View from the catwalk: Six more years

Rays manager Kevin Cash shepherded an extremely young Rays team through a barrage of veteran exits and injuries, onto the cutting edge of pitcher management tactics, and through a culture war. He did it while creating what seems like a fun, positive clubhouse, and without overworking any of his pitchers.

With that, he earned himself a contract extension that should keep him with the Rays through 2024, with a club option for 2025.

From Steve Kinsella’s YouTube channel, here’s Cash talking about the extension and the year:

And here’s Erik Neadner:

Neil Solondz did a This Week in Rays Baseball podcast about the extension, which you can listen to here:

Marc Topkin collected quotes from several players about the extension.

While we’re talking about mangers, Jeff Sullivan wrote about Aaron Boone, and the criticism he’s taken for handling his bullpen in the playoffs, and also, generally, about a philosophy of how to think about managers. Do I think Kevin Cash would have had his bullpen up and running sooner, and would have not gone to Lance Lynn? Maybe, don’t know, can’t say.

In other Rays news, here are some nice pictures:

And Michelle Margaux is heading to Houston, because that’s what sideline reporters who cover the Rays do.

Other Links

• Eli Ben-Porat does some real interesting work, and this time he looked at minor league fly ball distance and age, with an eye toward finding sleeper prospects.
• Russell Carleton did some really cool work that seems to suggest that catchers who are able to keep their pitchers “in sync” get better results out of those pitchers.
• Eno Sarris took a close look at the underrated Brewers rotation.
• Brad Ziegler is retiring.
• Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel scouted and wrote about the Victor Victor Mesa, Victor Mesa Jr., and Sandy Gaston workouts.
• After the Kyle Barraclough trade, the Marlins apparently have nearly as much international bonus pool money as the Orioles, and are making a serious push for the bothers Mesa.
• Speaking of the Orioles, Jason Hanselman reviewed their awful season.
• Daniel R. Epstein wrote about how it seems teams’ scouting reports now care about hitter swing paths with regard to pitch break angle.
• Rob Mains looked at attendance throughout the league.