When you think about grace in our game, Bobby Cox is right there, certainly as a manager, and then certainly at the top with the impact he had on people.
The Rays opened the season with the fifth-lowest payroll in the sport, but they held off the veteran-laden Red Sox, the young and dynamic Blue Jays and the big-spending New York Yankees, winning the AL East by eight games.
Only one of their position players, catcher Mike Zunino, was an All-Star when the initial rosters were unveiled, and yet the Rays averaged more runs per game than every team except the Astros.
The Rays were bolstered largely by their defense, which ranked third in outs above average, but more broadly by an efficient use of their roster that routinely placed matchups in their favor.
The Rays hired Cash to succeed Joe Maddon in December 2014, at that point making him the youngest manager in the sport.
Cash identified Glasnow’s torn ulnar collateral ligament, which robbed him of the last three and a half months of what could have been a Cy Young season, as one of the biggest obstacles of this season.