After 90 wins, Rays extend Cash
The Tampa Bay Rays, who won more games than any American League team that didn’t make the playoffs, have rewarded manager Kevin Cash with a contract extension that runs through 2024, plus a club option for 2025.
The 40-year-old Cash had one year remaining on a five-year, $5 million deal he signed when he replaced Joe Maddon after the 2014 season.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Both Cash, who had no previous managerial experience when he was hired, and management said it was an easy decision to continue their relationship after a bounce-back season.
“Kevin has a long list of positives . ... It’s been a joy to see him blossom,” general manager Erik Neander said yesterday. “He’s very deserving of this extension. We’re excited for the years ahead.”
The budget-minded Rays surprisingly won 90 games, finishing third in the AL East behind the Red Sox and Yankees, despite trimming payroll last winter and purging the roster again in July to transform themselves into a young team with a promising future.
Cash, who turns 41 in December, has led the Rays to a 318-330 record over four seasons.
“There’s reason to be really excited about the way our team played, the youth and the athleticism, and the way these guys really came together in the second half of the year,” Cash said.
“I’d like to think, other than the teams that are playing playoff baseball right now, we might have been the most talked about team in a positive light at the end of the season,” the manager added during a conference call. “It’s an honor to be a part of that.”
The Rays lost 12-of-15 to begin the season, digging themselves into a hole few people thought they were capable of escaping.
With first-time All-Star Blake Snell leading the majors with 21 wins and an AL-best 1.89 ERA and Cash overseeing an innovative plan to use “openers” and “bullpen days” to compensate for a shortage of proven starting pitching, the Rays went 41-25 after the All-Star break, including 19-9 in September.
“This is a year we put a lot on his plate,” Neander said. “We made a lot of moves all the way into spring training that left a lot of doubt, potentially within our clubhouse with respect to what we could accomplish this year.”
Padres fire Stairs
The San Diego Padres have fired hitting coach Matt Stairs after one year on the job as the team continued to rank at the bottom of the majors in key offensive stats.
General manager A.J. Preller confirmed the move, saying in a text to The Associated Press: “We made the change.”
The rebuilding Padres finished last in the NL West at 66-96, five losses worse than 2017.
Stairs’ replacement will be the Padres’ 10th hitting coach since Petco Park opened in 2004.
The one-time Red Sox player had replaced Alan Zinter, who was fired on Sept. 1, 2017.