With those impressive credentials, it had to be a shock to Cash when all 30 teams bypassed him in the amateur draft.
"I was a little surprised," he admits. "My senior year in high school I had a really good year. My junior year in college was pretty good, and usually a lot of players get drafted from Florida State, so it was a bit of a disappointment."
Ever notice how some players seem "larger than life" up close? That's not the case with Cash. I suspect that he was wearing full equipment, including spikes, when measured at an even six feet and 190 pounds. Though he's wiry and athletic, pro scouts believed he simply wasn’t big enough to be a big-league corner infielder. In hindsight, Kevin doesn’t disagree with that notion."I trust their judgment, and obviously it proved to be right. Looking at it now, I don’t think I would have made it to this level playing third. The guys up here can hit with a lot of power — certainly more than I have — so I understand what the scouts were seeing."
The idea of becoming a catcher had never occurred to him, though he was a versatile infielder.
"My freshman year of college, I played everywhere, just to get in — first, third, a little short — then my junior year, I mostly played third, but when our shortstop was hurt for about a month, I moved there."
Undeterred by his free agent status, Cash spent the summer in the Cape Cod League, where he made the All-Star team — as a third baseman. That’s where, he says, "I was fortunate to be seen by the right people."
It came as a mild surprise when he was asked to take infield behind the plate at the CCBL All-Star game, but Kevin, a team player, was willing.
"I didn’t care; I figured if it was going to help, why not go ahead and do it?"
What the young man didn’t know was how closely that warmup was being observed. At the time, it seemed like a coincidence.
"About a week prior to that, both our catchers were hurt, and I had volunteered," he recalls. "After the first inning, a scout walked over to my coach and asked him to get me out of the game. They pulled me and put somebody else in there — I didn’t really understand why at the time."
It was Ted Lekas of the Jays, still with the team as a pro scout, who first spotted Cash’s defensive potential as a backstop, and wanted to keep his find a secret. Tim Wilken also got involved in signing the diamond in the rough.
"A couple of other teams were interested," Kevin says, "but the Blue Jays were the most persistent."
In 2000, he began his pro career with Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League. Having never played short-season ball, the leap to a full-season league would have been enormous for almost anyone, but Cash was also trying to learn a new position, arguably the most difficult in the game, from scratch. He gives a lot of credit to his first tutor.
"Ernie Whitt has been the biggest factor in my career, without a doubt. You don’t find too many guys who can transform players as well as he did with me."
Even on an accelerated program, with a personal instructor, the conversion didn’t happen overnight.
"I think I caught on fairly quickly, but Ernie showed a lot of patience with me. At third, it was mostly catch the ball and hit the ball, but there’s a lot of thinking going on when you’re catching."
From the beginning, Cash had no trouble throwing out runners, nailing 37 of 67 that first year, and Whitt continued to help him with the mental game.
"That’s a big part of being a catcher," he believes. "It’s a learning process; I’m still learning now. There are times when I look back on a game and think maybe that wasn’t the best pitch to call — you try to limit those."
He’s calling his own game in the Show, but Kevin keeps his role in perspective.
"For the most part up here, pitchers have the final say," he explains. "What I’m doing is more of a suggestion. I don’t have a problem with that being on my shoulders — I like it that way — but I’m not going to tell Doc Halladay what to throw. I put down what I think he should throw, and if he shakes to something else, we’re gonna throw what he wants."
When that does happen, Cash has a pretty good idea what Roy is thinking, though it takes time to develop that rapport.
"We’ve got a couple new pitchers, Miguel Batista and Ted Lilly, that I’m still getting used to," he admits, "but it went pretty smooth in spring training."
The feeling is mutual. After his first start as a Blue Jay, Lilly told reporters, "I definitely like working with Kevin back there. He calls a good game."
At the same time he was mastering the nuances of his position in the minors, Cash was challenged as a hitter each time he moved up the ladder. His .245 with 10 homers in Low-A was promising, under the circumstances, and he had a fine season for Dunedin in 2001, batting .283 with 12 homers and being named the Florida State League’s all-star catcher. He advanced two more levels the next year, spending just half a season in AA before earning a promotion to Syracuse. He played for Team USA in the Futures Game in 2002, and was an All-Star again in AAA last year. His stellar defence hasn’t missed a beat, but as a hitter, each step up to a new level becomes more difficult, says Kevin.
"It took more time in Triple-A, for sure, and of course, in the big leagues. From AA to AAA is a big jump — you see a lot more offspeed pitches in fastball counts."
Sometimes a hitter can be his own worst enemy. Cash is candid about his early struggles.
"If I was slow to adjust, it’s mostly because of my stubbornness. I was taking checked swings at pitches I shouldn’t be swinging at; it took a while to learn to lay off and wait for a better pitch. I’m making progress, but obviously it’s something I have to continue to work on."
Reminded of a Spencer Fordin piece from spring training that mentioned his success emulating one of Vernon Wells’ hitting drills off the curveball machine, Cash nodded and smiled.
"I do that every day. This team is great; you get to watch a variety of different types of hitters, and I don’t think I can go wrong watching a guy like Vernon."
He also gets daily advice from hitting coach Mike Barnett.
"Don’t overswing is a big thing with me. Barney points that out, and I agree. When you overswing, it seems like you tend to be late on pitches. If you just relax and take a nice, easy cut, your timing is a lot better."In a spring training report by Mike Rutsey of the Sun, Barnett said he believed Kevin had "turned a corner" with the hard work he put in over the offseason.
"I think we've got to the point in the past few weeks where he's real comfortable with his mechanics and now he's got a lot more confidence and can let the ball travel and make adjustments on the pitches."
Our conversation was after batting practice on the second day of the regular season. Needless to say, Cash wasn’t satisfied with the opening day loss to the Tigers, giving his own performance (1-for-4 with a baserunner erased) a mixed review.
"I came up earlier with an opportunity to knock a run in, and didn’t do the job. I can’t let that happen too many times, but it did help to get that first hit."
Since then, Cash has more than held his own with the bat, as one of the bright spots in a Jays lineup that has yet to explode the way it did in 2003. He'll never be Mike Piazza with the stick, but the memory of last year’s .142 with 22 strikeouts in 106 AB is beginning to fade. A 3-for-5 at Fenway Park last Friday included two doubles and three RBI, then he added three more doubles and an infield single last night in Comerica to raise his average to a lofty .364 for the young season.
While no doubt pleased to be contributing to the attack, Cash knows it’s his glove that makes him valuable. Lightning-quick feet and superb balance are the foundation for his arm — he gunned out his third runner of the season (in just four attempts) last night, and has almost picked off several others already with snap throws to every base after pitches. The rookie has been getting pointers from bench coach Joe Breeden, who is also the new Toronto catching instructor. That’s just fine with Kevin.
"For four years, I heard one main person, Ernie Whitt, so it’s always good to hear from different people, with different philosophies," he says. "Joe’s brought a lot of interesting thoughts about the game, and I enjoy having him here. Last year, John Gibbons was working with the catchers. They all have a lot of good ideas; I just have to find what works best for me."
If it's a matter of dedication and intensity, Cash will succeed. It's hard to believe he has come so far in just four professional seasons, and encouraging to realize how focused he is on improving every aspect of his game.
Most organizations in baseball envy Toronto's young talent behind the plate. Hard-hitting prospect Guillermo Quiroz, no slouch defensively, has advanced through the system to AAA, and is expected to reach the majors by next year. With the continued development of Kevin Cash into a top-flight big-league receiver, it looks like the Jays’ catching for the next several years will be in excellent hands.