PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — For most players, leading his team with 22 home runs and 91 RBIs while playing in all 162 games would be considered a good year.
However, Rays third baseman Evan Longoria isn’t most players. The unquestioned face of the Tampa Bay franchise expects more than the .253 batting average he managed last season when the Rays went 77-85 for their first losing season since 2007, the year before the three-time All-Star arrived in the major leagues.
That is why Longoria is determined to “play better” this season and believes he got started in the right direction last November when he hit three home runs in seven games while playing in Japan with a touring group of major leaguers.
“That experience, and just being able to play a little bit more baseball at the end of the year, and just have some good moments over there, kind of sweetened the bitter taste that I had at the end of the year,” Longoria said. “It kind of made me hungrier to get back to work and get ready to come back and have a great year for us.”
First-year manager Kevin Cash says Longoria isn’t exactly a Comeback Player of the Year candidate in his mind, mainly because he has nothing from which to come back.
“It cracks me up when people say ‘rebound,’” Cash said. “There’s 90 percent in baseball that would give a left arm to have those numbers. Evan, he makes us go. There’s no doubt about it. There’s no doubt he’s going to be good.”
Longoria is seemingly the last man standing with the Rays after president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman left for the Los Angeles Dodgers at the end of the last season and manager Joe Maddon followed Friedman out the door by jumping to the Chicago Cubs.
However, Longoria has faith that Tampa Bay will continue to be competitive with Matt Silverman moving from the baseball side of the operation to take Friedman’s place and Stuart Sternberg still owning the club.
“It’s just really about all the confidence that I have in their ability to put together a good team and just see the bigger picture,” Longoria said. “Everybody who’s here is looking forward to a new year, just a fresh start and something that’s different. Sometimes things are needed and necessary to kind of keep you on track.”