hits, and he would do well until the next year, where his age and injuries caught up to him.

An eighth round pick in 2007, Matt Moore was called up late in 2011 and was called up late in 2011.  He only played three Games for Tampa that regular season, he was on the post-season roster, winning a game in the playoffs. 

There were two Pitchers named Roberto Hernandez, who threw for the Rays.  This "Roberto Hernandez" was the first one with that name and by far the best one.

Toby Hall made his Major League debut in Tampa in 2000, where the Catcher appeared in four games.  Hall would progressively play more in the next two seasons for the Rays, and he would play at least 119 Games each year from 2003 to 2005.  Hall was not the best hitter, as he struggled to get his On Base Percentage to .300, but he was solid defensively.  He was in the top five Runners Caught Stealing, and in 2005, he was first in Defensive bWAR.  Hall left Tampa when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the summer of 2006.

If you just look at the back of a baseball card, the Major League career of Rolando Arrojo looks like a one-year wonder.  That is true, but there is a lot more to digest with the Cuban defector.

Randy Winn was a switch-hitting Outfielder who was plucked from the Florida Marlins in the Expansion Draft.  Winn had yet to break into the Major League level, and his debut at Baseball's highest level occurred in Tampa.

With the Tampa Bay Rays for three seasons (2008-10), Matt Garza started 94 Games.  The righthander would win 11 Games in his first year there, but his crowning achievement was in the ALCS, where he won two Games with a 1.38 ERA, an effort that took Tampa to play in their first World Series.

Rocco Baldelli had an excellent rookie season in 2003 when he debuted in the Majors with the Rays.  Finishing third in American League Rookie of the Year voting, the Centerfielder was seventh in Stolen Bases (27) and tenth in Hits (184), and he would bat .289 with 11 Home Runs.  The 2004 season was also good, with him having a career-high in Home Runs (16) and RBIs (74), and he was first among the AL Centerfielders in Assists and Range Factor per Game.  That was sadly the beginning of the end for Baldelli.