9:50am: It’s now official, with the Rays announcing the deal.
8:24am: The Rays have agreed to a long-term extension with skipper Kevin Cash, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. While not yet official, the deal is expected to be formally announced in short order.
It’s a lengthy new commitment for the Rays, who have now installed Cash through the 2024 season. The contract also includes an option for another year, per Topkin, with financial details still unknown. This pact replaces the prior deal that, according to the report, still included one more season and a two-year option. (Prior indications were that Cash’s deal was for five years in duration, but it seems the final pair of campaigns had not been guaranteed.)
Cash guided the Tampa Bay club to a 90-72 record this season, utilizing a variety of unorthodox means of deploying the roster. While that wasn’t enough to earn a spot in the postseason, the showing created quite a bit of optimism in the near future. It also obviously demonstrated to the front office that Cash is the right person to translate their theories into action.
While it has long seemed that Cash was in harmony with the higher-ups, the results had lagged over his first three years on the job. Hired in a 2014-15 offseason that saw massive organizational change — top baseball ops exec Andrew Friedman and manager Joe Maddon both left town — Cash ended up overseeing a pair of middling 80-82 campaigns sandwiched around a brutal 2016 effort (68-94).
As the 2018 campaign approached, the Tampa Bay organization was under pressure. Panned by the media and pursued by the MLBPA for their cost cutting, the Rays were forced to defend their decision to sell off a series of still-controlled veteran players late in the offseason. The club ended up shipping out yet more veterans, with staff ace Chris Archer (link) following catcher Wilson Ramos (link), starter Nathan Eovaldi (link), closer Alex Colome and outfielder Denard Span (link) out the door during the course of the season.
Despite the exodus of MLB talent, the roster performed admirably. As late in the season as August 5th, the Rays sat at .500. But the team finished on a 34-16 tear. Cash, aided by a data-driven ops department, wielded a variety of emerging young players to excellent effect.
When the season closed, the Rays were left looking at an intriguing depth chart, largely blank future balance sheet, and lauded farm system. There’s even renewed hope of enhanced future revenues, as the organization pursues new ballpark plans, though that’ll certainly take some time and still faces hurdles. Further success on the field would no doubt be a welcome development from a business perspective.
Cash, then, will again be tasked with squeezing value from every corner of the roster. He’ll enter this new phase of his stint with a big vote of confidence and ample job security. Expectations, too, are raised. Much of his roster is set, though it’ll certainly be interesting to see what sort of additional tinkering is pursued over the winter to come.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Cash did an amazing job in Tampa this year. He deserved that extension without a doubt.
Congrats on a well deserved extension. Like many contracts today, I hope it has numerous opt out clauses should a better opportunity come his way.
Cash seems like a guy I would love to play for (though if I were a pitcher I might have some issues). Just seems like a great combo of intense/passionate, focused and driven, progressive and bold/daring, and someone who can relate to his players. Well done!
Who would have thought a couple years ago that Joe Maddon may be out of a job and Cash
gets an extension.
Joe Mason isn’t out of a job.
Maddon*
Not yet
thank you…
I guess only George McKeever would think Joe Maddon would be out of a job. George how is that working out for you?
let’s see what happens if he doesn’t get past the Wild Card next year…
I really don’t think the outcome of a wild card game can tell us whether the cubs want to bring maddon back as manager.
well by what they said on MLB Network Maddon is in his last year of his contract in 2019 and hasn’t been offered an extension, the Cubs are not paying him to lose wild card games…
Great move by the organization, Cash has found his footing, he has a voice, and I LOVE it
Well deserved. He’s shown he can win and they still haven’t reaped the benefits of their farm yet.
Well deserved. Manager of the Year award is next.
Agreed. Melvin did a great job and got his team to the postseason, but what Cash did with his team is actually more impressive. Outside of Snell, they really don’t have anyone spectacular on the team, and yet they were highly competitive.
Absolutely true! He got everything he could out of his talent!!!
Great job, TB!
Well deserved. Brought that team to 90 wins, even though they weren’t even supposed to be above .500.
