Mike Brosseau Personifies What The Tampa Bay Rays Are All About

A lot could happen in 38 days.

That includes the stars aligning for Mike Brosseau and Aroldis Chapman to take center stage in the late innings of a tie game in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the ALDS.

Drama? Nah. The Rays are too boring for that, right? Forget the red carpet personalities and the glitz and glamour. They just get the job done. Plain and simple. Yawn.

They got it done alright, but what took place Friday evening was pretty dramatic as well.

While Brosseau denied the revenge factor his teammates were playing up in the aftermath of the series-clinching win over the Yankees, 38 days after the 26-year-old jack-of-all-trades was buzzed by a 101-mph Chapman fastball, his first-career postseason home run was undeniably good theater. 

All it did was help launch the Rays into the ALCS for the first time since 2008 and made sure the Yankees will remain title-less since last winning the World Series in 2009.

The fact Brosseau, who struck out against Chapman in Game 4, is in the big leagues underscores how the Rays go about their business.

Brosseau was signed in 2016 as an undrafted free agent for the sum $1,000 out of Oakland (Mich.) University. Four years later he is the majors making the MLB minimum of $563,500 and launched the biggest home run — and perhaps biggest hit — in franchise history off a dominant veteran reliever making $15 million.   

Thanks in large part to scouting and player development, the Rays have made and continue to make the most of what they have to work with.  

“We have very good players, first and foremost,” said manager Kevin Cash, when asked following a two-game sweep of Toronto in the ALWS how his team gets it done. “What makes them formidable is that the entire roster is used to help us win games. In comparison to other clubs, everybody has their different way. Our way is what we think, with the shape of our roster, is going to be most beneficial to us winning games. Credit (the players) for their buy-in to that approach and understanding that we think that we can help them, put them in positions for success and for them to make the most of their opportunities.”

They certainly have made the most of the opportunities. In so doing, however, the blueprint for such success can and will easily be altered accordingly. Again, as Cash said, it is about buying in. How you go about it one day could differ the next.

If it means summoning Nick Anderson from the bullpen in the third inning of Game 5, and not the customary eighth or ninth inning the right-handed fireballer — and 32nd-round pick (2012) of the Brewers and veteran of the independent leagues — is accustomed, then so be it. 

It was a prime example of Cash and his staff utilizing the roster in a way that gives the team the best shot at winning today. Tomorrow will be addressed when tomorrow arrives. Let’s get there first. That is also why Blake Snell and Charlie Morton were warming in the bullpen as Diego Castillo was nailing down his first-career postseason win Friday night.

Alas, tomorrow has arrived and the Rays are in the ALCS against the Houston Astros, which gets underway Sunday night. It is a series that offers the potential for seven games in as many days within the bubble of Petco Park and San Diego.

Because of the lack of a single off day, the series will be the ultimate chess match. Cash, the 42-year-old sixth-year manager, has the pieces to move around. Whether it will be enough to knock out the team that beat them in last year’s ALDS will be determined over the course of the next week.

One thing is for sure, it is players like Brosseau, Anderson, sudden star slugger Randy Arozarena and Pete Fairbanks (two Tommy John surgeries) who will continue to be at the heart of any success the team enjoys the rest of the way.

It is The Rays Way, after all.

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