Neander, Cash extend contracts with Rays

ST. PETERSBURG -- With Erik Neander leading the front office and Kevin Cash in the dugout, the Rays have enjoyed the best stretch in franchise history and have become one of baseball’s most consistently successful organizations.

They won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

The Rays announced on Thursday that Neander and Cash have received multiyear contract extensions. Terms of their deals were not disclosed, but they are expected to run beyond Tampa Bay’s anticipated move into a new ballpark in 2028.

“I believe there are none better in baseball,” Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said in a statement announcing the news. “What we’ve accomplished together has been remarkable, and the best is yet to come.”

Neander, Cash and other Rays officials are not planning to comment on the extensions until Tuesday afternoon in Port Charlotte, Fla., where the club will hold its annual press conference to begin Spring Training.

There was some urgency to get a deal done with Cash, who had one year and a club option remaining on the previous extension he signed after the 2018 season. Cash’s initial contract with the Rays was for five years, and his first extension covered six guaranteed seasons.

Cash, a Tampa native, had no managerial experience when the Rays hired him to succeed Joe Maddon following the 2014 season. Now, with his friend and mentor Terry Francona having stepped away from his post in Cleveland following the '23 season, Cash is the Majors’ longest-tenured manager with his current club.

Cash, 46, has led the Rays to a .545 winning percentage over the past nine years, putting together a 739-617 record with five consecutive postseason appearances, two division titles, two American League Manager of the Year Awards and one AL pennant. He is 16 victories away from surpassing Maddon as the franchise’s all-time managerial wins leader.

Neander called last season “the best job that [Cash has] ever done here,” praising the manager for guiding the Rays through injuries and adversity to a 99-win season. It was Tampa Bay’s second-highest regular-season win total, behind only the 100-win year Cash oversaw in 2021. The Rays have averaged 94 wins over the past five full seasons under Cash’s watch, and they posted a .667 winning percentage in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.

When asked at the end of last season about rumors linking him to the Guardians job, Cash dismissed the idea with a smile and said, “I’m very happy here.”

Neander, 40, has provided deft leadership and made smart, savvy moves to help the Rays stay competitive in the rugged AL East while maintaining one of the game’s best player development systems.

He joined the Rays as a baseball operations intern in January 2007, was hired full-time in October '07, worked his way up to vice president of baseball operations in October '14 and was named senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager in November '16. He was named MLB’s Executive of the Year in '19.

Neander had been working under a multiyear contract extension that he signed upon being promoted from GM to president of baseball operations in 2021. That deal was for five years, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

At the time, Neander expressed his happiness with the Rays and his desire to remain in place for the foreseeable future despite the small-market challenges they’ve often faced, calling it “the dream job for me, for all the things that are most important to me and my family.”

“A win here is more satisfying -- to me personally, and I think a lot of us -- than a win anywhere else. And that matters,” Neander said in September 2021. “The satisfaction derived from a win is not the same everywhere. There's a lot of fulfillment that comes with having success here and [enjoying] the challenges that it brings as well -- and the creative freedom, frankly.”