The Rays’ offseason has so far been dominated by the questions swirling around Tropicana Field after it was badly damaged by Hurricane Milton earlier this month. While the damage has not yet been fully assessed, it seems certain that the club won’t be able to start the season in their home ballpark in 2025 and there remains the possibility that local officials decide not to repair the field at all with a replacement for the Trop planned to be constructed in time for Opening Day 2028.
The unusual situation leaves plenty of questions about the Rays’ short- and mid-term future, even as the club knows its long-term home for 2028 and beyond remains in St. Pete. Potential temporary homes such as Durham, North Carolina and Montreal have already been shot down, and while MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed a preference for the Rays to remain in their current market, local officials in St. Petersburg have cautioned that they’ll be “financially responsible” as they attempt to find an avenue to keep the Rays in the area for the 2025-28 seasons.
Manfred made additional comments about the Rays’ situation to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich recently that for the first time helped to crystalize a timeline for a plan to be put in place. While previous discussions of the club’s future have simply noted that it would likely take several weeks for damage to the Trop to even be fully assessed, Manfred told Drellich that a plan needs to be in place before the end of the year.
“I think by Christmas they gotta have a pretty good plan in place,” Manfred said, as relayed by Drellich. “and there’s a lot to that.”
While two months isn’t necessarily a long time for the club to map out a new plan for where it will play its games in 2025, even that relatively short time frame could have an impact on the Rays’ offseason as the club attempts to court prospective free agents who won’t even know where they’d be playing and living during the season if they were to sign with Tampa. Of course, the Rays have always been more prolific on the trade market than in free agency, and that once again figures to be the case this winter as they explore ways to upgrade their lineup and rumors percolate that they could deal from their rotation this winter. In the event that the lack of a clear home ballpark impacts the club’s recruitment in free agency, it’s possible they’ll need to focus even more on the trade market than usual this offseason.
Turning back to the stadium questions at hand, Manfred suggested the league would be able to “make it work” in a minor league park by adjusting not only the minor league team’s schedule but also potentially even the Rays’ schedule as necessary. Using a minor league park or Spring Training complex could be a way for the club to remain in their current market even if city decides against repairing the Trop. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes that the Phillies’ and Yankees’ respective spring training complexes in Clearwater and Tampa seem to be the most likely local options for the Rays to utilize as a temporary home.
Of course, using a minor league facility runs the risk of a clash with the MLBPA over any negative impacts the move might have on players. MLBPA head Tony Clark recently discussed the union’s role in the process, noting that they’re limited in terms of their ability to impact the team’s choice of facility but can ensure that the ballpark’s amenities are up to major league standards and ensure the players are not put into “harm’s way” by the move. One example of how the MLBPA’s role works can be found in the similar situation playing out on the west coast due to the Athletics’ temporary relocation to Sacramento, where the club initially planned to utilize artificial turf but will now continue using grass on the field in 2025 following intervention by the union due to concerns that artificial turf would retain too much heat.
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
Knock the stadium down
Find a new home for the Rays (fish) first
Then rebuild
Why in the world as to why they would put 3 dollars into then old building is beyond me…the stadium sucks and now it is in disrepair
Charels
You’re too late Einstein. Groundbreaking is set for January 2025.
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
Einstein?
Well thank you Copernicus
getrealgone2
I went there in January for stupid wrestling (my friend really wanted to go for his Bday) and it really is a complete dump.
Informed Sportsball Discussion
The Royal Rumble. Your friend can call me next time if he wants to go with someone who would actually enjoy it.
Fever Pitch Guy
Informed – Royal Rumble?
Sounds like what you hear when Salvador Perez is hungry.
TerryTurnbuckle
Manfred needs to stay out of it and let the Rays do what’s right for the Rays.
mlb fan
I do tend to agree. If Manfred ain’t paying for the stadium he shouldn’t be dictating the outcome. MLB has a longtime antitrust exemption and can(unfortunately)do whatever they want.
CleaverGreene
LOL They have to put any plan before Manfred and the MLBPA. He needs to stay involved and not let them waste time on plans that will not be apporoved.
Fever Pitch Guy
Cleaver – Yep, players won’t be thrilled about playing in a Florida open air minor league park during the summer.
stymeedone
Bet they won’t be thrilled if 40 of their union members are unable to play this summer. Playing in a Florida open air minor league park beats not playing and not getting paid.
Rsox
“I think by Christmas they gotta have a pretty good plan in place”
Now you know how the A’s stadium situation spiraled out of control so badly and why they still don’t technically have a home
DarrenDreifortsContract
No one is going to watch them play no matter what stadium they choose.
BaseballisLife
Not in St. Pete. If they moved to Tampa they would draw crowds.
Fever Pitch Guy
Darren – Not true. Lots of fans follow visiting teams in Tampa and would show up in other cities.
