MLB.com has broken down the top five players at each position in Rays history. Some of the decisions were pretty clear -- hi, Evan Longoria -- while others created a good amount of debate.
You can debate who you want to have manage the team, Joe Maddon or Kevin Cash. It’s a similar question when it comes to picking Tampa Bay’s all-time general manager, but you can’t talk about Erik Neander without talking about Andrew Friedman.
The Rays have only had four top-ranking baseball executives in franchise history, and they divide into narratively clean eras.
First, there was Chuck LaMar, the original general manager. He guided the expansion team through its earliest days, serving 10 years in that role from 1995 (before there was a Major League roster) through 2005. Those were the Devil Rays days.
Then came Andrew Friedman, the young executive vice president of baseball operations under new principal owner Stuart Sternberg. He changed the culture, blended traditional scouting with analytical thinking, pushed Tampa Bay into a new era of baseball and revolutionized the way baseball front offices operated.
Under Friedman, the Rays went from 10 consecutive losing seasons and won the 2008 American League pennant. They churned out future leading executives, coaches and managers. Their players became hot commodities. They became a dangerous club to trade with but an admirable organization to mimic.
Friedman built a successful organization in nearly every way -- except big-time spending. The Rays had to do things differently than their big-market competition in New York, Boston and elsewhere. They made bold, savvy trades -- a lot of them. They found value in free agency where others weren’t looking.
They drafted well, especially with top picks like Evan Longoria and David Price. They developed their own players as well as anyone, fully understanding the value of young, cost-controlled talent. They employed bold strategies, like dramatic defensive shifts and platoon lineups. And they hired Joe Maddon as manager, putting the right person in charge in the dugout.
“Andrew is one of the brightest people I’ve ever met,” Maddon said. “He is very difficult to beat when it comes down to a contest of logic. He can take both sides of the argument and convince you both times. He is very decisive, though not in a confrontational way.”
Under Friedman, the Rays made the playoffs four times and finished over .500 in six of his last seven seasons. His success on a small-market budget made him a target for larger-market clubs, and the Dodgers lured him away to become their president of baseball operations in 2014, eventually starting a sort of dynasty in the National League West.
But life went on for the Rays. Team president Matt Silverman took over for Friedman in a new role as president of baseball operations, overseeing a transition phase with new manager Cash, a roster in need of retooling, a farm system in need of replenishment and a handful of young executives who were being prepared for greater responsibilities.
One of those executives was Erik Neander, who got his start as a baseball operations intern under Friedman. He was named general manager in November 2017, guided the Rays to their first winning season since 2013 the following year and oversaw a run of five consecutive postseason appearances from 2019-23. He was named MLB’s Executive of the Year in 2019 and promoted to the title of president of baseball operations in ’21.
Neander has arguably been even more successful than Friedman in terms of on-field results. He has been at the helm for the same number of World Series appearances (one, against Friedman’s Dodgers in 2020) while leading three of the club’s four winningest seasons (2021, ’23 and ’19) along with the shortened 2020 campaign in which they went 40-20.
Neander has continued to keep the Rays relevant even as other clubs’ payrolls have expanded and their increasingly analytical front offices leave no stone unturned. The latter includes hiring away Rays employees, as they have lost no short list of key executives, coaches and staff to clubs interested in replicating elements of Tampa Bay’s success.
Neander has continued the Rays’ tradition of savvy signings, creative (and extremely frequent) trades, player development, scouting and analytics. Most importantly, he has found ways to win, continuing the Tampa Bay tradition Friedman started.
“At the end of the day, all of the reasons that I initially wanted to work in baseball, I have them here," Neander said after being promoted in 2021. "Me and my family are well taken care of. This place is like family to me. We've been able to win. We can talk about all the other stuff all we want, but we've done a pretty good job of winning games here. And that's important.”