Rays' Erik Neander Named MLB Executive of the Year for the Second Time After Building the AL Champions

Erik Neander, the Tampa Bay Rays' president of baseball operations, was named Major League Baseball's Executive of the Year on Wednesday night, the second time he has won the award after building a team that went from 77 wins to a 98-64 record, the best in the American League, and the franchise's third pennant.

Neander received the honor at the MLB Awards at the Chelsea Theater at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, where executives are gathered for the annual General Managers Meetings. He also won it for the 2019 season. He and Milwaukee's Matt Arnold, a former Rays executive whose Brewers beat Tampa Bay in last month's World Series, are the only two people to win the award twice since MLB created it after the 2018 season, according to MLB.com.

A night of hardware for the AL champions

The award capped a strong two days for the Rays in Las Vegas. On Tuesday night, manager Kevin Cash finished second in the Baseball Writers' Association of America voting for AL Manager of the Year, with 98 points and 12 of 30 first-place votes. On Wednesday, the same night Neander was honored, closer Bryan Baker won the Mariano Rivera AL Reliever of the Year Award, and the Rays placed an AL-high three players on the All-MLB teams: third baseman Junior Caminero on the First Team and starter Drew Rasmussen and Baker on the Second Team.

Accepting the award, Neander credited the organization rather than himself. "This belongs to our incredible staff, our families that support us, and our players," he said, according to MLB.com. "This belongs to all of you."

He also congratulated the Brewers and needled Arnold, who won the award the previous two years. "Arnie, you were up here a year ago accepting this trophy and cashed it in for a championship," Neander said, before adding that he had "never wanted to be you more."

How the 2026 Rays were built

The Rays were widely picked to finish last in the AL East after back-to-back disappointing seasons, and they carried one of the lowest payrolls in the majors. Neander pushed back on those projections in a rare preseason clubhouse speech in St. Louis, according to MLB.com, and Tampa Bay went on to spend most of the season atop the AL standings, win the division and then run through the AL playoff field to reach the World Series for the third time in franchise history.

Much of the roster came through trades. Caminero, leadoff hitter Yandy Díaz, Rasmussen, Baker and reliever-turned-starter Griffin Jax all arrived in deals made by the front office. Infielder Ben Williamson, who delivered the walk-off single in Game 4 of the World Series, came over in one of Neander's three-team trades, according to MLB.com.

The front office's most notable free-agent move was signing veteran starter Nick Martinez to a one-year contract in mid-February. Smaller moves also paid off: lefty reliever Cam Booser signed a minor league deal, outfielder Ryan Vilade was acquired for cash, and outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. arrived in a trade just before spring training.

At the trade deadline, the Rays spent prospect capital to add starter Freddy Peralta, catcher Liam Hicks and setup man Tyler Wells. They could afford to, in part, because of several difficult trades Neander made during middling seasons in 2024 and 2025 that left Tampa Bay with one of the deepest farm systems in baseball, according to MLB.com.

The individual numbers reflect it. Caminero hit 42 home runs with 101 RBIs and started all 162 games at third base. Baker, a first-time All-Star in his first full season as a closer, saved 41 games, tied for the most in the majors, with a 1.44 ERA, and did not allow a run in nine postseason appearances.

Neander's path and the Rays' front-office pipeline

Neander joined the Rays on a four-month baseball operations internship in January 2007 and never left. A Virginia Tech graduate from Oneonta, N.Y., he previously worked for Baseball Info Solutions, according to MLB's 2019 announcement. He was the Rays' general manager when he won the award for the 2019 season, after a 96-win team reached the AL Division Series. In 2019, the award was decided by a vote of the 30 clubs, with one vote each.

He has stayed while a long list of Rays executives left to run other organizations, including Andrew Friedman (Dodgers), Chaim Bloom (Cardinals), Peter Bendix (Miami Marlins) and Arnold. The club's new ownership group, led by managing partner Patrick Zalupski, co-chair Bill Cosgrove and CEO Ken Babby, has said it will stay out of baseball operations. Babby summed up the approach, according to MLB.com, as "In Erik and Kevin we trust."

What it means for Tampa Bay

The award arrives during a pivotal offseason off the field as well. The Rays returned to a repaired Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg this season after spending 2025 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa following Hurricane Milton's damage to the dome. The club is now pursuing a new ballpark in Tampa; this week, Hillsborough County commissioners, in the outgoing board's final meeting, approved $90 million, and up to $263 million, in tourist tax bonds for the project, and the Tampa City Council approved a $21 million community benefits agreement in October.

The offseason plan

Speaking at the GM Meetings on Tuesday, Neander said the priority is developing the players already on the roster rather than chasing outside talent. "We went from 77 wins to 98, improved by 21 games, largely through a lot of internal development and the right free agents that we brought in. We need to double down on that development," he told MLB.com.

The Rays have already lost Martinez, Peralta and center fielder Cedric Mullins to free agency. But nearly every hitter who played a meaningful role in the postseason is set to return, along with a potential rotation of Rasmussen, Shane McClanahan, Jax, Ian Seymour and a healthy Ryan Pepiot. The club exercised Rasmussen's $20 million option for 2027 earlier this month, and Neander said the team is working to keep him as the anchor of the 2027 rotation despite expected trade interest.

What's next

The awards week is not over for Tampa Bay. Caminero is one of three finalists for AL Most Valuable Player, along with Houston's Yordan Alvarez and Kansas City's Bobby Witt Jr., with the BBWAA results scheduled to be announced Thursday at 7 p.m. on MLB Network. A Caminero win would be the first MVP award in franchise history; as a finalist, he is already assured the best MVP finish by a Rays player.