HELP WANTED
Rays looking for clubhouse leader, postgame hype man
ST. PETERSBURG — Brandon Lowe is now the longest-tenured position player on the Tampa Bay Rays, so it made sense when some of the young prospects attending big-league camp for the first time went to him with questions about tipping staff, paying dues and other matters of clubhouse etiquette.
“It was super weird [those first few days] because I’ve never had to deal with some of the questions that guys have asked,” Lowe said. “I was, like, ‘Man I don’t know how to answer that.’ ”
So Lowe did what he had every time he had a question since he was called up in August 2018: He asked veteran center fielder Kevin Kiermaier.
The twist, though, is that Kiermaier is now in Dunedin, having signed with the Blue Jays after the Rays declined his 2023 option.
And the turn is that without Kiermaier, a lineup fixture since 2014, the Rays face something of a leadership void. They also let several other veterans go, most notably catcher Mike Zunino (a Ray since 2019), as well as pitcher Ryan Yarbrough (2018) and first baseman Ji-Man Choi (2018).
“Missing KK and Z and those guys is gonna hurt,” said injured reliever Andrew Kittredge, whose July 2017 debut makes him the most senior Ray.
“But I like to think that we have the clubhouse to kind of fill those roles.”
There is no clear heir apparent, so it seems most likely to be a group effort.
“I don’t think there’s one guy that’s necessarily comfortable doing that or wants that,” Kittredge said. “I think it’s kind of seemingly so tight-knit that it should just be kind of a role that a lot of guys take over.
“We don’t have a personality like KK, so I think it’s more just the collective group kind of stepping up together.”
The process may take a while to unfold, which manager Kevin Cash said is fine. When there is a change, clubhouse leadership doesn’t necessarily develop until rosters are reduced at the end of the spring and games start to count.
“I think we’ve got to allow it some time to grow a little bit and let it happen on its own,” Cash said.
“Just the quality of people that we have in that clubhouse, I think naturally they’re going to figure it out. All teams don’t need to have that one leader. If there’s a respect component and factor in the clubhouse, and they all appreciate each other, you’re still in a really good spot.”
Pool of candidates
Two names that have been suggested are Lowe, who is 28 and under team control through 2026, and Yandy Diaz, 31, who joined
the Rays in 2019 and just signed an extension through 2025. Plus, he can connect directly with the Spanish-speaking players in the clubhouse.
Though neither aggressively volunteered — Lowe stated his candidacy by saying, “It feels weird saying this, but myself ” — both claim they are ready to serve if needed.
“I don’t even like to be a leader, but I like to just help out in any way I can to the young guys,” Diaz said via team interpreter Manny Navarro.
Who else? Tyler Glasnow, 29, is outgoing and the team union representative, but typically day-to-day clubhouse leadership doesn’t fall to a starting pitcher. He also will miss at least the first two to four weeks of the season with an oblique strain.
Shane McClanahan talks often about wanting “to be a leader for this team,” but he also is a starter and only 25. Manuel Margot, 28, has the most big-league time (6 years, 12 days) of all Rays except newly signed starter Zach Eflin but prefers to avoid the spotlight.
Eventually, it will be Wander Franco’s team — heck, with a contract that could be worth up to $233 million over 12 years he kind of owns part of it anyway — but he just turned 22 and has yet to play a full season in the majors.
“It should fall on us,” Lowe said of himself and Diaz, “and [I] hope we don’t drop the ball in any way and we return to the form that we have been and don’t miss that.”
Kiermaier had a multifaceted role, providing answers and guidance to young players, serving as team spokesman to the media and acting as the colorful hype man and emcee for the postgame victory dance party. (There were others over the years who led as well, such as Willy Adames.)
Job requirements
Kiermaier said it’s “a great, great question” as to how the Rays fill the void.
“Someone’s got to step up,” he said, suggesting McClanahan as an option. “You definitely need that in each clubhouse. Keep guys
accountable. Hold everybody to certain standards, what we expect out of each other.
“And that’s all trying to accumulate wins with each other. There’s a lot of things that go on behind closed doors that need to happen, that I believe every team needs just to stay in line.”
Whoever leads, Kiermaier said, needs to be to consistent through good and bad times — a trademark of Cash’s style — but also able to read the room to decide, for example, when a players-only meeting is necessary.
“I’m sure the guys in the clubhouse will figure that out, whoever it may be,” Kiermaier said. “It’s a very young clubhouse still, but guys will step up like they have in the past, and we’ll see.”
Sneak preview
The Rays got a sense of life without Kiermaier as he was sidelined after mid-July with a hip injury that eventually required surgery and seldom around the team.
“Obviously, he was our first and foremost clubhouse guy,” reliever Pete Fairbanks said. “But he was also hurt for a lot of last year, so we kind of had to fill that void.
“And I think that there’s more than enough people here that are capable of doing that.”
The Rays realized quickly that without Kiermaier they had to change the postgame victory programming.
At the suggestion of veteran outfielder David Peralta, another free-agent departee, they went with a rolling leader — with less rapping and dancing but the disco ball still spinning — where the MVP from one win leads the celebration for the next and picks that game’s MVP.
“No one’s going to be up there doing raps like KK, that’s for sure,” Lowe said. “We couldn’t do what KK did; it was a special thing, a special energy. … There’s some guys that tried to do it like KK did and it just wasn’t the same.”
A lot won’t be.