My Two Cents: Congrats to Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash, Who Passes Joe Maddon as All-Time Wins Leader

Ten years ago, the Tampa Bay Rays took a chance on Kevin Cash when he was hired to replace Joe Maddon. They've been rewarded with five straight playoff appearances. Cash passed Maddon on the team's all-time wins list Saturday with 755.

Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash won his 755th game on Saturday, the most in team history, passing Joe Maddon. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays have been very fortunate when it comes to having managers with staying power. They've only had two in the past 19 years — and that just doesn't happen in baseball anymore.

Winning helps, of course. Joe Maddon won 754 games during his nine-year tenure with the Rays from 2006 to 2014. And Kevin Cash, the man who replaced Maddon, now has 755. He became the team's all-time wins leader on Saturday night when Tampa Bay beat the New York Mets 3-1 at Tropicana Field.

That's a lot of wins. And a lot of wins — plus one.

It also means a lot to Cash, a Tampa Bay native who was the youngest manager in baseball when he was hired. Now 46 years old, he's the longest-tenured manager in all of baseball after Cleveland's Terry Francona retired last year. As you'd expect, his players — who have an enormous amount of appreciation for the job that Cash does, which includes five straight postseason appearances — made sure there was moment-worthy postgame celebration in the locker. There was beer, water, shaving cream, baby powder — pretty much whatever anyone could get their hands on.

“They were pretty pumped,” Cash said. “We’ve got a bunch of good guys. I am appreciative of all of them — and guys from the past, too. It was a fun day. A long time coming, but I’m excited it got here.”

The most memorable moment?

“Probably getting rolled in a cart and having everything sprayed all over me that you can imagine,” Cash said.

Cash, the only American League manager to win back-to-back Manager of the Year awards in 2020 and 2021, was thankful for finally reaching the milestone. The injury depleted Rays are just 16-18 this season, so Cash was certainly hoping to reach win No. 16 sooner than May. 4.

But he'll take it all the same.

“It’s just an appreciation, certainly to the organization (and principal owner) Stu Sternberg, his family, (wife) Lisa. And then all the way down from (Rays presidents) Matt Silverman, Brian (Auld), Erik (Neander), and so many guys that have helped me,” Cash said. “And ultimately, it comes down to being fortunate to have a lot of really good players and good teams.”

There's no question he's had that. After a decade of being a non-factor in the game when they started as an expansion team in 1998, the Rays finally started to matter in 2008, which was Maddon's third year. During their first 10 years, they never won more than 70 games and never finished any closer than 18.5 games out of first.

They were 337 games under .500 in that first decade, by far the worst in baseball.

It all changed in 2008, of course. The Rays had a ton of young talent and it all started to come together at once. They went 97-65 — a 31-game improvement over 2007 — and won their first American League East title. They then beat the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox in the playoffs before losing to the Phillies in the 2008 World Series.

Maddon would take the Rays to the playoffs again in 2010, 2011 and 2013, but they lost in the opening round each time. When Maddon jumped to the Chicago Cubs prior to the 2015 season — and won a World Series there in 2016 — the Rays needed something different.

They went with Cash, which was something of a surprise, because he was so young, had never managed, and hadn't even been on a major-league bench as a coach for very long. But those few months with Francona in Cleveland meant a lot, and the long-time skipper recommended him highly.

And it's worked out well. Cash and the Rays had to do a bit of a rebuild when he took over, and Tampa Bay missed the playoffs his first four years. But they've made it to five postseasons in a row since then, and their nine playoff appearances since 2008 puts them in a very small class of elite along with the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros. He's won 15 postseason games and took the Rays to the 2020 World Series, where they lost in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Rays president Matt Silverman has admired what Cash has done during his decade at the helm of this franchise. He's bought in completely to doing whatever it takes to win — which they done impressively for five straight seasons. That's hard to do in baseball, making the playoffs five straight years.

It's especially tough in the American League East, where most of their division foes makes millions more per year in local TV revenue — and spend it on talent. The Rays have to be more careful financially, which puts it on Cash to manage the pieces he has.

He's done that, and done it well, always without complaint. He likes what he has, and makes the most of it.

“What I really love about Kevin is that, for the most part, he’s the same guy and the same personality as the guy we hired,” Silverman told the Tampa Bay Times. “He has the same work ethic, the same curiosity, and the same dedication that he did when he started.”

Cash, to be honest, is really just getting started with these 755 wins. He signed a new contract this offseason, and will be in Tampa Bay for the long-term. That's great news, because this is home to him. He was born and raised in Tampa, played in the Little League World Series in 1989, and went to Gaither High School.

He played college baseball at Florida State, and bounced around baseball with six differet teams as a backup catcher. He only hit .183, but got tons of praise for how he handled a pitching staff. It's been that way for years, where catchers always seem to the best potential candidates to be a manager some day.

What's great about Cash, too, is that even though No. 755 meant a lot to him, it was really more about winning a game on Saturday night. The Rays have won two in a row now, and Cash wants to see his team get on a roll. It's the daily grind that matters.

They'll try again on Sunday, which is the joy of baseball. It's an every day thing. You enjoy a win, and you get right back at it. Cash will show up again on Sunday, but hopefully he'll have all the shaving cream and baby powder out of his ears.