Rays will be hosting the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies. Braves and Dodgers next season.
66TheNumberOfTheBest
They can’t replace a torn piece of fabric?
braveshomer
Yes they can. By far the easiest course of action rather than facilitating a team playing elsewhere for 2+ years….All the comments are just asinine otherwise imo smh
Fever Pitch Guy
Braves – Fiberglass would cost several million to replace with $39M being a common number thrown around. Plus the cost of repairing all the likely damage from the hurricane and rain still coming in.
TerryTurnbuckle
The late Bud Selig would have fixed this by now
Informed Sportsball Discussion
He’s still alive. I don’t get the joke.
TerryTurnbuckle
Oh. My bad. I was thinking of Rick Flair’s son. Glad Bud is still with us.
Informed Sportsball Discussion
I still don’t get the joke. But great trolling.
TerryTurnbuckle
Wasn’t a joke nor whatever trolling is. I get confused sometimes. It’s a medical issue. Kind of you to jest at someone’s disability though. Jerk
Informed Sportsball Discussion
Now that was a good joke. Rec’d.
brodie-bruce
@ informed
It reminds me of the always sunny episode “the gang beats Boggs” where Charlie kept referring to wade boggs being dead but everyone telling him he’s very much alive
Informed Sportsball Discussion
@brodie-bruce
I watched Cheers as a kid and was too young to have seen Boggs play, so my main memory of him is his guest appearance on Cheers.
The gang think he’s a fake and a prank being played on them by Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern, the rival bar, so they pants him and run him out of the place.
/trivia time
brodie-bruce
Same and didn’t know Boggs was in that episode
O'sSayCanYouSee
So, Oakland Coliseum is presently unoccupied…
mgomrjsurf
Y es but on West Coaet.
Mustard Tiger
And the Oakland Coliseum will remain unoccupied until it’s torn down.
BaseballisLife
The insurance won’t cover close to the cost of repairing that roof. In New Orleans it cost $250 million. Half of that cost in St Pete would take it far beyond anything that could be recouped.
It will cost $6 million to bring the lighting at the Yankees minor league facility up to MLB standards plus whatever changes need to be made to the field and support facilities like TV camera stains, locker rooms, batting cages, and gyms. Maybe some temporary seating in the outfield instead of the grass berm.
Spending $20 million there seems like a better investment.
LordD99
They may not need to do too much as Steinbrenner Field is pretty state of the art. The issue is the Yankees use Tampa as their HQ south year round as Hal Steinbrenner lives in Tampa so quite a bit of the operations of the MLB club occurs out of there.
stymeedone
I’m sure the front office of Tampa Bay would not need to use Halls offices.
Old York
Do the Rays need to play in 2025?
Yankee Clipper
Why can’t they use a minor league stadium like another unnamed team is doing? There’s like 50 of them in Florida.
Maybe they can share the Marlins stadium for a small fee.
Acoss1331
The Yankees could lease their Spring Training facility to the Rays, the name eludes me right now. Pretty sure that stadium is a whole lot better than the Trop ever was too…
wileycoyote56
If they can’t find a minor league park to suit them, only needs 17,000 seats max, then play at the Trop. Make it playable as an outdoor stadium, it’s really getting ridiculous the amount of money cities put into stadiums and facilities. If they get rained out, so be it. They only average 17,000 fans in a good year, so add some drainage and play in the open air. It’s baseball for gods sake, it’s not the end of the world if they have to improvise a little.
johnsilver
— Make it playable as an outdoor stadium–
That’s a big issue. While there is an A Ball league in Florida (FSL) it involves many DH’s, due to near nightly thunderstorms from July thru September which often come out of nowhere, last 30m, then magically disappear for those who have not been to Florida during that time of summer. i can’t imaging MLB allowing Tampa to have every start time prior to say.. 4pm to mostly avoid to flash storms, nor tolerating sometimes multiple DH’s per week. It’s why MLB teams have had domes in Florida, even the Fish in Miami since leaving Joe Robbie believe it was called.
Edit:
is this post of mine going to vanish also? It’s gotten last 2 days like it was 10y ago here. Is it time to write Tim??
stymeedone
…so add some drainage…
Yeah, because replacing the foundation of a sports arena is quick and inexpensive, compared to the roof.
Fever Pitch Guy
Stymee – Exactly!
And good luck with all those non-weatherproof scoreboards and other electronics.
hoof hearted
“Harms way”? Tony said
Mustard Tiger
I laughed out loud when I read that in the article. These clowns are so out of touch with reality.
Mr_KLC
Come to Nashville. We’ll sell out every game around our minor league team.
Human Being
I think they should put googly eyes on all the pieces of white roofing to look like ghosts for the holiday season.
Acoss1331
Rays can come to White Sox Park. At least the Rays have a product worth watching on the field…