ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The last game Kevin Cash managed on the national stage didn’t go so well.
He pulled Blake Snell in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the World Series, with the Rays ahead 1-0, watched as his team quickly lost the lead, the game and the championship to the Dodgers. Then he was pounded and pilloried for his decision, which still remains a topic of discussion for critics.
Cash returns to the spotlight Tuesday night, managing the American League team for the All-Star Game in Denver, and he is damn happy to be there.
He has won an American League Manager of the Year award since the World Series (albeit in voting done before the postseason), 53 of 90 games so far this season — which have the Rays well-positioned for an unprecedented third straight playoff appearance — and considerable praise from colleagues for his handling of the fallout.
But Cash’s joy isn’t laced with validation, redemption, vindication. It’s just the privilege — due to the success, he points out repeatedly, of the 2020 Rays players — to be in such a position.
“I’m beside myself excited,” Cash said last week. “It’s funny. I just hung up the phone with Tony La Russa (the fellow Tampa native now managing the White Sox), we were talking about his pitchers that were going (to the All-Star Game), and he said, “Can I give you some personal advice?’ I’m like, ‘Hell, yeah. Please.’
“He said, ‘I went (to the All-Star Game) as a coach, I went as a manager, just enjoy the moment. Because you’re sitting there rubbing elbows with the game’s best.’
“To hear it come from him, a Hall of Famer, that really resonates, the appreciation that he is. So I’m so excited, we are as a staff, to get back there. I really don’t think of Game 6 having any weight on it whatsoever. I don’t. Maybe I should. But I don’t.”
For a guy who wasn’t a very good player, with a career batting average of .183 over parts of eight major-league seasons, Cash, 43, has had a lot of success.
He won World Series rings as a member of the 2007 Red Sox and 2009 Yankees, and played in the 2008 American League Championship Series for Boston. He has a better winning percentage (.528, 507-453) than Joe Maddon (.517, 754-705) with the Rays, finished third in the Manager of the Year voting twice before winning last year, and, in his seventh season, is the third-longest tenured manager in the majors.
Now, after twice being selected as a coach for the All-Star Game, he will be running the show. One highlight will be delivering a pre-game speech to a group that includes long-time stars such as Salvador Perez, Aroldis Chapman, Nelson Cruz and Aaron Judge, and emerging superstars such as Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Shohei Ohtani.
“It’ll be pretty humbling, daunting to sit in the room … with the game’s best,” Cash said. “So welcome them, let them know how appreciative we are of them. The reason this goes on is because of the players, and certainly the great players, and want them to enjoy it as much as we will.”
How Cash managed the criticism from the World Series decision was not surprising to his coaches and colleagues, and very much in character with how he handles other issues — head on, with consistency, and in good humor.
“We got to spring training, and he wanted to address it with all the staff that was there,” bench coach Matt Quatraro said. “I think some of it was for them to bring up the same questions that the national media did, but also for him to kind of get it off his chest a little, with a sense of humor.”
Cash shows that often, whether it’s joking with reporters, cutting up with his coaches or breaking down old-school walls by teasing his own players — especially Joey Wendle, whose “Mendle” nickname will become part of the All-Star lexicon this week.
And Cash often does so with a self-deprecating touch — learned, no doubt, from his mentor, Indians manager Terry Francona.
Cash showed that again Monday at the All-Star media session in Denver, explaining he “begged” Major League Baseball officials to tweak the rules to allow Ohtani to be starting pitcher and stay in the game as a DH “because if they didn’t I know I’d screw it up the rest of the way pulling pinch-hitters and DHs.” He also noted how cool it was for him to sit next to Ohtani on the podium and to do an MLB Network interview with NL starter Max Scherzer.
Maddon said Cash — who had never managed before at any level — definitely was the right man for the Rays job after he left following the 2014 season.
“He’s good. I’ve seen the growth. He’s very much on top of things,” Maddon said. “I don’t think for a second that he’s just being influenced or told what to do, because that’s not what I got watching the game at all. He’s definitely in tune to whatever’s going on. He’s got a good bedside manner. He’s got a good way about him. And I think that I know that translates to the players. I like the guy. He’s sharp. He’s a smart guy. And he’s adjusted really well.”
The baseball world will see that again Tuesday night.
