Denard Span spent his youth in the Tampa Bay region, and played part of the 2018 season with the club. Now he returns to try and assist them in the race to return to the World Series.
Tuesday, the club named the former outfielder as a special assistant in the baseball operations department, one of six new operational hires for the team. In addition to Span the team hired Allison Dekuiper as Assistant, Performance Science; Rigo De Los Santos as Dominican Republic Regional Crosschecker and Area Scout (Santo Domingo); Carlos Herazo as Pro Scout; Jonah McElwee as Assistant, Major League Food Services; and Isha Rahman as Assistant, Minor League Operations.
Span joined the Rays as a player December 20, 2017 as part of the trade with the San Francisco Giants that sent third baseman Evan Longoria to the west coast. He spent just 43 games with his hometown team, hitting .238/.364/.385 with four homers and 28 RBI before being traded to Seattle on May 25 with Alex Colome.
In addition, 20 other members of the department were promoted or had title changes for the upcoming season:
- Brandon Cordell (Developer III, Baseball Systems)
- CJ Elger (Senior Database Architect, Baseball Systems)
- Luke Fair (UI/UX Developer II, Baseball Systems)
- Lauren Griffin (Product Designer II, Baseball Systems)
- Ryan Kelley (Developer II, Baseball Systems)
- Hamilton Marx (Director, Baseball Operations)
- Daniel Nolan (Developer III, Baseball Systems)
- George Pappas (Assistant Director, Minor League Operations)
- Ryan Pennell (Manager, Performance Science)
- Brian Plexico (Senior Director, Baseball Systems)
- Brandon “Tank” Richesin (Head Visiting Clubhouse Manager)
- Giovanna Rodriguez (Senior Administrator, Minor League and International Operations);
- Victor Rodriguez (Area Scout/International Crosschecker)
- Simon Rosenbaum (Assistant Director, Minor League Operations and Baseball Development);
- Justin Su’a (Head of Mental Performance)
- Taylor Smith (Lead Analyst, Baseball Research and Development)
- Lenore Sutton (Education Coordinator)
- Michael Topol (Analyst, Baseball Research and Development)
- Tyler Wall (Head Home Clubhouse and Equipment Manager)
- Avery Wilkening (Developer II, Baseball Systems)
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
