ST. PETERSBURG — The Tampa Bay Rays finished the regular season 98-64, the best record in the American League, and president of baseball operations Erik Neander says the margin came not just from talent but from something harder to quantify: a clubhouse that genuinely liked each other.
Neander, who telegraphed his confidence in the club during an unplanned speech before Opening Day at Busch Stadium, said the team’s success came down to what he called three “C’s” — chemistry, camaraderie and cohesion. “This group is as connected, top to bottom, as any we’ve had here — and we’ve had some unbelievable groups,” Neander told MLB.com. “Baseball, more than a lot of the other sports, it is a team sport, right? It’s individual competitions on the field, but you can win with a team. And these players absolutely have won as a team.”
The bonds formed early. Weekly trivia nights at the Sunseeker Resort in Port Charlotte drew consistent attendance, and the night the team landed in St. Louis for its first road trip, about 20 players gathered in the hotel lobby and headed out for the first of many unofficial team dinners. “It just felt like guys in here just appreciated the time with one another like no other team that I’ve been on so far,” said Taylor Walls, who joined the Rays in 2021. “It was like, ‘Dude, what are we doing?’ Everybody did everything together, and I think that’s something special.”
Veteran starter Nick Martinez emerged as the clubhouse’s central figure despite two traits that rarely produce team leaders in baseball: he is a starting pitcher, and he arrived this season as a free agent. “I believe there’s a direct correlation to the type of clubhouse you have to how guys play on the field. Man, we play for each other,” Martinez said. “We’ve been playing for each other since the beginning of the season and even through the dog days of the summer.” Left fielder Chandler Simpson was more blunt in his assessment of Martinez’s value: “Second to none. I don’t know where we would be without him.”
Longtime first baseman Yandy Díaz, with the Rays since 2019, said the feeling was evident before a single regular-season game was played. On March 25, the day before Opening Day, Díaz told reporters: “I really, truly think it’s one of the best groups we’ve had since I’ve been here.” He repeated the sentiment throughout the year. “It’s the unity, the unity and the joy that this team plays with,” Díaz said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “This group is such a special group, and they have been the entire year.”
Reliever Cam Booser, called up from Triple-A Durham during the season, said he noticed the tone immediately, pointing to Martinez and Drew Rasmussen as leaders who set a consistently upbeat and selfless standard. Manager Kevin Cash and the coaching staff built the environment, but players and Neander alike credited the roster itself for sustaining it across a 162-game season.
The Rays now advance to the American League Division Series, where the same clubhouse culture Neander and his players have described all year will face its highest-stakes test.