The Tampa Bay Rays rewarded the success of Erik Neander, the club’s senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager, signing him to a multi-year extension Wednesday and promoting him to president of baseball operations.
Terms of the deal were not available.
The 38-year-old, who has been in the Rays front office since 2007, was moved into his senior VP/GM role in 2016. After struggling to a 68-94 record in 2016, the Rays have made considerable progress ever since.
Tampa Bay finished 80-82 in 2017 and 90-72 in 2018, finishing in third place in the American League East each time. They improved even further, going 96-66 in 2019 to earn a wild-card berth into the playoffs where they were defeated in a five-game division series by the Houston Astros. Neander was named MLB executive of the year that season.
In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Rays went 40-20 before advancing to the World Series where they lost in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tampa Bay entered play Wednesday with an American League-best 88-51 record, good for first place in the AL East.
The success for the Rays this season has come despite a $66.7 million payroll on Opening Day, lower than all but four major league teams.
The Rays are not planning on hiring a replacement for Neander at GM and are not expected to alter the structure of their front office.