AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RAYS

October 2, 2026

Kevin Cash

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll get started with Kevin.

Q. Kevin, now that you have an opponent, do you have any more on the rotation plans for you guys?

KEVIN CASH: Yee, we're going to go with Ras in Game 1, and like we talked about the other day, I feel like our five starters throughout the course of the year deserve to pitch a really big role in this. How we're going to line them up will be dependent on how we get through Game 1.

Q. Kevin, I know you said on Wednesday, you have better feel for Wells, Cleavinger, and Chandler Simpson after seeing them yesterday. Do you have updates on them?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, Wells and Cleav pitched another inning in the sim game. They looked good, very much like themselves. Encouraged by that. Chandler played the full six and a half innings, put down a bunt, ran full speed, went first to third on an error. He looked like Chandler.

Q. Just with being back in this building and the crowd you guys are expecting tomorrow, how excited are you to feel the atmosphere in this ballpark?

KEVIN CASH: Pretty excited. You know, I talked to Ken this morning on the way in, and I believe we've sold every ticket for Game 1. I don't know, since I've been here, that I've seen it. I think 2008, somebody said it, and I was a player in another dugout, or the wrong dugout, and it was loud. It was crazy. So I'm really excited to see our fans fill this place up and pull behind us.

It's going to be, obviously, a big weekend in the Bay area for sports. I didn't realize that we had so many college and NFL things and Lightning going on. Pretty exciting weekend.

Q. Kevin, Ras seemed to get stronger and stronger as the season went on, as post-All-Star break numbers are phenomenal. That's saying something for a guy who went through as much as he did to get back to point. Did you sense that he was maybe getting stronger as the season went on, in terms of endurance and so forth?

KEVIN CASH: The results suggested that for sure. He was an All-Star because of what we did in the first half and it's like he went out and doubled down and got better. I agree with you.

I don't know if I sensed it, but after every start, you could tell there were tweaks he was doing. The fastball velocities were in line. Very consistent. It's not unusual to see guys drop in velocity over the course from their 20th to 30th start. I don't think Ras has done that. I will say the change-up is a pitch that really kind of developed for him on the fly.

He's always had it, but the confidence to use it against certain hitters kind of grew in the second half from my vantage point.

Q. Kevin, in terms of Ras, speaking of him, he's pitched well against the Yankees group. What do you think works with him against the lineup that's had success in the past. It's a different scenario in the playoffs, but what's helped him had success against them?

KEVIN CASH: Ras, anytime he takes the ball, we feel good about it. I know how talented the Yankee lineup is. What allows him to have success is basically that he sits there and executes a pitch regardless of the result, he's on to the next one. I think he's as good as anybody in baseball. Maybe as good as anybody I've ever seen as far as the result of the pitch being good or bad, he's ready to go for the next one.

All of his focus and determination goes into that next pitch.

Q. Kevin, how different is that Yankees lineup with Aaron Judge compared to the lineup without him?

KEVIN CASH: Different. I look at Aaron Judge as being the best player in our sport when he's right. You've got a unicorn in Shohei Ohtani. We don't see him often. You've got Aaron Judge. It's different. The game planning, we haven't seen too many games with him not in it. It was odd going up to Yankees stadium and not seeing him in there, but they have a very good lineup. They've been very good without him.

It's incredibly impressive, the offensive success that they have had missing the best hitter in our sport.

Q. You've talked about how long it's been, felt like, these two years of not being in the playoffs. It's obviously been a little longer since you won a playoff game. Why is there so much confidence in the room that you're prepped for a long run in the postseason?

KEVIN CASH: A lot of it's got to be the way we played throughout the regular season. I know this now turns into the second season, per se.

The guys have genuine belief that we can win in different ways. We're really good on the mound. We're really good at preventing runs. We're really good at creating some havoc for defenses and pitchers. And over the last two months, I think the threat of power, we've shown up and shown the ability to knock the ball out of the ballpark.

That's a lot of different combinations that we can put pressure on very good teams.

