This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MILWAUKEE -- Jake Fraley has been with five different organizations since he was drafted a decade ago, and he’s been in plenty of clubhouses along the way. It didn’t take the veteran outfielder long in Spring Training to realize something about this particular group of Rays.
The season hadn’t even started yet, and Fraley brought it up in conversations with president of baseball operations Erik Neander: “Dude, this is a fun group.”
Veteran starters Steven Matz and Nick Martinez reached a similar conclusion during a conversation shortly before Opening Day.
“There’s just no bad eggs in here,” Matz said. “It’s really a great clubhouse. It’s a great group.”
Clubhouse chemistry is impossible to quantify, and it’s even harder to determine the actual impact of that camaraderie. It’s the kind of thing that’s often labeled after the fact, with the benefit of hindsight: Good teams must have good chemistry, and disappointing teams must not.
But the Rays believe they have it, and they think they’ll be better for it.
“That stuff may not look like it translates on the field, but it definitely does,” starter Shane McClanahan said. “Knowing that that guy you care for is [doing his best] out there makes you want to go a little bit harder. I think good things are gonna start happening.”
As he spoke about this topic on Monday afternoon, four hours before first pitch, McClanahan encouraged reporters to look around the visitors’ clubhouse at American Family Field.
A group of relievers were gathered in one corner, chatting and cracking jokes. Nearby, Carson Williams, Ryan Vilade and Ben Williamson -- a rookie and two players new to the organization -- were playing cards and carrying on. A few steps away, Chandler Simpson and Cedric Mullins were sitting on a couch, chatting with first-base coach Corey Dickerson. McClanahan had just come from the weight room, where he was razzing Yandy Díaz.
Nobody was sitting alone. Everyone was interacting with someone else: rookies and veterans, pitchers and hitters, newcomers and players who have been here for years.
“It’s incredible,” Fraley said. “Everybody gets along. The personalities help, too. When you've got good personalities in the clubhouse, that keeps it light, it keeps it fun, and everybody likes being around each other.”
Maybe it’s a byproduct of the Rays starting the season with a three-city road trip that includes multiple off-days, which creates closer proximity and more chances to hang out. It could be the fact that there are so many young players on the roster and others who have been close for years, like McClanahan and Drew Rasmussen. And some of it is by design, as the Rays brought in veterans like Martinez, Matz, Fraley and Mullins who were regarded as positive influences.
Whatever the reason, players and club officials alike have noticed there is indeed a sense of unity for a group that was brought together through a major roster overhaul in the offseason.
“I’ve seen the connectivity right away. And I really, truly think it’s one of the best groups we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Díaz said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “No one’s better than the other one. No one’s less than the other person. We’re all the same, and I think that really speaks volumes to our group. That’s the biggest thing that I’ve seen.”
That shows up in a number of ways, but here’s one to consider. Junior Caminero is only 22 years old, and he’s already getting “face of the franchise”-type attention after what he did last season. But he is arguably as supportive of his teammates as anyone, springing out of the dugout to celebrate big hits and key plays with real enthusiasm.
Here’s another: The Rays had an official team dinner scheduled for Wednesday, the night before the season opener. They also wound up having an unofficial, impromptu team dinner soon after their first flight of the season landed in St. Louis on Tuesday evening.
Normally in that situation, a couple small groups might meet up and hang out. The Rays had around 20 people wanting to spend time together before seeing each other more than their own families throughout a six-month marathon of a season.
“And then no place could get us in, last minute, because the group was so big,” Rasmussen said, smiling.
“That just goes to show you the type of group we have here,” Matz added.
Where will that take them?
They’ll figure that out together, too.
“You put a group of like-minded people together, I think good things are gonna happen,” McClanahan said. “There's no division in here. There's no animosities or egos. It's a lot of fun to be going to work every day and be like, 'I'm gonna have a good time.’”