How do Rays keep winning? By being open-minded, bold and (shh) smart

ST. PETERSBURG — The Tampa Bay Rays are getting a little tired of having to explain themselves.

As they open American League Division Series play Thursday night at Tropicana Field against the Boston Red Sox, they are being asked once again what they are doing at the party.

How, given a roster constructed with a substantially lower payroll than their opponents and comprised of significantly lesser-known names, are they in the Major League Baseball playoffs for a third straight season and seventh in the past 14, something only three of the other 29 teams have topped.

“The question gets old, because the results have been there,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It pisses me off when people ask that.”

It’s about the players

To Cash, there is a simple explanation to the Rays’ success, and it’s hardly secret sauce.

“It’s all about the players,” he said. “And I would pound the table on that.”

Ultimately, it is.

You don’t post an American League-best 100 wins this season without good players. You don’t win the East division ahead of the Red Sox and Yankees (who have 2½-3 times the payroll) for a second straight year and fourth in 14. And you don’t have a legitimate shot at returning to the World Series and claiming the championship that eluded you in 2008 and 2020.

But what sets the Rays apart is how well those players perform for them.

How the organization identifies players, many of whom haven’t succeeded elsewhere, and maximizes their production.

How the Rays obtain the players in deals that typically (though not always) work in their favor, creating sarcastic warnings across the industry to be wary or don’t answer if the Rays call about a trade.

How they deploy the players in creative ways that benefit the team, challenging long-standing practices and disregarding established roles, such as using openers rather than traditional starters, platooning at several positions, having no set closer and tinkering with the lineup on a daily basis.

The latest example: They set a rotation for the division series that includes three pitchers — Shane McClanahan, Shane Baz and Drew Rasmussen — who never started a game in the majors before this season.

It’s okay to fail

Erik Neander, the Rays’ president of baseball operations, said the organization has good reasons for what it does.

“We’re never trying to be different just to be different,” said Neader, recently promoted from general manager. “It’s not for attention, which I frankly would rather there be very little attention. But it’s a willingness to do something differently if we think there is enough of a possibility that it could improve us, and really keeping a focus on that mentality and accepting that it’s not all going to work.

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“There’s plenty of things that you want to try and you want to see through that you’d prefer to undo later. But there’s a lot of knowledge and experience gained through that.”

Which is to acknowledge that not every idea the Rays have or trade they make works, and they’re going to keep trying to find the next edge to explore an inefficiency to exploit.

“There is a fearless, fearless approach on thinking outside the box, going against the norm, and a willingness to at times fail and do everything we can to possibly learn from it,” Cash said. “Erik has kind of emphatically said over the last couple years we have to be willing to throw stuff up against the wall and see what sticks.”

Which helps to explain what Neander said is something of a front-office mantra.

“What’s valued here is the try, the attempt,” he said. “If you were to line up what we value most, try and succeed is (No.) 1, try and fail is 1-A, and don’t try is like 12th. It’s that mentality, and it’s just having an environment where — it’s an easy thing to say — but to actually stand by it when things don’t work out as planned.”

Not smarter than everyone else

Neander also made clear one thing the Rays don’t think: that they are smarter than other teams. During Tuesday’s wild-card game, ESPN analyst Alex Rodriguez implored the Yankees and Red Sox to stick to their “superpower” advantages of using their financial resources, because “you’re not going to be the Rays. You’re not that smart. You’re not that good.”

“I don’t care for that perception,” Neander said. “There’s a mentality to how we operate. It’s not comfortable to be wrong — but there’s a willingness to be wrong, and there’s a willingness to be okay with that and to be secure enough to be okay with that. I’ll take the mentality of it and we can own that. … But there’s a really strong emphasis on humility.”

Neander said that mindset starts at the top of the organization, with principal owner Stuart Sternberg, whose purchase of the team in October 2005 eventually led to its transformation from a decade of losing records to nearly unmatched success.

Sternberg points right back, crediting the Rays’ success — despite losing key personnel, including executives running four of the other playoff teams — to consistency and teamwork, “having had and having some tremendous people in our baseball department.”

‘The question of the ages’

The organization’s mentality is evident in its strategy and philosophy.

In the way Neander’s deep staff makes draft picks, free-agent acquisitions (small and occasionally big), international signings and especially trades — bold enough to regularly deal their biggest stars in an effort to balance self-imposed financial limitations and maintain a flow of talent into the organization, taking short-term criticism for hoped-for long-term gain.

In Cash’s aggressive managerial style, most infamously his decision to pull starter Blake Snell with a lead in the sixth inning of Game 6 of last year’s World Series. But also in how he uses platoons to get more from two complementary players (such as Yandy Diaz and Joey Wendle at third base) than teams may get from one higher-paid star.

And in the way players are peppered with positive reinforcement (told to focus on what they do best rather than reminded of what they need to improve) and not only permitted, but encouraged, to be themselves. That allows them to relax, prosper and buy into the team-first concept by accepting nontraditional roles, even though doing so can limit their playing time, statistics and, ultimately, earning power.

“A lot of what helps out is being open-minded,” said injured starter Tyler Glasnow. “A lot of baseball culture in the past has been very hierarchical. (The Rays) have to do things differently, just with the limited funding. But it’s more of an open think tank-type thing, like no one is more important than anyone else.

“… I think it’s the culture. That sounds very like Air Bud and ‘Kumbaya,’ but it’s true. The culture is very important, especially with the pressure of a big-league season or a team. It’s nice to come in and just kind of hang out and have fun.”

Asked to explain the Rays’ unexpected breakthrough season in 2008, power-hitting and philosophizing first baseman Carlos Pena said, “how is the question of the ages.”

Thirteen years and six more playoff appearances later, it’s still a heck of a good question.

Up next

AL Division Series

What: Game 1 (of best-of-five series)

Who: Rays vs. Red Sox

When: Thursday, 8:07 p.m.

Where: Tropicana Field

TV/radio: FS1; 95.3-FM, 620-AM

Tickets: Go to raysbaseball.com/postseason for information.

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