Kevin Cash and Erik Neander Optimistic About 2026 Rays

Port Charlotte, Florida – Tampa Bay Rays President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander and Manager Kevin Cash held their annual Spring Training Press Conference today at Charlotte Sports Park.

The mood was upbeat, there was a feeling of optimism in the duo’s comments, and the desire to push past the last two non-winning seasons by grinding through the scheduled on a day by day basis. 

“There’s an eagerness [among the players], you feel it.” Cash said. “A lot of these guys have been out here for a week, multiple weeks.”

Shane McClanahan, Nick Martinez, and Steve Matz Form Rebuilt Rotation

The Rays moved a handful of starting pitchers via trade or free agent last season and over the winter. Last year, the Rays dealt Zach Littell and Taj Bradley to the Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins respectively.  Adrian Houser departed via free agency and Shane Baz was dealt to the Baltimore Orioles. The Rays are excited to get Shane McClanahan back as well as new free agent additions of Steven Matz and Nick Martinez.

It starts with Shane McClanahan who is healthy after a trying two plus injury filled seasons on the field and personal tragedy of losing his father this past winter. As far as the physical side, Kevin Cash gave a very optimistic opinion on McClanahan saying “it’s about as free and easy as what I recall when he was a healthy pitcher.”

McClanahan will be an exciting addition to the Rays rotation, joining Ryan Pepiot and Drew Rasmussen as well as other free agent signings Nick Martinez and Steven Matz. With their 2025 season buildup Ryan Pepiot (167.2 IP), Drew Rasmussen (150.0 IP), and Nick Martinez (165.2 IP) won’t require much workload management; however, Shane McClanahan starting from zero and Steven Matz working primarily in a relief role only delivered 76.2 IP.  Kevin Cash noted that “with Matz and Shane [McClanahan] in particular, there is going to be some early season managing of their workloads.”

Expectation Of Quiet Offseason Turns Into Roster Churn

When the team ended their 2025 season, Erik Neander thought that the expectation was for a somewhat quiet winter. He noted that at the end of all the off-season moves, like any of the other 20 seasons he’s been with the organization, the goal is to give the current team an opportunity to win. He believes it’s the right thing to do, noting that some years you have a better chance than others. He adds that the front office also has to balance future talent acquisition to ensure the future teams are set up for a chance to win. It’s a strategy that has enabled the Rays to have the third most wins in the time period since 2008.

Over the winter, he traded second baseman Brandon Lowe, outfield Jake Mangum, and reliever Mason Mongtomery to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Shane Baz to the Baltimore Orioles, Josh Lowe to the Los Angeles Angels, and declined the option of closer Pete Fairbanks. Those trades landed Jacob Melton and Gavin Lux in addition to a myriad of prospects from the Orioles in the Baz deal.   Other smaller trades landed big league relievers Yoendrys Gomez and Steve Wilson from the White Sox and infielder/outfielder Ryan Vilade from the Cincinnati Reds. Additionally, the Rays signed free agents Cedric Mullins, Jake Fraley, Steven Matz, and Nick Martinez.

“When I look at the totality of this season, Nick Martinez, Lux, Fraley, Mullins, Matz – we’ve brought in some veteran guys and some guys to fill some gaps that emphasize this season.” Neander said. “We also added a lot of talent that has a chance to impact the team this year –  Jacob Melton and Ben Williamson – but for many years beyond.”

Home is Home. Home being home is a bigger deal that we had appreciated – Erik Neander

After playing last season outdoors at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the Rays return to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.  “Last year’s group, nobody made excuses.” Neander said. “We stressed the importance of the competitive makeup of the group last year going into a rental property and playing in a different environment. Our team was not constructed to be optimized for a lack of a better term for that park.”

Kevin Cash doesn’t think there is going to be a lot of adjustment returning to playing at Tropicana Field.  “I think there is going to be a lot of excitement.: Cash said. “Certainly our ownership group has worked really hard to get it up and running. The city, the county, so many people have played a role. I mean they are busting it to get everything done. There’s a lot of new that’s going to be in there, so I think our players are going to walk in there and be very excited.”

There’s A Lot To Be Excited About Trio of Johnny, Cami, and Yandy

The 2025 season was another excellent season for Yandy Diaz (136 OPS+) while Jonathan Aranda (146 OPS+) and Junior Caminero (131 OPS+) had there coming out parties.

Both Erik Neander and Kevin Cash were excited by the trio of Johnny Aranda, Junior Caminero, and Yandy Diaz to serve as the foundation of the offense. “Yandy [Diaz] is a proven commodity, Cami (Junior Caminero) and Johnny (Jonathan Aranda) had tremendous seasons.” Cash said. Noting that “Johnny had a tremendous season even though he missed six seven weeks.”

With the trio being the core, the supporting cast of Cedric Mullins, Jake Fraley, Gavin Lux, and Chandler Simpson will complement the core. 

Same Old Story – Competing In The AL EAST

The AL East the beast division in baseball, not only in terms of competitive teams but the amount of large dollar rosters that can push resources into the center of the table higher than many clubs (New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox).

Erik Neanders notes that this season is nothing new regarding the AL East. “A few years back, the last year we won the division, there were four 90+ winners in the division.” he said. “Just the way it is. In many respects, kind of thriving and surviving in this division over 162 [games] can be a greater accomplishment than ultimately happens in the postseason. It’s really difficult to make the postseason in this division let alone finish on top. I think for our team, we’re always going to have to charter  a little bit of a different course, a different path to get there and to compete. We can’t really follow in line with the other four teams or we’re probably going to finish in the vicinity of where our revenues are. It’s always about doing things a little bit different,”

Neander believes that the key to improving from 2025 will be run prevention. “Our run prevention last year I think there were three clubs if I’m not mistaken in the East that were all in a similar spot in terms of runs allowed. Going back into Tropicana Field – I think our defense will be a little bit tighter with this group.  Our offense is going to have the three big guys but its probably going to be more grinding at-bats, getting on base, playing foot speed games, and winning tight ballgames.”  It’s a daily grind he noted, “it’s just day by day, there’s no button to push to go compete, we just got to make each day count – get the most out of it – and try to get the ball to bounce are way a little bit more than it did last year.

Small ball is not the strategy the Rays are looking to employ. As Kevin Cash joked he’ll ask Junior Caminero to play small ball. 

Who Will Be The Closer

Pete Fairbanks is no longer sitting in the bullpen for closing the game down in the 9th inning as his option was declined and he’s now in South Florida with the Marlins. So what now? According to Kevin Cash it will be a closer by committee at least initially.

“I feel like we’ve had success doing it both ways. We were very fortunate to have a guy like Pete Fairbanks that really manned that ninth inning very well. He had a lot of success here, got huge outs for us, but I do think with this group that we have right now – our righties are pretty neutral, I’d like to think they can handle left handed hitters well, then you got Clev (Garrett Cleavinger) that is just dominant against lefties and righties for that matter, to have that versatility and be fluid game to game might do us well. We’ll see how it unfolds, we got a bunch of candidates – Uceta (Edwin Uceta) pitched in the back end of games, Clev’s done it, Griffin Jax has done it, Bryan Baker has done it, they’ve all done it. What we saw years ago when we did it, they really supported each other.”