Rays Hitting Coach Values Long History with Team’s Skipper

The association between Tampa Bay Rays’ hitting coach Chad Mottola and his boss, team manager Kevin Cash, can be traced two decades back to Syracuse, New York.

The Mottola and Cash association can be summed up as baseball’s version of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Theologian’s Tale” ... where the line “two ships passing in the night” appears.

Their struggles and triumphs to succeed in baseball are eerily the same.

Mottola’s journey to being named the Rays’ hitting coach in September 2016 included many twists and turns. During his 16 seasons as a player, Mottola wore the uniform of one dozen minor league clubs, and less than a handful on the MLB level (Cincinnati, Toronto, Miami, and Orioles).

From the start, before being drafted by the Reds in the first round (fifth overall) in 1992, Florida roots run deep in Mottola’s blood. Playing high school ball in Fort Lauderdale, moving on to college ball for three years at University Central Florida in Orlando, and getting into five games with the Marlins during the 2001 season, being with the Rays organization only seems nothing short of baseball destiny for the former slugger.

For Cash, being the skipper of the Rays seems to have been preordained; the will of the Baseball Gods.

Cash, a two-time American League Manager of the Year, resides in St. Petersburg, starred at North Tampa’s Gaither High School, where he was All-State in 1996, played baseball three years at Florida State University, and now has been calling the shots from the Rays’ dugout since 2015.

Being in Tampa Bay continues to be a rewarding process for manager and coach. A trip to the 2020 World Series representing the American League against the Los Angeles Dodgers came up just short of the Rays' goal of bringing home a world championship to the “Sunshine State.”

But, as the collaboration continues to bring positive results for the Rays, the synergy between Mottola and Cash was planted during the 2002 Triple-A International League season in Central New York, the City of Syracuse to be precise.

After putting up monster offensive numbers in the 2000 season with the Syracuse SkyChiefs (85 runs, 156 hits, 25 doubles 33 home runs, 102 RBIs, and 30 stolen bases in 134 games), Mottola swiped IL MVP honors, and after nine minor league seasons, received his first call-up to the big leagues with Toronto.

Fast-forward two seasons. Mottola is back in Toronto’s organization and, for a second stint, assigned out of spring training to Syracuse. While in camp, Mottola remembers sharing the back row of lockers with Cash.

"We were both non-roster players invited to camp. We definitely had some beers together, but I can’t say we had this bond that was going to bring us together down the road,” Mottola said this past week in between meetings at Tropicana Field during a phone conversation.

Baseball, watching each other from the same dugout and as opponents is what kept each player up on the other’s performances. Over the next few seasons, after being teammates in Syracuse, Mottola watched Cash’s growth when playing for Boston’s Triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Mottola believes that by crossing paths through the years and keeping in touch in different ways, when it came time to interview in 2016 for the Major League hitting coach position, his future boss was as familiar with his abilities as would be necessary to make an informed decision.

“I was actually with the Rays before (Cash),” explains Mottola, who is clearly pleased to be going back in time to speak about his baseball journey and his boss, who he has immense respect for. “I was a minor league coordinator, so when he was going through a couple interviews, whether with the Texas Rangers or Rays, we were still having conversations in a sense that he did a lot of things in baseball pretty fast.”

Before joining the Rays in 2015 as their fifth manager, Cash and Mottola’s careers intertwined again, with the Blue Jays organization. Mottola was a coach and Cash an advance scout.

“He (Cash) went to camp as a coach, as well,” says Mottola, who is a member of the Syracuse Baseball Hall of Fame (Class of 2016) and the International League Hall of Fame (Class of 2020). “That rekindled our friendship. That was when we started talking more baseball. We found ourselves in the back of the locker room again.”

For Mottola, being associated with the Rays in Florida makes going to work each game that much more special. So few people in the game get to experience the luxury of playing or coaching “at home”. The last eight seasons for Mottola have been the most special for him. Not only the crew that he shares the clubhouse with, but Mottola is quick to give praise to the Rays front office and ancillary staff, who he labels “special people.”

Although he has more than 30 years in pro ball as both a player and coach, and just 51-years-old, Mottola chuckles when saying that last year it “hit him”, when he started adding up how long he has been in the game.

“I’m still learning. You have to stay current with the game. The changing of the game is what keeps me young,” Mottola says.