Tampa Bay Rays expect to be back in contention at this time a year from now

ST. PETERSBURG — It's clear elsewhere on this page how far the Rays have fallen from last Sept. 20 to this one. So where, besides opening a four-game series at Yankee Stadium, will they be next Sept. 20?

As disappointing as this season was, the Rays believe they have the core of a team to be competitive again next season.

"It will be a lot better than this year, I know that," SS Jason Bartlett said. "It can't get much worse, especially how we're ending up this season.

"The potential's here. Once we kind of fell back a little too far behind the Red Sox, we kind of just lost that motivation and we were just kind of going through the motions. And that's kind of what we're doing right now."

They look to be set — assuming they don't get too creative during the trading season — at most positions, with returning 3B Evan Longoria, Bartlett, 1B Carlos Peña, DH Pat Burrell, LF Carl Crawford and CF B.J. Upton. Ben Zobrist will play either second or right, or both, with INF Sean Rodriguez and OF Matt Joyce joining the mix of possible options. That leaves catcher as the prime area for a potential upgrade, and they'll look.

Most of the pitching staff is also in place, with an intriguing rotation of James Shields, Matt Garza, Jeff Niemann, David Price and Wade Davis. And at least Lance Cormier, J.P. Howell, Dan Wheeler and maybe Randy Choate are likely to return to a bullpen that otherwise is in need of a makeover and will include 2-3 new faces, maybe even a closer.

"If you really look at that, you can see how that would work," manager Joe Maddon said. "Just a couple weeks ago, it was very close to working. I think a full offseason, with guys getting a full complement of rest, and another year of maturity and understanding of how this works, is going to help. And I think there's going to be a lot more incentive based on what happened this year to come back next year and to really get this thing done."

It will take more than want-to, as they need to play tighter defense, be more consistent offensively and rediscover how to win close games. If they can do all that, they could be celebrating again a year from now.

"Absolutely we believe that," Zobrist said. "There's no question what we're capable of."