The Tampa Bay Rays will have to re-evaluate the status of their coaching staff after losing two key members to other teams who hired them as managers.
Recently, the Tampa Bay Rays have simply gotten their coaching staff picked apart by other teams who are seeing the value in their baseball minds. Their coaching staff, which was just last week one of the best in baseball, is now relatively barren and underwhelming.
Rocco Baldelli, the Rays’ former major league field coordinator, was hired by the Minnesota Twins, while their bench coach (and former third base coach) Charlie Montoyo, was shockingly hired by the Toronto Blue Jays. Within the span of about 10 hours, the Rays lost two key cogs in their coaching staff. However, there’s a justifiable reason for that.
For starters, the Rays’ manager, Kevin Cash, is one of the most respected and most progressive managers in baseball. His unique approach to strategic placement, defensive alignment and bullpen usage have the potential to shift the trends that the rest of the major league teams follow. Though he’s a younger manager, he makes up for in expertise what he lacks in experience.
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Unfortunately for Baldelli and Montoyo though, he just recently signed a massive six-year contract extension to remain the manager of the Rays through the 2024 season. Simply put, Baldelli and Montoyo, both admirably well-regarded baseball minds, were blocked in the Tampa Bay Rays system.
If they wanted to manage at some point, which they evidently did, they had to look elsewhere in the league. With the Jays, Twins, Rangers, Orioles, and Reds looking for new skippers this winter, their chances of getting a job had never been higher.
I’m sure that neither man holds anything against the Tampa Bay Rays organization. They both witnessed first hand the brilliance of Kevin Cash and were certainly content to see him manage. Even if one is respectful of one’s higher-ups, it’s still a tad troubling to face the reality that a promotion is severely unlikely.
Such is the business of baseball. After it’s all said and done, Baldelli, Montoyo and Cash all have jobs that are able to take advantage of their abundance of baseball knowledge. Now, the Rays will have to resuscitate their coaching staff by bringing in new voices to re-excite the clubhouse.
At this point, the Tampa Bay Rays organization has not issued any comment on how they plan to replace Rocco Baldelli and Charlie Montoyo. Regardless of who they bring in to replace their two departed coaches, it’s sure to be a bold, clever, well-thought pair of moves, as the Rays have consistently been known for their forward-thinking approach to modern baseball strategy.