The Rays also have up and coming Jared Sanburg in Durham (AAA), whose won the last 2 International League crowns. He won last year with a prospect-laden roster; this year he won with a bunch of AAA vagabonds.
Not to be TOO forward thinking, but Kevin Cash has more trade value now than he ever did as a player (Theo, are you listening?).
For all the good things the Rays did this year, they’re still quantifiably miles away from the Sox (who are still young) and the Spanks (who are somewhat young and have more coming). Not to mention what Toronto has bubbling up.
Cash’s value may be most useful as a trade chip. I can see Mad-Dumb back in LA (from whence he came), and Cash is Chicago.
Wow, downvotes for speaking the truth.
I can’t see Tampa giving him away. The last time a manager required compensation, the returning player was Mike Aviles. Can’t see it being it worth it for the Rays.
Although the Pirates got Trevor Williams for a pitching coach, but Williams wasn’t really that highly rated at the time.
Oh I suspect the return would be substantial. Yet another possible landing spot would be Cleveland where Tito, to be frank, just looks tired. And it would make a great back-story, given the relationship the two guys have.
The Rays REAL window opens in 2021, when the impact talent (Brujan, Hernandez, Gomez and Franco the wonder puppy) bubble up from low- A. Rays fans are a bit delusional crowing about their young talent in the same division that’s produced Benentendi. Judge, Torres and Andujar the last couple of years; Joey Wendle’s a bit short of those guys. And the impact of Batman and Robin in Toronto is going to reverberate in the AL East for a decade.
They really should be aiming at that, IMHO.
Joey Wendle was a waiver claim lol. Adames and Honeywell and arroyo and Glasnow and meadows. Not sure if you paid attention the Yankees and such crushed us in the beginning of the season but from just about halfway on the rays swept the astros and Yankees and took 2 of 3 from the Red Sox. Yankees and Red Sox have no pitching. We have more than we know what to do with. And we know good pitching beats good hitting
Ask the Mets if good pitching always wins out. Payroll issues will continue to haunt Tampa. Too bad because a good fight always makes winning more enjoyable. I realize it’s decades ago but while everyone talks about 77 and 78, 79 was also great. A dogfight with the O’s ending up on top of both Boston and New York. Can’t picture that today…
Mets have 2 good pitchers and no bullpen… that doesn’t qualify as good pitching. The rays had the best era in baseball for months this season. Adding Pham who hit .347 in a small sample size for a whole season while adding Honeywell, Deleon and banda all coming back and still working on glasnow our pitching will continue to grow and be better and our offense is only growing and with 32m committed in payroll expect offensive additions in the offseason this team isn’t far from the division leaders who have basically no pitching besides sale and the Yankees bullpen that can’t pitch every single game
The Rays swept the Red Sox last time they played, Also the Sox were completely healthy. I might ad the Rays in 2018 was the only team in MLB to “sweep” the Astros, Rays Indians and Yanks at one time or another last year. Playoffs next year?
Banda if he comes back in ’19 it will be in Aug or Sept.
Rays do have a 40 man roster crunch before the Rule 5 Draft but they do have some average players (Pruitt, Kitteridge as examples) that could be released if needed.
Their biggest job this offseason is to add one or two late inning relievers.
The rays are just never gonna be that team to spend big money and multiple years on a reliever. They try and be flexible and relievers only have 1 purpose. They’ll take comes chances on some guys and they’ll spend on power in the offensive market like a Ramos or a Nelson Cruz on a short but more AAV deal
Manager of the yr award in the AL should go to Cash !!!
Let’s don’t forget A’s Bob Melvin! Like Tampa, Oakland was not supposed to compete this year – projections were for 2019 to face a stiff challenge with the Astros a top of the AL West – so I think the A’s should reward BoMel with a similar pact to Cash’s and be one of the leading candidates for manager of the year..
Cudo’s to Bob Melvin, However Cash changed the world of baseball with the opener/follower pitching strategy. He only had 1 real starter and had to keep the positive attitude in the clubhouse while the FO traded 1/2 the team.. I might add that the Rays easily beat the As in both series this year while the As narrowly avoided a sweep. Cash deserves manager of the year!