{"id":569191,"date":"2026-02-13T01:25:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569191\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T01:25:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:25:35","slug":"kevin-cash-and-erik-neander-optimistic-about-2026-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569191\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Cash and Erik Neander Optimistic About 2026 Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cash<\/a>Kevin Cash and Erik Neander – Port Charlotte Spring Training Presser February 12, 2026<\/p>\n

Port Charlotte, Florida \u2013 Tampa Bay Rays President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander and Manager Kevin Cash<\/a> held their annual Spring Training Press Conference today at Charlotte Sports Park.<\/p>\n

The mood was upbeat, there was a feeling of optimism in the duo\u2019s comments, and the desire to push past the last two non-winning seasons by grinding through the scheduled on a day by day basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an eagerness [among the players], you feel it.\u201d Cash said. \u201cA lot of these guys have been out here for a week, multiple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shane McClanahan, Nick Martinez, and Steve Matz Form Rebuilt Rotation<\/p>\n

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<\/a> to the Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins respectively.\u00a0 Adrian Houser<\/a> departed via free agency and Shane Baz<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

It starts with Shane McClanahan<\/a> 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 \u201cit\u2019s about as free and easy as what I recall when he was a healthy pitcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

McClanahan will be an exciting addition to the Rays rotation, joining Ryan Pepiot<\/a> and Drew Rasmussen<\/a> as well as other free agent signings Nick Martinez and Steven Matz<\/a>. With their 2025 season buildup Ryan Pepiot (167.2 IP), Drew Rasmussen (150.0 IP), and Nick Martinez<\/a> (165.2 IP) won\u2019t require much workload management; however, Shane McClanahan starting from zero and Steven Matz working primarily in a relief role only delivered 76.2 IP.\u00a0 Kevin Cash noted that \u201cwith Matz and Shane [McClanahan] in particular, there is going to be some early season managing of their workloads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expectation Of Quiet Offseason Turns Into Roster Churn<\/p>\n

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\u2019s been with the organization, the goal is to give the current team an opportunity to win. Neander believes it\u2019s 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\u2019s a strategy that has enabled the Rays to have the third most wins in the time period since 2008.<\/p>\n

Over the winter, he traded second baseman Brandon Lowe<\/a>, outfield Jake Mangum<\/a>, and reliever Mason Mongtomery to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Shane Baz to the Baltimore Orioles, Josh Lowe<\/a> to the Los Angeles Angels, and declined the option of closer Pete Fairbanks<\/a>. Those trades landed Jacob Melton<\/a> and Gavin Lux<\/a> in addition to a myriad of prospects from the Orioles in the Baz deal. \u00a0 Other smaller trades landed big league relievers Yoendrys Gomez<\/a> and Steve Wilson<\/a> from the White Sox and infielder\/outfielder Ryan Vilade<\/a> from the Cincinnati Reds. Additionally, the Rays signed free agents Cedric Mullins<\/a>, Jake Fraley<\/a>, Steven Matz, and Nick Martinez.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look at the totality of this season, Nick Martinez, Lux, Fraley, Mullins, Matz \u2013 we\u2019ve brought in some veteran guys and some guys to fill some gaps that emphasize this season.\u201d Neander said. \u201cWe also added a lot of talent that has a chance to impact the team this year \u2013\u00a0 Jacob Melton and Ben Williamson<\/a> \u2013 but for many years beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home is Home. Home being home is a bigger deal that we had appreciated \u2013 Erik Neander<\/p>\n

After playing last season outdoors at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the Rays return to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.\u00a0 \u201cLast year\u2019s group, nobody made excuses.\u201d Neander said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Cash doesn\u2019t think there is going to be a lot of adjustment returning to playing at Tropicana Field.\u00a0 \u201cI think there is going to be a lot of excitement.: Cash said. \u201cCertainly 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\u2019s a lot of new that\u2019s going to be in there, so I think our players are going to walk in there and be very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s A Lot To Be Excited About Trio of Johnny, Cami, and Yandy<\/p>\n

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

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. \u201cYandy [Diaz] is a proven commodity, Cami (Junior Caminero) and Johnny (Jonathan Aranda) had tremendous seasons.\u201d Cash said. Noting that \u201cJohnny had a tremendous season even though he missed six seven weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the trio being the core, the supporting cast of Cedric Mullins, Jake Fraley, Gavin Lux, and Chandler Simpson<\/a> will complement the core.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Same Old Story \u2013 Competing In The AL East<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

Erik Neanders notes that this season is nothing new regarding the AL East. \u201cA few years back, the last year we won the division, there were four 90+ winners in the division.\u201d he said. \u201cJust 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\u2019s really difficult to make the postseason in this division let alone finish on top. I think for our team, we\u2019re always going to have to charter\u00a0 a little bit of a different course, a different path to get there and to compete. We can\u2019t really follow in line with the other four teams or we\u2019re probably going to finish in the vicinity of where our revenues are. It\u2019s always about doing things a little bit different,\u201d<\/p>\n

Run Prevention Key to 2026<\/p>\n

Neander believes that the key to improving from 2025 will be run prevention.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur run prevention last year I think there were three clubs if I\u2019m not mistaken in the East that were all in a similar spot in terms of runs allowed. Going back into Tropicana Field \u2013 I think our defense will be a little bit tighter with this group.\u00a0 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.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a daily grind he noted, \u201cit\u2019s just day by day, there\u2019s no button to push to go compete, we just got to make each day count \u2013 get the most out of it \u2013 and try to get the ball to bounce are way a little bit more than it did last year.<\/p>\n

Small ball is not the strategy the Rays are looking to employ. As Kevin Cash joked he\u2019ll ask Junior Caminero to play small ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who Will Be The Closer<\/p>\n

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\u2019s now in South Florida with the Marlins. So what now? According to Kevin Cash it will be a closer by committee at least initially.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019ve 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 \u2013 our righties are pretty neutral, I\u2019d like to think they can handle left handed hitters well, then you got Clev (Garrett Cleavinger<\/a>) 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see how it unfolds, we got a bunch of candidates \u2013 Uceta (Edwin Uceta<\/a>) pitched in the back end of games, Clev\u2019s done it, Griffin Jax<\/a> has done it, Bryan Baker<\/a> has done it, they\u2019ve all done it. What we saw years ago when we did it, they really supported each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Cash and Erik Neander – Port Charlotte Spring Training Presser February 12, 2026 Port Charlotte, Florida \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,19429,5723,4,297,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-569191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-erik-neander","10":"tag-kevin-cash","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-rays","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116060720836605679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}