MLB: Peter Bendix rises to General Manager of the Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays announced this Thursday that they promoted the vice president of baseball development, Peter Bendix, to the title of general manager. President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander, remains the team’s highest-ranking baseball operations executive, but Bendix’s appointment as general manager solidifies him as the No. 2 name in the Rays’ hierarchy.

Bendix’s promotion comes just over three months since the team promoted Neander from general manager to president of baseball operations and signed him to a five-year contract extension.

With Neander now holding that title and Bendix consolidated as the new general manager, the Rays have embraced the president / general manager hierarchy that continues to become popular throughout the sport.

Bendix’s promotion to GM makes it harder for other clubs to attract him; Teams typically only allow executives to meet with other organizations if the position in question represents a promotion.

As such, the only way a rival club could attempt to get Bendix out of the Rays now would likely be to offer him first place in their own baseball hierarchy. (He was reportedly of interest to the Mets as they searched for a new baseball operations leader, but they remained in Tampa Bay.)

In the last few years alone, we’ve seen the Red Sox hire Chaim Bloom as baseball director, the Astros hire James Click as general manager, the Brewers hire Matt Arnold as assistant general manager (later promoted to general manager) and the Twins hire Josh Kalk as a senior analyst (later promoted to vice president of baseball operations, strategy and innovation)

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, of course, also ran baseball operations for the Rays before being hired by Los Angeles in 2014.

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As general manager, Bendix will now have a “greater emphasis on Major League Baseball operations such as player appraisal and acquisition, roster management and day-to-day Major League club functions,” according to the Rays. He joined the organization as an intern in 2009, was promoted to director of baseball development in 2015, and then to vice president of baseball development in 2019.

Rafael Martinez

I am fond of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and in general all of Mexican baseball. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, the LMB All Star, LMP (uninterrupted since 2009), signings of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, albeit as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even an NBA friendly 10 years ago, but I carry baseball in my veins. Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I came to El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services in Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and within days, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. That is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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