Evan Longoria to retire as a Ray, ceremony set for June 7

Evan Longoria will always remember his first day with the Rays.

They had just made him the No. 3 pick in the 2006 draft, and he flew from his southern California home to quickly launch his pro career.

He signed for a $3 million bonus, met some new bosses, did media interviews and, for what was supposed to be the fun part, joined future teammates to take batting practice before that night’s game at Tropicana Field.

“I’ve probably told this story a thousand times,” Longoria said, “but everybody who watched that — and I’ve heard this my whole career — they were like, ‘We saw you that first day and everybody was looking around going, ‘Who the heck did we draft?’

“I didn’t hit a groundball out of the infield, I don’t think. Anybody that watched me take that batting practice they were like, ‘What is he doing? This guy is not impressive at all.’

“But it just goes to show you, I guess, that that doesn’t really matter at all.”

No, it didn’t.

Longoria went on to have many other more impressive and memorable firsts — including his April 2008 big-league debut, an improbable run to the World Series that season, his historic 2011 Game 162 homer — during a 10-season run that established him as the best player in franchise history.

But he didn’t have much of a last day; he didn’t even know it was coming.

Longoria rapped a couple hits in the finale of a so-so 2017 season then, stunningly, was traded to San Francisco a few months later.

That will change. The team announced Monday that Longoria, 39, will sign a ceremonial one-day contract prior to the June 7 game and retire as a Ray.

“I want to come back home, essentially,” Longoria said. “I just always kind of felt like I owed it to the Rays fans who supported me all those years to come back and do some sort of announcement with the Rays.”

After being traded, Longoria played six more seasons — five with the Giants and in 2023 for the Diamondbacks — then sat out last year without officially retiring.

He played against the Rays twice in that span, but through scheduling quirks didn’t get to do so at Tropicana Field — which he felt created a large void — though he did return last July to throw out the first pitch before a game.

And there will be grander celebrations in the near future, with Longoria expected to be inducted into the Rays Hall of Fame and have his No. 3 retired, possibly as soon as next season.

(The team paused Hall of Fame additions while playing this season at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field, the spring home of the rival Yankees, but is projected to return to Tropicana Field for the 2026 season.)

But the idea of retiring as a Ray was something that meant a lot to Longoria, and one that came up in conversations he had — and will continue to have — with baseball operations president Erik Neander about a potential future role with the team, either in coaching or the front office.

“I always wanted to retire a Ray, and I didn’t really know what that looked like,” Longoria said. “This came together the last few months, going back and forth between me, Erik and Elvis (Martinez, the team’s director of communications and player relations). I just ultimately was like, ‘Look, guys, I need to retire. I need to announce a retirement. And I don’t want to put it off anymore.’ ”

Doing so with the Rays was important, Longoria said, because of how much the organization meant to him and his career.

That included as a Ray earning the 2008 American League Rookie of the Year award, three Gold Gloves, three All-Star appearances, a Silver Slugger award and six top-20 finishes in the AL MVP voting — as well as two hefty contracts that guaranteed him around $150 million.

And the statue of him that was erected outside of Tropicana Field in 2023 — and post-Hurricane Milton temporarily relocated to the team’s offices nearby — to commemorate that 2011 home run that sent the Rays into the playoffs.

He still is the franchise leader in numerous categories, including games played (1,435), home runs (262), RBIs (891), runs (780), doubles (338) and WAR rating (51.7).

His time in Tampa Bay also meant a lot personally, as he started his family while with the Rays — getting married to Jaime and having two of their three kids.

So Longoria will pull on a Rays jersey one more time, throw out the first pitch prior to the game against the Marlins and make his farewell official.

“I grew up there, I raised most of my family there, that is the place that always felt like home,” he said. “It felt like the best way to kind of close out my career would be to come back.

“To thank the people that made the organization great for me and my family, obviously gave me a lot of money, gave me the opportunity to become a star in Major League Baseball, and the community that really embraced me for the better part of 12 years.

“It just makes sense to me in my own mind.”

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