Here's What Rays Legend Evan Longoria Said in 'Retirement Day' Press Conference

TAMPA, Fla. — Former Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria officially retired from baseball on Saturday, signing a ceremonial one-day contract with the Rays.

He and Rays owner Stuart Sternberg met with the media prior to the game. Here is the full transcript of their 25-minute press conference.

Stuart Sternberg: ''We're here to celebrate the most memorable Ray of all, and I imagine it's going to be like that for decades and decades to come. You're looking at the person who was the most transformative player we've had by leaps and bounds. We've had some great, great players over the year and some wonderful people, but nobody put those two together as much as he did. You know the stories, it's not just about No. 162, although I thought the first one was more important.

''The things he did on and off the field and in the clubhouse, they were transformative, and any and all success we've had to this day are somehow tied back to Evan joining us, and how fortunate we were, with our scouting staff, to be ablde to have the opportunity to sign and draft Evan in (2006) and it was really a transformative time for us. He was the guy we had No. 1 on the board for us. It was a transformative time for us, with the team changing names to the Tampa Bay Rays, and the entire fan base changed. So I am incredibly please to sit here and have Evan make the choice to retire as a Tampa Bay Ray.''

Evan Longoria: "I'd just like to give a little bit of background on how it all happened. Obviously I haven't played baseball for the better part of a year and a half now. I waited in the beginning, because I didn't know if I was going to play again. There were about six or seven months in between there where I didn't decide what I was going to do, but I knew what I wanted to do, and that I wanted to come back here and end my career as a Ray somehow or in some way. Through the help of a lot of guys like Eric Neander, and the clubhouse guys and kick off the celebration. Working out this day over the last five or six months and making this day special for us, working out every detail to kind of culminate the day.

"I was telling Stu before we came up here that you can be a really good player, but you've got to have the opportunity. The Rays, obviously, weren't very good before that but when I was drafted by the Rays, I looked at it that I had a pretty clear path (to the majors) if I played well and be the player that I thought I could be. I had a path to get to the big leagues quickly, and I think that's every young player's goal. I was excited to be drafted by the team that was the worst team in the league for quite a long time up to that point. He's being gracious in saying that I was the most important, but we had a lot of great players that we drafted over the next two or three years to take us to where we got. I'm grateful to everybody that I've seen in this room and done interviews with over the years and I'm happy that this is going to be the last time that I have to do this, because this is the most nervous I've been doing this. You guys have been nothing but gracious to me over the years and were amazing to deal with. All the on-field and off-staff, I wish I had a list.

"We're never able to get as far as we want without all the help from so many people on and off the field. The Rays, from the very beginning and that comes from Stu and the top down, they were always thinking about what to do to make the players' lives better so we could play the best. Everybody in the clubhouse and the training staff, they were always the best at that. I'm quite certain that I'll forget to thank somebody, but it was an amazing 10 years here and we raised two of our kids here and did a lot of great things off the field. It was a great community to be a part of. I'm happy to come back and be here.''

Longoria and Sternberg sign one-day contract, and take pictures

Question: "Evan, you talked about the journey coming back, but why was it important to put that jersey on one more time?''

Longoria: "It was a pretty obvious answer for me. I was getting asked the question so much when I was away, Are you retired? Are you going to come back? The answer was always pretty clear in my mind that I wasn't coming back to play, and it was always clear in my mind that I was going to retire here, but I just didn't know how to work it all out. Thanks to Eric and Elvis (Martinez) and everyone who had anything to do with it, and my wife Jamie, we worked through how we could make it work.''

Question: "But it just felt right?''

Longoria: "Yeah, for sure, especially since I never had the chance to come back as a visiting player. And I still don't think that would have taken the place of coming back and doing this. It just felt like we needed to have the ability to close out that chapter. The Rays put a statement out, and once we get back into the Trop, I'll be able to kind of properly speak to the fans on the field when I get inducted into the Rays Hall of Fame. And do it where it all started at the Trop, and I'm really looking forward to that. it just felt like the right move''

Question: "I'm curious to know how it feels to put that jersey on, and you said you were nervous. Why?'

Longoria: "Because there's a lot of cameras. Every time I put this jersey on, it means a lot. This always felt like the place for me, and I always felt comfortable putting on a Rays jersey. It feels good to put it back on; the jersey still fits. Maybe I will play tonight, I don't know. It feels good to come back and put the jersey on and celebrate it all.

Question: "Stu, can you talk about the foundation that Evan has laid for this organization and just what it means to current players now for what he's done for this organization?''

Sternberg: "He, and as Even mentioned, the few other players who came in short after, did lay that foundation, but there's no question that he was the main cog in all of that. He had and incredible amount of success, and there was many young people back then who grew into other roles in the organization, with Eric Neander being one of them, and interns and guys through the training staff and all. They are all able to tell the story of what Evan has meant to this organization, and how he carried himself and what he did for his teammates. He was an exciting player to watch on the field, but he wasn't a showman. He had an instinct that was as fine as we've ever seen, and that was part of it,. I know Cash brings it up.

Question: "Evan, baseball is such a daily grind type of game, but now that you're further away from it with your time with the Rays, are you able to sum it all up at all, or is it just more moments here and there?''

Longoria: "It would be a lot to sum up for sure, because especially as a young player, you forget so much. Most of my young playing career was spent worrying about getting a hit or winning a game. So there's just bits and pieces from that, and sadly we went to the World Series that first year and I have watch videos to remind myself that I actually did that. It's more about the people for me, the players that I played with, the friendships that I made, both on and off the field.

