ORLANDO, Fla. -- Yes, the Rays recognized that they have too many outfielders to carry on their Opening Day roster. No, they’re not worried about it yet.
After picking up Jake Fraley and signing center fielder Cedric Mullins, the Rays have nine outfielders on their 40-man roster: those two, Josh Lowe, Jonny DeLuca, Chandler Simpson, Jake Mangum, Richie Palacios, Ryan Vilade and Tristan Peters. Six of them bat left-handed, and Mangum is a switch-hitter.
No, it doesn’t all totally fit together right now. The good news is the Rays didn’t have to fill out a lineup card on Day 1 of the Winter Meetings.
“We have a lot of room for improvement, and I think it's important that we're open-minded to improving ourselves any way that we can,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said. “We brought in a couple outfielders, and if you look at just the numbers of it, they don't all fit neatly onto a 26-man roster, obviously.
“There's different ways you can improve. One way you can do it is by just creating more competition, and this is an assortment of players that are really motivated to be better than they were last year. [We] believe they will be. We've got to sort through that to get to the most functional roster we can. That's a few months away.”
As Neander put it later, the Rays are currently in “talent accumulation mode.” As Opening Day approaches, they can enter what he called “functional roster mode.”
That could involve trading at least one outfielder. Or it could lead to an unusual amount of competition in camp, which they hope will bring out the best of players coming off disappointing seasons -- due to injuries or poor performances -- like Lowe and DeLuca.
“There's some years that there's some uncertainty and unknown, and it presents an opportunity for guys to go out and have good springs,” manager Kevin Cash said Monday afternoon at the Meetings. “Those two guys … they're very motivated to come into Spring Training.”
Cash said he was excited about both additions, praising Fraley for his quality at-bats and Mullins as both a talented defensive center fielder and “not a guy we liked to see come up to the plate” during his time with the Orioles.
That both are left-handed was not a top concern for the Rays when they went about acquiring them, with Neander saying they “don’t want to be too picky about anything that we think has a chance to help us improve ourselves now or later.”
Something’s got to give eventually, but that’s an issue for another day.
“I don't think there's a scenario where we can have seven, eight outfielders on the roster,” Cash said. “That's where Spring Training -- come in, compete, show well -- will define how our lineups are early on.”
Winter Meetings notes
• Rays ace Shane McClanahan, who has not pitched since 2023 due to Tommy John surgery and a left triceps nerve issue, is “having a really good offseason” and “feels really good,” Cash said. McClanahan is throwing on flat ground. Neander said the Rays hope that the left-hander will have a normal progression through Spring Training.
“He's worked his tail off,” Neander said. “If everything goes the way that it's expected, he's got a day [in the rotation], and we take care of him, we build him back up, and he's the pitcher that he's worked so hard to be and was prior.”
• The Rays have not yet finalized their Major League coaching staff following the departure of Michael Johns, who left to be the Nationals’ bench coach under former Rays executive Blake Butera. The decision should be made before the end of the year, however, and could involve shuffling the current staff to take on different responsibilities.
“We have a really good staff, and we have a staff of really good baseball people,” Neander said. “Part of why we have kind of waited to kind of go through things is, like, we could take anybody on our staff and, I think, ask a little bit more of them in an area that's not their specialty at present, and they could do it.”
• The Rays have considered stretching out right-hander Griffin Jax as a starter, but it seems more likely he will enter the season as a high-leverage reliever. Cash said the Rays have had some conversations but “really like Jax in our bullpen.”
• Without Pete Fairbanks serving as a traditional closer, Cash said he will “try to keep it as fluid as possible” in the Rays’ bullpen this year, playing matchups rather than relying on one pitcher with a lead in the ninth inning. Jax, Edwin Uceta, Garrett Cleavinger, Bryan Baker and Manuel Rodríguez (when healthy) are among their top candidates for high-leverage work.