Tampa Bay Rays player Richie Palacios runs home to score, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
The Tampa Bay Rays are the hottest team in baseball, riding a nine-game winning streak — all on the road. At 74-46, they have the best record in MLB, lead the American League East by six games, and appear primed for a deep postseason run after missing the playoffs the past two seasons.
A big spark lately has come from the bat of second baseman Richie Palacios, who’s hitting .364 in the month of August (8-for-22) with one home run, five RBIs and a stolen base. His RBI single in Wednesday’s game started off a two-run second inning as the Rays went on to beat the Athletics 8-4 and close out their road trip.
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Palacios is now hitting .238 on the season with five home runs, 35 RBIs and 10 stolen bases — his most productive season with the Rays, where he’s been since 2024. That’s already a career high for RBIs, he’s matched his career best for home runs and hits (59), and he’s well on pace for career highs in games played and batting average.
After much of the past five years spent in the majors, he knows most people know him and would define him as a baseball player.
“But for me, I’m just a man of Christ,” he said recently in an interview with Billy Pinckney. Palacios also labels himself a “Christ follower” in his Instagram bio.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Palacios grew up in the church. His father is a pastor now, and Palacios credits his dad for raising him to have a strong faith in Jesus. Baseball is just what he does, but he sees it as his “vehicle” to point people toward God.
“He’s greater than anything that’s better than baseball; he’s greater than all that stuff,” Palacios told Pinckney. “I put my faith in Him. I pray every day, I read my Bible and I know that He’s with me and the Holy Spirit is on this earth with me. I’m just amazed to be able to be blessed, to be able to play the game that I love and enjoy. But it’s not because of anything I’ve done in my life, it’s because of His mercy.”
Palacios starred at Berkeley Carroll School in New York City before playing college baseball at Towson (Maryland) University. Cleveland drafted him in the third round of the 2018 MLB Draft, and he made his big-league debut with Cleveland on April 25, 2022, but he’s spent time in the minors every year until 2026. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in June 2023, then traded to Tampa Bay in January 2024.
The 29-year-old appears to be settling in with the Rays. But his play on the field is downstream of his spiritual practices at home.
“The first thing I do when I wake up is pray and read my Bible,” he told Pinckney. “That’s the greatest sacrifice I can make right when I wake up. I say, ‘Thank You, God, for giving me another day, for giving me another blessing to be able to come out and do this and just be the person that I am. That’s what I do — I acknowledge Him first. Before the game, I acknowledge Him again. Throughout the whole day I try to acknowledge Him. That keeps me rooted in the Spirit and not rooted in myself.”
Though Palacios is experiencing success now, he knows he had to grind to get to this point. He made his major league debut at age 25, which is later than some prospects, and is already on his third team. He was slated to begin the 2026 season in Triple-A, but an injury to Gavin Lux opened the door for him to make the opening day roster.
For the majority of his career, he’s been a bench player and only started sparingly. Now he’s worked his way into an everyday role. In the successes and the struggles, he aims to keep his perspective the same.
“For me, when I wake up in the morning and pray to God and just know that everything that’s going to go on this day that He’s in control,” he recently told Jesus Over Baseball. “I’m able to be free with that so when I do go 0-for-4, I don’t become a different person now. I don’t become an angry person. I still have the faith of God within me. I still have the joy of the Lord in me, so I’m able to play. Even though I’m 0-for-4 or 4-for-4, I can still go and say, ‘Thank You, God, for what You’ve done for me, for who You are and the ability to impact the people around me positively whether I do good or don’t go good.'”
He said one of his favorite verses is Colossians 3:23, which says: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
“When I’m playing this game, I’m not playing this game for the fans, I’m not playing this game to get recognition,” Palacios told Jesus Over Baseball. “I’m playing this game because God’s told me that this is the vehicle that He wants to use in my life to affect people and share His Word.”
The Rays return to the field Friday at home for an AL East battle against the Baltimore Orioles.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
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