Updated MLB Playoff Bracket 2026, Yankees vs. Rays ALDS Odds, Preview

The New York Yankees finalized the ALDS bracket with their sweep of the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night.

The Yankees will do battle with their American League East rival, the Tampa Bay Rays, who had the best regular-season record in the AL.

Tampa Bay barely won the regular-season series with New York by a 7-6 margin. The Rays were the best team in AL for most of the season, but they reside in a tough ALDS matchup.

New York has an ideal pitching setup in which it can use Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Cam Schlittler and Max Fried throughout the best-of-five series.

Tampa Bay will likely be the favorite on paper, but not by much given the Yankees' excellent set of arms.

Money Line: New York Yankees (+116; bet $100 to win $116); Tampa Bay (-136)

Will Tampa Bay Have Enough Power at the Plate?

Tampa Bay finished the regular season 22nd in the majors in home runs. That was the third-lowest total among playoff qualifiers.

Junior Caminero led the Rays with 42 home runs, but only Jonathan Aranda and Yandy Diaz eclipsed the 20-homer mark across the rest of the roster.

There was a drop off after Aranda and Diaz as well to Cedric Mullins with 15 home runs.

The Yankees only had Ben Rice over 20 home runs, but they also had five other players hit over 15 home runs in the regular season.

Tampa Bay prides itself on its small ball and ability to manufacture runs, but that may be difficult to do against a New York pitching staff that is more than capable of striking out batters in bunches.

One swing has the potential to alter the dynamic of the series, and while Caminero can do that with his power bat, there are few other in the Rays lineup that can do the same.

The Yankees are coming off a series in which they scored 18 runs. Nine of those runs were scored via four home runs.

A lack of power could put the Rays at a disadvantage that they can't work themselves out of. One or two players around Caminero need to step up to deliver a handful of big hits throughout the series so that the Rays don't have to rely on a single superstar to deliver all the power.

New York Rotation Built For Postseason Series

The Yankees have one of the most formidable rotations in the postseason bracket.

Gerrit Cole is the likely Game 1 starter after Cam Schlittler and Max Fried finished off the Red Sox in two games.

Carlos Rodon is an option for Game 2, or Aaron Boone can come back with the Schlittler-Fried combination in Games 2 and 3.

The rotation is loaded with postseason experience. The least experienced member of the quartet, Schlittler, has quickly turned into one of the best postseason pitchers over the last few years.

At minimum, the Yankees take away the pitching advantage the Rays in most matchups this season. Drew Rasmussen, Freddy Peralta, Griffin Jax and others will be countered by an All-Star pitcher on the other end.

The Yankees just held the Red Sox to two runs over 18 innings in the wild-card round.

They may concede a few more runs over five games against the Rays, but there's a chance they hold Tampa Bay under three runs in most of the contests because of how strong they are on the front end of the pitching staff.