Q. Kevin, with Judge being questionable for the series and probably won't find out until tomorrow morning, does that impact your preparation at all in terms of your pre-series meetings, or do you just anticipate as if he's going to be in there?

KEVIN CASH: The latter. I think it's probably better. I was thinking that Aaron Judge was going to be there a week ago just so I'm not devastated when he's on. I expect him playing right field, hitting third.

Q. An unrelated question, as part of your playing career, you spent a little bit of that 2009 season with the Yankees. What did you take from that experience? Was there anything applicable to the rest of your career?

KEVIN CASH: What I took was great appreciation for the franchise, and then, you know, how cool was it to be the 25th, -6th player on the roster and get to sit in the dugout, sit in the clubhouse, rub elbows with Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Yankee legends, baseball legends. You take a lot from that. Alex Rodriguez, just a remarkable team. You understand why they won the World Series.

Q. It's been four years since the team has been in the postseason. Despite their accomplishments this year, there could be a level of excitement that comes tomorrow.

KEVIN CASH: I think it's been two years. You're cutting us short a little bit.

Q. Okay. Well, the point is, how do you, as a manager, manage that excitement and make sure that everybody doesn't try to do too much, isn't overplayed, et cetera?

KEVIN CASH: I think there's some one-off conversations. But our players, this team has given us plenty of reason to have belief and trust them. We will certainly be excited. I know everybody in that clubhouse is chomping at the bit over these last three, four days of not playing but watching very competitive games.

And I think you can tell quickly the guys that are going to be over-amped and there's probably a message in there, but there's a lot of trust that these guys will go out and carry themselves the way they've done for the last six months.

Q. Kevin, as long as you've been here, do you think this team, based on everything that you got, the additions, Peralta, the pen, small ball, able to hit the home run, do you think that is the best chance, since you've been a manager of the Rays, to go all the way?

KEVIN CASH: That's a tough question I haven't put too much thought into. I think we've been incredibly fortunate to have a lot of great teams. This is certainly one of them. I do think there are differences in this team than the past one. The point on the bunt and the speed combination, the contact at the plate is maybe a little different than some of the other postseason teams. But they were all really great teams.

Q. Kevin, you mentioned every ticket being sold for this game tomorrow. You guys have the best home record in baseball this season. How much of an advantage is this home field advantage for you guys? How real is it for the atmosphere you guys are probably going to get tomorrow, the intricacies of the building, et cetera, et cetera.

KEVIN CASH: Felt it throughout the season and hopeful it will continue to feel that way. There's no doubt at certain points of the season, there was genuine excitement to get back to the Trop, get back to playing in front of our fans. I don't think the ballpark does anything to help our style of play. But there is an energy, and we're looking forward to that energy.

Coming back from road trips where maybe we didn't play as well as we liked or we hit some rough patches, it seemed we could set ourselves throughout the course of the summer getting back home.

Q. Junior has been talking for a while about wanting to play in October, wanting to get there. What have you seen and felt from him as it's become real the last few days?

KEVIN CASH: He hit a ball about 400 feet yesterday in a scrimmage. Junior is a special player, special teammate. He's been incredible and would expect that just as he's done every single stop throughout his career, whether it's playing winter ball or coming up, he's going to be very excited, motivated, and we'll rise to the occasion.

Q. You've mentioned the contact that your offense focuses on. You've mentioned that you tried to create havoc. This ballpark is kind of built for havoc with the turf and everything. I guess was this team built with that in mind? Do you reflect the ballpark here?

KEVIN CASH: No, I don't think so. I think that Eric, he does an excellent job every off season of trying to find pieces that will complement the guys that are coming back or returning.

I think that last year, we witnessed playing at Steinbrenner. It was probably a little more hitter friendly than pitcher friendly. Generally speaking, we're more on the run prevention side when Eric builds out a club.

But I don't think necessarily the ballpark being the Trop played too much of a role.

I think with the contact, we felt we had contact-oriented guys in Spring Training. It takes a little bit of time to really believe in that, back that up, and witness it for a couple weeks, months into the early part of the season. Does this align? And fortunately, for us, it did.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much.

KEVIN CASH: Thank you guys.