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Cormier Was Pleased When Rays Came Calling

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By MARC LANCASTER

mlancaster@tampatrib.com

Published: March 6, 2009

PORT CHARLOTTE - It meant a lot to Lance Cormier that the Rays were the first team to call his agent after the Orioles declined to tender him a contract in December.

After spending 2008 watching the Rays' meteoric rise firsthand from within the division and making a point to catch their playoff games on television, he knew what kind of team they had become. Aside from the winning, he admired the way they went about their business and the way they truly seemed to believe they belonged in October.

"Yeah, we were losing to them," Cormier said. "But if you could take yourself out of it and you just watched the baseball game in itself, you could tell they were having fun on the field."

Take the Rays' new identity and expected status as a contender again this year, mix in a major-league contract and the fact that the Rays play closer to Cormier's Alabama home than most teams, and the 28-year-old reliever was pretty much sold.

"It didn't take much convincing," Cormier said.

The challenge now is for the right-hander to step into a bullpen that was outstanding a year ago but features several new faces for 2009. Cormier settled in last year as "kind of the bridge guy" for the Orioles, throwing multiple innings or several days in a row if needed. He entered the game from the bullpen anywhere from the first inning to the 12th inning last year, usually coming on when the Orioles were trailing or held a large lead.

It's a role that needs to be filled on any team. The Rays are pretty well set at the back end of the bullpen, with abundant candidates to work the final three or four innings. But they don't have an experienced long reliever, leaving Cormier the opportunity to step in there.

Relief work is something of an acquired taste for the University of Alabama product. He came up as a starter and started nine games for the Braves in both 2006 and 2007 after establishing himself as a member of the Diamondbacks' bullpen in 2005. It would seem he's back to full-time relief duty now, and the lure of knowing he might be called upon whenever he shows up at the park is what he likes most about the job.

"I enjoy pitching every day," he said. "Obviously, if I'm getting in there every day it's not looking good for the team, but it's baseball."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227.

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