Rays bench coach Rodney Linares checks all boxes

HOUSTON – Few bench coaches in the majors have grown as much as the Tampa Bay Rays‘ Rodney Linares over the last seven years. After a distinguished career managing and coaching in the Astros’ farm system, Linares has blossomed working for Kevin Cash, the longest-tenured manager in the majors.

As one of Cash’s top coaches since 2019, Linares has learned how to do more with less. He also has worked on his craft managing in the Dominican winter league in multiple off-seasons, garnering enough respect in his native island to carry the heavy weight of managing Team Dominican Republic in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

The baseball-mad Dominican Republic has perhaps the most demanding fan base during the WBC. There’s no denying that Linares felt the sting from critical media. Nonetheless, Linares has slowly become one of the top managerial prospects in the majors. As some teams start looking ahead to 2026, Linares should be a popular candidate for prospective interviews.

“The last five years have been, like, really challenging because of how the roles change going from third to the bench coach, having to manage WBC,” Linares says. “I got a lot of growth. I would say challenging, but a lot of growth. Learning the inside out of the industry. 

“Now that you’re the bench coach, it gives you more access to conversations with general managers and owners. Doing the WBC, I had to do a lot of the work. Nelly (Nelson Cruz) was our GM, and we had to do a lot of work in the recruiting process. So that was long.”

Young baseball lifer

Linares, 47, grew up around baseball. His father Julio Linares was one of the Houston Astros organization’s most important figures in Latin America, especially in his native Dominican Republic.

Julio Linares, who reached Class AAA as a player, began his scouting/player development career with the Astros in 1973. Julio coached and managed in the Astros’ farm system before spending three seasons coaching for the big league club. 

Rodney Linares followed his father’s path and joined the Astros organization in 1999 as a coach in the Dominican Summer League at only 21 years old. He steadily climbed through the Astros’ minor-league system as a hitting coach before becoming a manager in 2007.

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Over the next 11 years he helped develop some of the players who made the Astros the American League’s most consistent power from 2015 through 2024. Rodney Linares was the first minor-league manager who advocated for a diminutive infielder named Jose Altuve, who developed into one of the cornerstones of the squad that has won two World Series titles and four American League pennants since 2017.

Linares also managed All-Stars Carlos Correa, George Springer, J.D. Martinez and Teoscar Hernandez.    

Beloved mentor

“The way (Rodney Linares)  managed, the confidence he gave his players and the way he treated us was unique,” Hernandez told Our Esquina in 2021. “I always tell him I appreciate him a lot for that. 

“He gave us a lot of good advice. The most important thing was that he spoke to me with the truth. He would tell me what I needed to do and what I needed to improve on the field to be a great player.”

Like Hernandez, Linares blossomed after he left the Astros. With a strong recommendation from then-Astros manager AJ Hinch, Cash hired Rodney Linares as third base coach in November 2018. 

Two seasons later, Linares was waving runners home in Arlington, Texas, as the Rays played the Dodgers in the 2020 World Series. Linares was promoted to bench coach after Matt Quatraro left that position to become the Kansas City Royals’ bench coach after the 2022 season.

Linares spent the offseason between the 2022 and 2023 season helping Team Dominican build camaraderie back on their island. He would be the first to concede that his country struggled in the WBC, but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort or pride.

“It meant everything,” he said of managing his country in the WBC. “It’s a pinnacle. It’s like the only thing that I could say would be like being a big league manager for a team.

“But, pride, like, I was proud to represent. And when you say pressure, yeah, there was a lot of pressure. You put your whole country on your shoulders and, and like every minimal decision that you make, it’s getting scrutinized for the last couple of years. But I’m happy with doing it, the way I did it. I appreciate the players that went there and gave their all.”

‘Invaluable’ to Cash’s staff

Considering the roles he’s undertaken over the last seven years, Rodney Linares appears ready to manage in the majors. Now it’s just a matter of getting the opportunity this winter when jobs open up.

“He’s invaluable to the staff,” Cash says of Linares. “How prepared he is and his baseball knowledge of how he’s come up developing players has really helped me. When we have young players come through our system, knowing that he has a track record of doing that has been a big benefit.

“And his in-game knowledge and the experiences he had with the Dominican club in the WBC has only made our staff, highlighted by him, stronger.”