"Like Stu said, this organization has been so great about creating this culture and keeping it with the people who are still around, and still working here today. It's speaks to the culture this organization tries to create and everybody kind of questions it year after year, like how do the Rays do it? Keep winning with budget that they have, but it's all about the people in here, and it's no more evident that you can turn around and ask some of the people here in this room who have been working here since they were 16 years old. I think that kinds of permeates through everything this organization does and it sticks in my mind. It's how special that culture was.''

Evan Longoria chats with current Rays third baseman Junior Caminero after his press conference on Saturday. | Tom Brew/Tampa Bay Rays on SI

Question: "What advice would you give to the young players about how fast the journey goes?''

Longoria: "It goes really fast. I think the easy answer is to always soak it all in and step back and enjoy it. It's just so hard to do when you're worrying about all these other things on a daily basis. I would just say when those big moments are approaching, to really focus then. For me, I go back to the people always. It's easy to celebrate with the best people when they're nice to you. I always try to be nice to everyone. I think those personal actions stick out to me the most. I always tell people, just be nice, enjoy the journey, but you can't get to where you want to go without the help of others. It really takes an army, and you have to be willing to learn, willing to accept criticism and be willing to be genuinely nice to people for those moments to stick with you.''

Question: "There were some anecdotes brought up about you and Cash said when they went to later workouts that you left a note on his office door that winners work out when they want to work out.

Longoria: "I did? I don't remember that. But then again my parents always told me that I would say that I was going to play in Angels Stadium one day when I was 10 years and and we would drive by it, and I don't remember that either. I think I had a number of different ways to motivate myself as a younger player who, if I'm honest, you've heard all the stories. I wasn't highly recruited (coming out of high school), and I was a first-round pick and all that, but before that, there was a time when I was at junior college that I had to clean my own cleats and drag the infield after every practice. There was that part of me that I could be back there again pretty quickly. It was the same when I got to the big leagues, that I didn't want to go back to Visalia anymore. We aren't there any more, but I didn't want to be in a trailer where the AC went out all the time and having heat stroke. There were moments like that kind of remind you how lucky you are to be in the big leagues. That was pretty good motivation to not go back.''

Question: "There's also the story that you originally wanted No. 6 but you didn't want to buy Tom Foley golf clubs so you went with No. 3.''

Longoria: "I got a big signing bonus but I hadn't signed an extension yet so I was pretty cheap at that time. He was pretty generous because you see guys paying a thousand dollars a digit these day. But I wasn't really dead set on No. 6, so I just asked Westy what other single digits were available. It worked out OK.''

Question: "Is there a specific moment that stands out to you?''

Longoria: "I've been asked this question a thousand times and I could give you a thousand different answers, probably. I think the day I got drafted, that's probably a very important day because you're kind of at the mercy of a team once you get into a system and if you're stuck behind players, then your path can get altered. That's why I think it worked out well being here. I always come back to the final out when when we went to the playoffs that first year, that was a big deal, for this team to make the playoffs for the first time. That was a big deal, because it put us on this trajectory that it's been on ever since.''

Question: "There were a lot of current players today talking in the locker room about how you were a big part of starting all this success. When you see this Rays franchise in 2025 and when you look back, how much do you appreciate what you and your teammates did to get the ball rolling for what's been 17-18 years in the making now?''

Longoria: "I kind of deflect a lot. It's not just about one person. One person can make a big impact, but it's really about the collective group buying in to what an orgaization is trying to do. And for it to carry on as long as it has, no one person can take credit for that. It has to be buy-in from top to bottom. It's all about so many people who set the culture in the training room, and the strength and conditioning guys in setting the tone for what we were going to do. And in turn, you have to draft the right players that want to be a part of it. It only takes a couple of bad eggs to spoil all that and they've done a great job of identifying players they want to have in their system and it really helps to carry. that forward.''

Sternberg: "We don't like bad eggs.''

Question: "You mentioned that 2008 team, where you rewrote history as an organization. How did you carry that experience?

Longoria: "I think it's good when you're young because you don't think about too many different things. The immaturity was a plus at that point, and overall we were very immature, we were very young. We had a few veteran guys, but even a few of the players that were considered veteran guys like B.J. (Upton) and Carl (Crawford) had only been there three years or so. We had some bullpen guys who had a lot of time and they did an amazing of putting that group together, but the core group was very young. I think that kind of helped us not really feel the pressure of the postseason. It was more exciting than nerve-racking, and on the flip side of that in my last year in Arizona (in 2023) I was really nervous and we had like five guys who were 23 years old. They could have cared less where they were playing. It was fun to almost feel the reverse of that at the end.''

Question: "What have you seen or heard of the current promising third baseman Junior Caminero?''

Longoria: "He's a pretty good player. I don't know much about him other than just seeing him play and how exciting he is at the plate. I have no doubt that they have the right people to point him in the right direction. The Rays do a good job of developing stars. They've always been good at that. They may not be heard of on the national stage, but people in the know, they know that the Rays have all those young studs that are not being talked about. Junior will get talked about plenty, because he's right on the cusp of super-stardom.''

Question: "I know you've had the future pitch and the statue and now you have today. I wonder if you've thought about what that day will feel like next year going into the hall of fame?

Longoria: "I think I'm going to have to write a speech for that day. It'll be special. I don't even really know now if I can put it into words what the emotion will feel like that day. We don't have a lot of family and friends here today, but we'll have a couple floors at the Vinoy that day for everyone who's comng into town to celebrate with us. That will make it more emotional. Just having to speak with more feeling and telling some stories about things I don't remember. But it will be an amazing time and I hope everyone here will be able to come back and celebrate it, and do it in the right place at the Trop where it all began. Sparkly and new, that will be nice. The people in the hall now are guys that I played with or knew, so it will be special.''