The Tampa Bay Rays have been the best and most consistent team in the American League throughout the season. They have a 4.0-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East with 9 games to go in the regular season. Barring a total collapse, the Rays will clinch the division title and the best record in the American League by the middle of next week.

Manager Kevin Cash has seen his team's Big Three of Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero lead the attack all season. While there has been some support from the rest of the lineup — speedy Chandler Simpson and Liam Hicks have been the primary contributors — Diaz, Aranda and Caminero have done the heavy lifting.

With the playoffs scheduled to start Sept. 29, Cash is starting to look ahead. In particular, he wants to make sure his key players are rested and strong when the Rays start playing postseason baseball. As a result, the Rays manager has decided to rest Diaz when the Rays play the Red Sox at Tropicana Field Saturday.

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The Rays will almost certainly get a bye into the divisional round of the playoffs, so there is time for players to rest while the Wild Card round is in progress. The Rays have not offered any other reason why Diaz is sitting out other than to give him a scheduled day of rest.

Diaz typically bats leadoff for the Rays and he is slashing .293/.359/.451 with 22 home runs, 81 runs batted in and 87 runs scored.