Rays persevere through a tough 2016 campaign

ST. PETERSBURG — Maybe the Rays would have done better in 2016 if …

• Kevin Kiermaier had been on the field more.

• Chris Archer had better results.

• The bullpen had performed up to expectations.

That’s a lot of maybes, but it’s still tough to quantify why the 2016 Rays didn’t have a better season.

“Winning teams find ways to overcome injuries,” said Matt Silverman, Rays president of baseball operations. “We weren’t able to do that this year — especially in June, when our depth was most tested. We also didn’t convert outs and limit damage like we’ve grown accustomed to.”

• Rays have pieces in place to bounce back in 2017

Silverman allowed that the team showed improvement in the second half.

“[We got better], especially on the defensive side of the ball,” Silverman said. “But it was too little and way too late.”

Silverman did manage to find a few positives from this season.

“There certainly were a number of bright spots … headlined by [Evan] Longoria’s tremendous year,” Silverman said. “We saw [Alex] Colome establish himself as one of the game’s best relievers, [Jake] Odorizzi put together another solid season, and Brad Miller had a breakout year at the plate, to name a few. Our power numbers exceeded expectations — but we still didn’t get on base often enough, and we didn’t score as many runs as needed.”

Manager Kevin Cash cited the Rays’ first-half struggles for digging a hole the club could not escape.

“You look at the rough patch of the season, where it was a really rough month,” Cash said. “We had five starters who scuffled. When that happens to all five, you’re going to have a rough month. You can probably manage when two or three are scuffling at one time, but that wasn’t the case.”

Cash pointed out that the team was able to right the ship to a certain extent.

“Coming out of the All-Star break, the guys got on a really good run, collectively as a group, and that’s where we had the success,” Cash said.

Despite the disappointment of how they finished, the Rays were able to find out a lot about the players who did play — some of whom would not have accomplished what they did had openings not been created.

The Rays appear to be positioned to turn the corner in 2017, and once again be a factor in the American League East.

Record: 68-94, fifth place, American League …

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