Another something special awaits Rays

Column

Who's on first?

It doesn't matter.

The Rays will find a way.

The Bucs went from 10-6 to utter destruction and head coaching search. The Lightning are going from Eastern Conference finalists to ground dust.

Rays, what have you got?

It's probably something special – again.

Rays owner Stu Sternberg and St. Petersburg mayor Bill Foster will meet this week, maybe over lunch, though Sternberg has asked Foster if he'd mind having dessert in Tampa. Yowza.

Meanwhile, the Rays don't even have a set first baseman.

Maybe they won't even have a first baseman, all season. Maybe they'll just have the second baseman shade more toward the foul line, a lot more.

Or maybe Evan Longoria plays third when righties are up, then switches over to first when lefties are up.

The Rays will provide. They usually find a way to mess with the Yankees and Red Sox.

It's about a month until pitchers and catchers report, until Joe Maddon and the lads are back at work making the rest of baseball scratch their heads at Rays brains like the one belonging to baseball ops chief Andrew Friedman.

How do they do it?

They think they have their bullpen. They have their designated hitter. They're still looking for another bat. They'll find one. Then they'll run and they'll hit and they'll manage. And they have the deepest starting pitching in baseball. There's that.

It's probably something special – again.

It can't possibly match that night in September, can it? I can't see how there could ever be another night like that in baseball history, much less Rays history, with Dan Johnson, with Longo, all sending the Red Sox and their nation – and Carl Crawford – into total body and Curse convulsions. Will it ever get better?

Probably not. But would you ever rule anything out for this team?

The Rays are darlings as much as ever. Baseball people, and writers, and metrics lovers, they've fallen in love with the Rays, maybe as never before. ESPN's Buster Olney recently had the Rays atop his power rankings, better than anyone. It's insane, but we understand.

When someone has success you can't put your finger on, can't explain or quite believe, and it's not in the classic way (with big, burly sluggers), when it's different, just different, and the result is really, really good, well, there's mystique. There's a cult even, Rays watchers, dissecting every Friedman move for hidden meaning or learning moments.

Maybe the Red Sox spend spring training answering questions about their fold, the one that opened the beer tap and swept away their manager and their GM. Maybe they'll be slightly distracted, all courtesy of those little, lowly Rays. The Rays will take any edge they can get.

But here's a reminder of the reality that's never far off. The Yankees went and got some pitching the other day, trading Jesus Montero, their catcher prospect (something the Rays have never had) for Seattle starter Michael Pineda. New York also bought former Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda for $10 million for one season.

We have no idea how the Rays are going to manage to pull it off this season.

But we can't wait to see them try.

Who's on first?

Who cares?

It will probably be something special – again.