- The top Rays story remains the team’s likely need for a new temporary home to begin the 2025 season, as Tropicana Field sustained heavy damage due to Hurricane Milton. John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times shares some details about the insurance policies attached to the stadium, and the possibility that the city of St. Petersburg (which is funding the repairs) might simply decide that repairing the Trop isn’t worth it since the Rays’ new ballpark is set to open in 2028. “We’re going to try to figure out every avenue, both through insurance and otherwise, to try to make sure the Rays have a place to play in St. Petersburg. But we’re going to make sure that it’s a financially responsible decision,” city council member Copley Gerdes said. Romano opines that Orlando might check off the most boxes as the Rays’ interim home, as the team could play at the 9500-seat stadium on the ESPN Wide World Of Sports complex at Walt Disney World.
Rays Rumors
Montreal’s Olympic Stadium Ruled Out As Possible Temporary Home For Rays
The Rays are uncertain about where they’ll play in 2025 after Hurricane Milton damaged the Tropicana Field roof. One option that will not be under consideration: Montreal. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports that the city’s Olympic Stadium — the former home of the Expos and a speculated possibility for the Rays — is undergoing an $870MM renovation to replace its own roof. The stadium will not be available for three years.
“Until 2028, the field of play will be within a construction site and therefore not open to the public,” the stadium’s communications officer told Topkin via email. Montreal is the second city to back away from serving as a potential temporary home for the franchise. The Durham Bulls, home of the organization’s Triple-A affiliate, released a statement earlier this week saying they “do not anticipate hosting (the Rays) for a full season due to schedules overlapping and other logistical challenges.”
The Rays still haven’t confirmed they won’t be able to play all of next season at the Trop. Topkin reported earlier in the week that the facility was unlikely to be repaired by Opening Day, however. The Rays are scheduled to open a new stadium in St. Petersburg in 2028. Assuming that timeline isn’t delayed, it’s not clear if the organization and city will find it worthwhile to repair Tropicana Field if the team is leaving the Trop after three years anyhow.
Montreal was mentioned as a possibility largely because the Rays flirted with the idea of playing there a few years ago. While the Rays were trying to secure public funding for their new stadium, owner Stuart Sternberg floated a plan to divide the team’s home games between Tampa Bay and Montreal. MLB’s executive council killed the idea in January 2022. The Rays turned back to securing the funding for the new facility in St. Petersburg, which was approved this past July. Topkin’s column lists a few other cities the Rays might consider if the Trop is unavailable.
Stadium Notes: Rays, Twins
As the Rays assess the damage to Tropicana Field following Hurricane Milton last week, the club’s ability to get the Trop back in working order in time for Opening Day 2025 has been thrown into serious doubt. Given that the club was already planning to relocate to a new ballpark nearby in in time for Opening Day 2028, questions linger about whether or not the Rays will look to return to their current stadium at all or instead look for an interim home while their newest ballpark is being constructed.
While it will likely be a few weeks before the Rays are able to fully assess the damage to the Trop and hash out a plan of action, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes that they’re expected to at least begin the 2025 season playing their home games elsewhere. That reality has led to a rash of speculation about where those home games may end up being played, with Topkin noting a push by local media in North Carolina to put the city of Durham, where the club’s Triple-A affiliate plays. Said coverage of a hypothetical temporary move to the area by the Rays includes a piece by Dallas Woodhouse of the Carolina Journal about the possibility that includes comments from a handful of local politicians supporting the possibility.
Whatever hopes North Carolina residents had of MLB games being played in Durham appear to have been dashed for the time being, however, as the Durham Bulls released a statement this afternoon emphasizing that not only have there been no discussions about the Bulls hosting the Rays in Durham, but that the Bulls “do not anticipate” hosting them for the full 2025 season due to “overlapping scheduled and other logistical challenges.” That statement seemingly rules out the possibility of the Rays playing a full slate of 81 home games in Durham next year, though the Bulls statement also notes that they are “always ready to help [their] parent club” and does seemingly leave the door open for the Rays playing part of the season in Durham if necessary.
That could be a useful option for Rays brass if they intend to fix the Trop up in time for the club to play games there later in the 2025 season, or if the club takes another route to filling out its regular season calendar such as sharing time with other minor league clubs or even one of the more extreme possible solutions floated by Topkin such as sharing loanDepot Park with the Marlins. Any of those options would likely come with some scheduling conflicts not unlike the ones that would face the Rays and Bulls in Durham, and a speculative solution to that dilemma could be spreading the Rays’ 2025 home games across multiple sites.
