Rays manager Joe Maddon acknowledged that it was important to get his contract extension resolved before the start of spring training:

 "For me it would not have mattered but I think as a group it matters, to the organization it matters, to the players it matters, to not have this constant dialogue going on during the course of the year regarding that moment. I did not want to be any kind of a distracton - that would have really bothered me. We have a chance to really go deep into this season and I'm really expecting we're going to talk a lot about the World Series again so for me to be selfish in any way and get in the way of that would have been absolutely wrong.''