The Tampa Bay Rays earned five days of rest before the ALDS after securing the American League's No. 1 seed. But as the Yankees and Red Sox battle in the Wild Card Series, Kevin Cash faces a major challenge: keeping Tampa Bay sharp without risking injury before Game 1.
The Tampa Bay Rays will spend the next few days watching the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox beat up on each other.
That sounds like a pretty good situation. The only downside is there has to be a winner eventually.
With the Rays finishing with the top spot in the American League, they get to hold off postseason play. However, that creates one final challenge for Kevin Cash before the American League Division Series begins.
How do you keep this team sharp?
Tampa Bay finished the regular season on Sunday and won't play again until Saturday. That's five days without meaningful baseball after spending the final week playing in environments that felt a lot like the postseason.
It started at Yankee Stadium, the same place Tuesday's AL Wild Card series will begin.
The Rays entered New York needing just one victory to clinch the American League East and the top seed in the AL. They lost the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader before responding with a 6-1 win in the nightcap.
Then came Philadelphia.
The Phillies entered the weekend fighting for their postseason lives, meaning Tampa Bay essentially received three more games against a team treating every pitch like October. And the Rays didn't lie down, although there wasn't much to play for in that final series of the weekend, as the Phillies needed to win Game 162 just to make it into the playoffs.
The Rays also faced some of the best pitching in baseball during the final stretch, including Carlos Rodón, Max Fried, Gerrit Cole, Cristopher Sánchez, and Zack Wheeler, most of those arms who will be pitching in the next few days during the wild card round.
It almost felt like an early playoff mode for Tampa Bay, but now everything stops for 5 whole days as they await their opponent.
That's where Cash has to find the right balance. As the five days off could certainly be beneficial.
Griffin Jax was diagnosed with a lower back contusion after taking a line drive off his back Saturday. Chandler Simpson also fouled a ball off his right foot Friday.
Both are expected to be ready for the ALDS, and the extra rest certainly won't hurt.
But is there also such a thing as too much rest?
After fighting so hard to get into the right groove following the All-Star break into the second half of the regular season, the last thing Kevin Cash and his roster need to do is lose the sharpness while sitting around waiting for Saturday.
Cash and his staff will have to find ways to keep hitters seeing live pitching and pitchers working in competitive situations without unnecessarily risking an injury before Game 1.
The Yankees and Red Sox have to survive a Wild Card series just to get to Tampa Bay, but if routines are already in place, you could make the argument that they could hold the advantage heading into the five-game series in the ALDS.
Sure, the Rays can get some rest, and any team at this stage of the season could use it. They just have to ensure they don't get too comfortable.