In other stadium news, a recent report from Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press noted that the Twins are only halfway through their 30-year lease at Target Field in Minneapolis. While that wouldn’t be especially noteworthy in most circumstances, the Pohlad family’s recent announcement that they intend to explore selling the franchise has prompted concern among Twins fans that prospective buyers may look to move the club out of Minnesota. If a buyer planned to do that, however, they’d have to wait quite some time in order to do so as the Twins’ lease stipulates that “shall not vacate or abandon the ballpark at any time” during the lease’s term.
In other words, any prospective buyer of the Twins would likely have to wait more than a decade before they could seriously consider relocation, a reality that could lead any potentially interested parties who hope to purchase and subsequently relocate a team to seek out other options that could lead them to their intended destination faster. That’s surely a relief for Twins fans who have in previous decades endured relocation and contraction attempts while the Pohlad family has owned the club.
Rays PBO Neander On Christopher Morel's Post-Trade Struggles
- Christopher Morel had long been a Rays trade target before the club finally landed him in the four-player deadline deal that sent Isaac Paredes to the Cubs. However, Morel’s first two months in a Tampa uniform were a struggle, as he hit only .191/.258/.289 over 190 plate appearances. “There were signs underneath he was really unlucky in terms of the balls hit in play,” Rays president of baseball ops Erik Neander told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, in a nod to Morel’s .233 BABIP for the season. Neander is still bullish on Morel’s potential for 2025 and beyond, and felt that the Rays’ decision to move him to second base and left field (after he’d played third base with the Cubs all season) maybe also “took a toll on him offensively.” Even the trade itself might’ve been a factor, as Neader noted “that new environment, that first taste of it, if you don’t get off to a great start or hold it, it can be difficult. It’s a hard thing to recover. Sometimes it takes that first offseason to come in and be familiar with that environment, to really be yourself again.” There is plenty of time for the Rays to figure out a player who is under team control through the 2028 season, and who has shown flashes of his power potential over his three MLB seasons to date.
Latest On Tropicana Field
Tropicana Field was damaged by Hurricane Milton last week, most notably with the majority of the roof being torn off. Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, there’s still a lot of uncertainty around the full nature of the damage and what comes next, but it seems unlikely the Trop will be ready to host games by Opening Day of 2025.
The Rays are scheduled to be at home to start the next season, hosting the Rockies and then the Pirates for a six-game homestand that is supposed to start on March 27. But it seems there’s a decent chance the Trop won’t be playable by then. The facility doesn’t have any drainage, which means the lack of a roof is a significant problem until a solution is found. That’s on top of other potential damage that is still being assessed, laid out by Topkin in his piece.
The Rays had planned to build a new stadium adjacent to the Trop’s current location, with the hope being that it would be ready by 2028. It’s currently unclear if that timeline will be impacted by the hurricane damage. Even if that ends up being delayed, the club may have to make some tough decisions about the Trop, since it was planned for demolition to make room for the new stadium.
From a financial point of view, the club won’t want to devote significant resources into a facility that is on its last legs, which is perhaps why they are in this situation in the first place. Last week, Sam Blum of The Athletic spoke to David Campbell of Geiger Engineers, the group that installed the Trop’s roof back in 1990. He said the roof came with a timeline of roughly 25 years, meaning it probably should have been replaced a few years ago. But Campbell suggests that the plans for the new stadium probably pushed the club to forego the cost, which left the aging roof more vulnerable to the damage it ultimately sustained.
Campbell estimated that the roof could be fixed in five to six months “if the primary structure is serviceable.” That roughly lines up with the time until Opening Day 2025 but it’s possible that further inspection could find more damage and push that estimate, which is why the odds seem to be against the Trop being viable by March.
The Rays will now need to have some discussions about next steps and it seems there’s a wide range outcomes. “The Rays have to get a sense on whether they are looking for a temporary home for a few months, for a full season or for all three years,” Topkin writes. “Plus, Major League Baseball will have a say, and the players union is sure to be involved.”
Topkin goes on to mention a number of possible backup plans, which are all imperfect in various ways. A nearby minor league stadium would be convenient in some ways, as the location wouldn’t be drastically different, but each would likely require investment of some kind to get it closer to major league standards.
The minor league stadiums also don’t have roofs, which means frequent weather delays and postponements could become an ongoing problem. That’s on top of the logistical hurdles of sharing with the team that normally plays its home games there or moving that club elsewhere. Each venue would also come with concerns in terms of capacity, amenities, accessibility and so on.
There are also more extreme suggestions put forth, such as playing in a city like Durham or Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Montreal, Quebec; or even San Juan, Puerto Rico. Those all seem to be speculative on the part of Topkin but perhaps those situations will get more serious consideration going forward. If such an extreme scenario does come to pass, it will make for an odd alignment with the Athletics. The A’s are planning to move to Las Vegas but their stadium is also not planned to open until 2028. Their lease in Oakland ran out and a new deal wasn’t reached, so the A’s are planning to play in Sacramento until then, in the Triple-A park of the Giants’ affiliate. It seems there’s at least some chance that two clubs are nomadic for the 2025-27 seasons, which would be an odd and unwelcome development for the league.
