Rays say goodbye to spring complex

The Tampa Bay Rays held a short workout Thursday as the clubhouse attendants packed up their belongings and shipped everything across town to Al Lang Field.

That’s a normal occurrence each spring when the Rays leave their spring training complex for Al Lang and the start of the exhibition games.

But Thursday was different.

It was the last time the Rays will use the complex as a team. The clubhouse, indoor batting cage and five baseball fields will still serve as the minor league complex and treatment center for rehabbing players over the summer. But starting next February, the Rays will train in Port Charlotte.

“It’s a real functional place to begin your spring training,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “There are plenty of fields. They are really well-kept. The clubhouse is definitely big enough. Covered batting facilities. It’s a good spot. We’re moving along. We’re going to a better place actually in regard to getting our work done. But I think this place has a neat feel to it, and I will miss it for that.

Shields in the opener?

Should Scott Kazmir not be ready for Opening Day, and based on Maddon’s insistence that the team will be patient with Kazmir’s rehab, it doesn’t appear that he won’t, than you could read a little into the fact James Shields was moved up a day and will pitch Saturday instead of Sunday.
This puts Shields on pace to pitch Opening Day on March 31 in Baltimore.

Price update

Maddon didn’t offer much in way of an update on David Price, who was scratched from his one inning during Wednesday’s intrasquad game because of tightness in his left (throwing) shoulder.
“It’s not going to be, I don’t think, overly long,” Maddon said. “It’s just one of those things where whenever we feel he’s ready we’ll get him back out there.”

NOTEWORTHY

Jeff Neimman will start Sunday’s game against the Pirates in Bradenton …

Don’t expect the Rays to bring the big guns to McKechnie Field. Maddon said the starters will play Friday and Saturday and have Sunday off …

The Rays will use the DH on Friday against the Reds, even though they are playing in a National League park …

Catcher Dioner Navarro won’t play until Monday the earliest. Since he missed the first week of spring training to attend to his ailing mother in their native Venezuela, Maddon wants Navarro to have a few more days to work on his arm strength before letting him catch in the games.

- Roger Mooney, Bradenton Herald staff