TAMPA BAY (January 27, 2023) – Former Washington State Baseball first baseman Kyle Manzardo was named the Tampa Bay Rays 2022 Minor League Player of the Year and was recently invited to the 2023 big league spring training.
 
Manzardo opened the 2022 season at High-A Bowling Green where he collected 34 extra-base hits, 55 RBI, .329 batting average, 16 doubles and 17 home runs in 63 games before being promoted to Double-A Montgomery. In 30 games at Double-A, Manzardo hit .323 with 10 doubles, five home runs and 26 RBI. Manzardo finished the 2022 season with a combined .327 batting average, 26 doubles, 22 homers, 81 RBI and a 1.043 OPS, leading all Rays' minor-leaguers in average, on-base percentage and slugging.
 
For the 2023 spring training season, the Rays Major League and Minor League camps will be held at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. Major League camp will move to Tropicana Field after an opening game in Orlando against the Yankees on February 28. All remaining home games will be played at Tropicana Field. 
 
Manzardo, taken in the second round as the No. 63 overall pick in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft, the highest draft pick for the Cougars since Scott Hatteberg was selected in the first round compensation round and No. 43 overall in 1991. Pitcher Adam Conley was taken in the second round and No. 72 overall by the Florida Marlins in 2011.
 
Manzardo earned All-America first-team honors by Collegiate Baseball as a junior in 2021 after finishing the regular season fourth in the Pac-12 Conference in hitting (.365), third in slugging (.640), second in RBI (60), tied for third in doubles (19), tied for ninth in home runs (11) and fourth in total bases (126). The junior from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho became the first Coug to record 60 RBI since Jim Murphy had 61 in 2008, led WSU with 24 multiple-hit games including seven 3-hit games, and also led the team with 17 multiple-RBI games including three 5-RBI performances. In conference play, Manzardo hit .325, led the Pac-12 with 13 doubles and tied for seventh in RBI (26) and also earned Pac-12 Player of the Week following the series against UCLA.
 
Manzardo was also named to the 2021 ABCA/Rawlings All-America Third Team by the American Baseball Coaches Association and Perfect Game, the ABCA/Rawlings ABCA All-West Region First Team and the All-Pac-12 Team. Manzardo was WSU's first All-American first-team selection since pitcher Aaron Sele in 1990 and was the first position player to earn All-American first-team honors since John Olerud in 1988.
 
In his three seasons in Pullman, Manzardo was a two-time All-American, hit .336 with 37 doubles, 16 home runs, 105 RBI, 149 hits, set the WSU record with a 43-game on-base streak and recorded a 27-game hitting streak, the second-longest hitting streak in program history. Manzardo also tallied 45 multiple-hit games including 11 3-hit games and four 4-hit games. Manzardo was just the second Cougar to be a two-time All-American, joining Phil Westerndorf (1975, 1977) after earning third-team honors in 2020.