The full extent of the damage and related costs are still being worked out, which is why there is still a wide range of outcomes here, but it will be a notable storyline to follow in the coming weeks and months.
Rays Assessing Hurricane Damage To Tropicana Field
The Rays released a statement on X today in the wake of Hurricane Milton passing through the Tampa and St. Petersburg area. “During the past couple weeks, our beloved city, region and state have been impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton,” the statement says. “We are devastated by the damage incurred by so many. Our priority is supporting our community and our staff. We are fortunate and grateful that no one was hurt by the damage to our ballpark last night. Over the coming days and weeks, we expect to be able to assess the true condition of Tropicana Field. In the meantime, we are working with law enforcement to secure the building. We ask for your patience at this time, and we encourage those who can to donate to organizations in our community that are assisting those directly impacted by these storms.”
Obviously, a sports stadium is not the top priority with a tragedy of this magnitude, but it is nonetheless a story with relevance to Major League Baseball that could impact the upcoming season. Drone footage shared on X by Ryan Bass of Bally Sports Florida clearly shows significant damage to the roof, with almost all of it ripped off, shredded into pieces that have fallen to the field below.
Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, club employees have begun the process of assessing the damage. Topkin notes that, due to the presence of the roof, the stadium was built with no drainage system. That means that water damage is a concern for as long as the roof is damaged and the field exposed to the elements.
The Rays are planning to open a new stadium adjacent to the Tropicana site but not until the 2028 season. As such, they will need to assess the playability of the Trop for the 2025 through 2027 seasons. They are scheduled to open the upcoming campaign at home on March 27, hosting the Rockies and then the Pirates for three game each.
As noted by Topkin, the Rays could potentially move to another location temporarily, if necessary. He cites the example of the Blue Jays, who weren’t able to travel to Toronto at the heights of the pandemic due to travel restrictions in 2020 and 2021. During that time, the Jays played at their minor league facilities in Dunedin and later in Buffalo.
Whether the Rays will have to follow a similar path or can return to the Trop by Opening Day 2025 will naturally depend on the severity of the damage and when it can be repaired. The club will undoubtedly be providing further updates in the coming days and weeks.
Rays Could Deal From Rotation Depth This Offseason
After the club’s first losing season in six years, the Rays are headed into what figures to be a pivotal offseason for the club as they look to remain contenders in a highly competitive AL East division. As noted by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, one way the club could look to address its lackluster offense (29th in the majors in runs scored this year) this winter is by trading from their rotation depth to acquire a bat, even if that bat doesn’t address their reported offseason priority of improving the club at catcher.
For a Tampa club that enters the winter in serious need of an offensive boost, it’s hard to deny the logic in dealing from their deep group of available arms. Youngsters Taj Bradley, Shane Baz, and Ryan Pepiot all emerged as solid, affordable rotation options for the club this year, and Zack Littell’s first full season in a big league rotation seems to have established him as a quality mid-rotation option with one year to go before free agency.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Springs returned to make seven solid starts for the club in the second half after undergoing Tommy John surgery early last year and Drew Rasmussen also rejoined the club’s pitching staff late in the year following his own 2023 elbow surgery. Rasmussen pitched primarily in a relief role this year, never throwing more than 38 pitches in an outing, but figures to be a rotation option for the Rays come Spring Training. That also figures to be the case for lefty Shane McClanahan, who went under the knife last August but figures to be ready for Spring Training as well.
With at least seven quality rotation options even after dealing away Aaron Civale and Zach Eflin at the trade deadline over the summer, it would certainly make sense for the club to explore dealing from that depth in order to address the offense. The Braves, Cubs, and Red Sox are all already known to be interested in adding rotation help this winter, while the Orioles and Mets are among the many other teams that could stand to benefit from adding a starter or two this winter as well. With even more clubs sure to look to bolster their pitching when the offseason fully gets underway following the World Series, the Rays should be well positioned to make a deal if they so choose.
Given the club’s small-market payroll and focus on long-term sustainability, it would be something of a surprise to see the Rays move on from any of Bradley, Baz, or Pepiot without recouping a similarly talented and controllable bat in return. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be a shock if clubs were hesitant to deal for McClanahan or Rasmussen given the former hasn’t pitched in more than a year while the latter hasn’t stretched out to start since returning from injury. That could leave Littell and Springs as the most likely candidates to be dealt this winter, with each hurler having various pros and cons as a trade candidate.
