Reliever Benoit trying to find way back in familiar setting

Scouts from a dozen major-league teams watched Joaquin Benoit pitch two innings Feb. 13 during a game in the Dominican Republic.

"They were 'supposedly' interested," Benoit said.

One team wasn't kidding. The Rays signed Benoit two days later to a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training.

The deal gives the Rays a chance to add a pitcher with more than seven years of major-league experience to the bullpen, and it allows Benoit the opportunity to resurrect his career after missing 2009 while rehabbing from surgery on his right rotator cuff.

"I feel good to be here," Benoit said. "It's been a long year and a half, almost. Now that I'm coming back I'm basically getting back to what's normal pitching. This is a good place to start."

Benoit is very familiar with Port Charlotte, having trained there during his years with the Texas Rangers. He also spent the 1999 season pitching for the Rangers' Single-A team in the Florida State League.

The place has changed since the Rays moved their spring training digs there after the 2008 season. The building used as the Rays clubhouse and offices was not there when Benoit last played in Port Charlotte.

Benoit got lost inside the building Thursday.

"It's a little different," he said.

Roll Tide

Lance Cormier called those the two best words anyone can say, and he has said them often after the Alabama football team's win against Texas in the BCS Championship Game. Cormier, who has a degree in finance from Alabama, has been a Crimson Tide season ticket-holder since 2007.

He and Chris Westmoreland, the Rays' equipment manager and a Gators fan, had a bet on which team would win the national title. The loser has to wear shirts and hats of the other team to and from the Rays' spring-training complex.

Had the Gators won, Cormier would have had to wear a Gators shirt under his jersey this spring. Now, Cormier gets to decorate Westmoreland's office in crimson and cream.

Noteworthy

C Dioner Navarro left Saturday's workout early because he didn't feel good. ... LHP Jake McGee missed Saturday's workout because of a family matter. ... Manager Joe Maddon said RHP Andy Sonnanstine was the Rays' top offseason conditioning player based on his attendance during the conditioning program at the Trop and what he did during those sessions.

Roger Mooney