Rays could get 'creative' with pitching plans

Before his club's first workout in Port Charlotte, Fla., Rays manager Kevin Cash typically gathers his pitchers, catchers and coaches together for a meeting. It’s a Spring Training tradition. But this will not be a traditional spring.

So there was no meeting on Thursday morning, when Tampa Bay’s Spring Training got underway with the first pitchers-and-catchers workout. There were no fans inside Charlotte Sports Park. There will be no media there before the club’s first full-squad workout -- and there will be no team meeting until then, either.

The Rays’ first team meeting will likely take place outside in the ballpark seats, more spaced out than usual, when the full squad is assembled on Tuesday. Players and staff will be wearing masks. They’ll disperse into smaller, staggered workout groups more in line with last year’s Summer Camp than a standard Spring Training.

“The guys are very understanding, and we're all able to kind of adjust on the fly,” Cash said during a Thursday Zoom call.

• Rays Spring Training FAQs, important dates

The Rays proved that last year as they played from July through October under strict health-and-safety protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic. No matter how different this spring may look or feel, they’re excited to be back on the field.

“For the guys that did it last year, I think that we’re more than prepared to put a piece of cloth on our face to be able to play baseball,” reliever Pete Fairbanks said. “I think that’s a pretty easy and fair trade-off still.”

Here are three more things we learned during the Rays’ first official day of Spring Training.

1. They haven’t set any pitching plans in stone, but they’ll be “creative” when they do
Perhaps the most pressing topic in every camp this week is how teams will navigate the increase in pitchers’ workloads from a 60-game schedule to a 162-game season.

“I’m sure there's a lot of pitchers that are saying, ‘You know what, all that did was freshen me up for the next year.’ And they might be right. But shame on us if we're going to sit and go into it thinking like, ‘This is exactly how it's going to go,’” Cash said. “I think every pitcher is individual and knows their body really well. We're going to have to do a good job of listening to what they're telling us.”

The Rays aren’t committing to anything yet, but it should come as no surprise that they’re keeping their options open. This is, after all, the same team that introduced the opener.

"I think it's fair to assume that we'll find ways to be creative, but to say on [Feb.] 18 that we know exactly how it's going to unfold would be wrong of us,” Cash said. “We're excited, really excited, about the potential of our pitching group and how it comes together. It should be a lot of fun, a lot of communication. [Pitching coach Kyle Snyder and bullpen coach Stan Boroski] will be he leaned on heavily with the information that they get from each individual pitcher, and then we'll take that into consideration on how we can slot guys in to give us the best chance and best, you know, ‘rotation.’”

• Glasnow looking to mix it up with new pitch

2. They’re confident in their roster
This offseason, much of the conversation about the Rays focused on the defending American League champions’ decision to part with top starters Charlie Morton and Blake Snell. Cash didn’t run away from the topic on Thursday, saying the Rays owe them their due because “they were such big parts of our organization” -- Snell as a drafted-and-developed AL Cy Young Award winner and Morton for his outsized impact in only two years with the club.

But Tampa Bay's focus moving forward will be on the players who remain in its clubhouse and the ones it added to the mix this winter.

“We do have some new faces that we're really excited to see,” Cash said.

After falling two wins short of a World Series championship last season, starter Tyler Glasnow said the Rays believe they can make another deep postseason run this year.

“I know that we know our team is so good that we have the potential to take it all the way and win. We know that for sure now. We knew it the past two years,” Glasnow said. “But for me personally, I think I'm just going at it like any other season. Last year, getting so close, it hurt obviously a little bit after that. But I think you’ve got to put your head down, keep your routine, and as long as we stay kind of with what we did last year, I think we have a really good chance to win.”

3. Spring games could look different early on
With Minor League Spring Training set to begin after big league camp ends, teams won’t have as many players to fill out their active rosters for Grapefruit League games this year. So MLB has given teams permission to shorten games to five or seven innings early in Spring Training, which should allow managers and pitching coaches to plan out playing time and limit the number of players crowding dugouts and bullpens.

Cash said he’s already had conversations with his fellow managers to get a sense of where they stand. They likely will play some abbreviated exhibitions, but teams also want to make sure they’re entertaining the limited number of fans expected to attend games this spring.

“I think it's very fair to assume that they will be shortened,” Cash said. “I think there'll be a lot of communication among the managers. We've got a good group of guys and organizations here that, I think, hope to be very accommodating for each situation as it arises and certainly, the teams that are allowing fans, do right by the fans and put a good product out there. There were a lot of games missed between half of Spring Training in 2020, and then all of the season. Whatever we can do to let our fans enjoy some baseball, I think, will benefit all of us.”