Why you won’t see Dewayne Staats as much on Rays telecasts this year

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Dewayne Staats is looking forward to extending his run as the primary TV voice of the Rays for a 26th season and has no plans to retire any time soon.

But you won’t see quite as much of him this year.

Staats plans to take off 20-30 games, mostly during road trips, in what sounds like a joint decision between him and Bally Sports bosses and something of an industry trend.

“There comes a point where — I obviously still want to do it and enjoy doing it and all that, but if I could get off the road once in a while, I think I’ll do that,” said Staats, 70. “I’m still going to do a pretty full load of stuff. So it’s not anything really that different; almost everybody in the business is doing something like this now.”

Bally officials said the exact number of games Staats will skip has not been finalized, as some will be shown exclusively on national networks.

Nor have plans for Staats’ replacement, which is expected to be handled internally. That would mean one, or a combination, from the group of Bally pregame host Rich Hollenberg, and radio broadcasters Andy Freed, Neil Solondz and Dave Wills. All have filled in at times for Staats, who has been with the Rays since their 1998 inaugural season.

Network officials also said this year’s plans for Staats are no different than a program they started in 2019, when he took about 20 games off and Kevin Burkhardt was hired to fill in.

The network planned to do something similar in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused a major disruption. Broadcasting crews didn’t travel for the 2020 or ‘21 seasons, calling road games remotely. Staats did all the road games last year, as the crews were trying to make up for the missed time.

“We get together generally from time to time and chat about what you’re thinking and what you want to do,” Staats said. “So it just kind of grew out of one of those conversations.”

Television analyst Brian Anderson takes off a handful of games each season (and will again this year), as do other members of the broadcast and production crew.

Staats said he is planning to work pretty much all of the games at the start of the season, then begin taking some off around the All-Star break and into the early part of the second half.

“The idea is that you’re anticipating that they’ll be in the race, and by taking a couple road trips off, you’ll be refreshed and ready to fire until the end there,” he said. “So that’s where we are with all that, and we’ll rock and roll.”

Staats said he is looking forward to spending more time with his grandchildren during his time off. That could include taking a family summer trip that previously had been unworkable, and even more since a son-in-law is former big-league reliever Dan Wheeler, who played through the 2013 season.

“Grandkids are growing quickly,” Staats said. “There’s only so much time.”

Staats last year called the 7,000th game of a career that started in 1977 with Houston.

Bally Sports Sun is also making some changes to its pre- and postgame crew.

Two former Rays outfielders with Tampa roots, Denard Span (who also serves as a special assistant in baseball operations) and Matt Joyce, are being added to work 25-30 games each as analysts. Doug Waechter will return in the lead analyst role.

Orestes Destrade is out after 11 seasons, saying he was “very thankful and very appreciative” for the opportunity from the network, as well as the connection he made with the team and bond with the fans.

Destrade, who was limited to occasional duty last season because of serious medical issues with his wife and a son, will be involved with the upcoming World Baseball Classic in Miami, and with several projects in Japan, where he played five seasons and remains very popular. He said he also will remain a part of the Tampa Bay baseball community.

Bally is expected to announce its schedule and staffing plans in mid-to-late March.

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