MoxVib

By the start of the winter meetings, the majority of major league managers have fiddled with lineups, dreamed about how a free agent might fit into their rotation and taken stock of their 40-man roster. Kevin Cash, at the center of one very strange Tampa Bay Rays offseason, has not yet arrived at any of those thoughts. “I’m trying to get everyone’s names right now,” Cash said Monday afternoon, laughing.

Though exceedingly grateful for the chance to become baseball’s youngest current manager at age 37, Cash faces one of baseball’s most unenviable tasks this winter. He will replace a local legend, Joe Maddon, while trying to prod the Rays back into contention after a 77-win downturn in 2014, which followed five 90-plus win seasons in six years. He will do so with zero prior managerial experience in a major league dugout, as Tampa Bay General Manager Matt Silverman joined the growing trend of choosing a manager who had never managed before.

Despite the Rays’ miniscule payroll, the loss of Maddon and their disappointing 2014, Silverman expects to vault back into contention next season, rebuilding on the fly with a shoestring budget.  He, too, has taken on a new role, moving from team president to the head of baseball operations after the Dodgers poached Andrew Friedman. But he does not view the radical change as a deterrent.

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“Seventy-seven wins doesn’t cut it,” Silverman said. “But 77 very easily could have been in the mid‑upper 80s.  And that’s why we have so much optimism heading into next year.”

And still, Silverman and the front office settled on Cash, a career backup catcher who had learned under Terry Francona as Cleveland’s bullpen coach. Like the Nationals’ hiring of Matt Williams and the Tigers’ choice of Brad Ausmus, Cash’s appointment represented another team that views itself as a contender willing to cede on-field control to a neophyte.

“There certainly is risk,” Silverman said. “We talked about it. It was one of the questions that came up over and over again in the interview process: the risk of the first‑time manager, the games speeding up, doing things for the first time, while we expect to compete. It’s different if we were rebuilding.  It’s different if this were the 2005 Devil Rays. It’s not. We have a club that can compete for a playoff spot.  We recognize that risk and felt good about taking on an inexperienced manager, because of Kevin’s personality, because of his experience, and because of the coaching staff and clubhouse that we have in place.”

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Silverman reached out to teams who had chosen managers without prior experience to weigh the pluses and minuses. He had a broad spectrum of clubs to choose from. Starting with the Cardinals’ hiring of Mike Matheny, young former players who had never managed in the majors has become the norm.

“But I think when we say that, it discounts Kevin.,” Silverman said. “Yes, he hasn’t managed a game, but he’s been managing in his mind for a long time.  And he brings that mentality.”

Cash will inherit a team that was dismal offensively in 2014 but should receive a boost with a healthy Evan Longoria and improved performance from many hitters who suffered down seasons, like 2013 rookie of the year Wil Myers. The Rays have enough pitching to bounce back in the recently volatile AL East behind Drew Smyly (acquired in their trade of David Price), Chris Archer and Alex Cobb.

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Silverman said he did not consider the notion of filling Maddon’s shoes when he hired Cash. But he needed to hire a manager who could shoulder the burden of replacing the man who, with the help of Friedman, redefined the organization.

Cash played for Maddon during spring training in 2006, Maddon’s first season in Tampa. “You kind of got the sense of some immediate success coming,” Cash said. “Just the way he presented himself. The way he communicated with the players. I look at it more as kind of an honor to be following him and what he’s done over the course of his career here.”

“He does get to forge his own path here,” Silverman said. “He’s not bound by constraints.  He has to come in and put his mark on things, knowing that we have a really good situation already.”

In their rapid transition from Maddon and Friedman, the Rays have to tread a fine line. They want their new brain trust to use their own ideas and create their own identity. But they also do not want to stray from the strategies that turned the Rays into a perennial contender.

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“I don’t think of it as Andrew or me,” Silverman said. “I think it’s an organizational direction. And we had developed that together for the last eight to 10 years.  And my job is to keep us executing in that direction. … Take my name out of it. Talk about the Rays, talk about our Rays baseball operations department.  We’re executing on our vision and we’re building off of the one that’s been there the last eight years or so.”

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