When it comes to Littell, the argument for dealing him is rather straightforward: the righty is only under team control through the end of the 2025 season and projects for a not insignificant $4.8MM in his final trip through arbitration according to MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, so by dealing him the Rays could save a bit of money to address other areas of the roster while also potentially bringing in a more controllable player to complement their offense. With that being said, Littell’s status as a rental could dampen the return for his services somewhat on the heels of a 3.63 ERA campaign that was more solid than excellent.
If teams aren’t scared off by Springs’s lack of volume over the past few years, then, he might be able to bring back a more significant return. After all, the southpaw has been dominant when healthy with a 2.44 ERA and 3.10 FIP in 184 1/3 innings of work since 2022, when he first became a starter. Results that strong would be valuable to virtually any rotation in baseball, and Springs’s $21.75MM guarantee over the next two years lands in the sort of sweet spot that would make him a relative bargain for other teams while still clearing a significant financial burden off the books in Tampa, allowing Erik Neander and his front office to explore further upgrades in free agency even beyond what Springs would bring back in trade.
Erik Neander Discusses Offseason Plans, Rays Payroll
Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander recently held his end of season press conference, where he indicated that the club figures to prioritize improving behind the plate after an 80-82 season that saw them stave off elimination from postseason contention until the final week of September despite engaging in a major sell-off prior to the trade deadline. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relayed some of Neander’s comments from the end of season presser, where he discusses the decision to sell over the summer and the club’s future headed into 2025.
When discussing his decision to sell off key, controllable pieces like outfielder Randy Arozarena and third baseman Isaac Paredes at this summer’s trade deadline, Neander readily acknowledge the possibility that the club may have been able to cobble together enough extra wins to sneak into the postseason had they decided against selling. With that being said, Neander offered a major sign for optimism headed into the coming winter: After cutting more than a third of the club’s expected payroll commitments for 2025 off the books over the summer (with Topkin suggesting that $45MM in 2025 dollars came off the books prior to the deadline), the Rays now have a healthy amount of financial flexibility with which to operate this winter.
It’s a major change from just last offseason, when the club had to part ways with expensive veterans Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot in order to get payroll within the club’s small market budget. This winter, not only is a similar cost-cutting sell off not necessary, but Topkin suggests the club will have some room to make additions this winter. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Tampa’s 12-man arbitration class to make a combined $25.6MM in 2025. Even if Tampa retains each of those players and exercises Brandon Lowe’s $10.5MM club option for next year, RosterResource suggests that would leave them with just under $75MM on the books for next year. That’s $14MM below the club’s 2024 mark, $4MM below where the club ended up in 2023, and $11MM below their 2022 figure.
That should be more than enough payroll flexibility for the Rays to address their stated priority this winter of improving behind the plate. Ben Rortvedt figures to remain in place as a member of the catching tandem after a decent season where he posted a wRC+ of 87 while playing solid but unspectacular defense behind the plate. Finding a right-handed catcher to complement the lefty swinging Rortvedt, though Topkin cautions that the club is likely to focus on short-term solutions behind the plate given their belief in youngster Dom Keegan. The 24-year-old was selected by the Rays in the fourth round of the 2022 draft and since then has made it to Double-A, here he hit an impressive .285/.371/.435 in 104 games this year.
Topkin notes that with Keegan set to begin the 2025 campaign in Triple-A and the possibility of him emerging as an option behind the plate as soon as this season, Neander and his front office seemingly view Keegan as a potential long-term answer behind the plate. A good middle ground for the club could be pursuing an older catcher who might be more open to a one-year deal such as Elias Diaz or Kyle Higashioka. The addition of either player would provide the club with a solid platoon partner for Rortvedt while not blocking Keegan in the longer term.
Aside from upgrading behind the plate, Topkin adds that Neander plans to look for ways to address the club’s lackluster offense. The club’s 95 wRC+ was good for just 23rd in the majors this year, and their offensive flaws were further exposed by the fact that the team scored just 604 runs this year, less than any club except the historically bad White Sox. While that dearth of runs seems to suggest that the club ought to look to make significant changes to the offense, Neander actually suggested that he hopes the club can improve its offense internally.
There’s some logic to that, as offensive stalwart Yandy Diaz got off to a cold start in 2024 before heating up and rebounding with a strong second half, while Christopher Morel struggled badly in his first half-season of work away from Chicago after being dealt by the Cubs in the Paredes trade. More typical seasons from Diaz and Morel, as well as a strong first 162-game campaign from exciting youngster Junior Caminero, could boost the club’s offense in a hurry. Even so, however, it’s easy to imagine the club benefit a great deal from an external upgrade to the lineup at a position such as shortstop, where both Jose Caballero and Taylor Walls clocked in well below league average this year.
Nine Players Elect Free Agency
As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.
Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR. These transactions are all reflected on the MiLB.com log.
Catchers
- Rob Brantly (Rays)
Infielders
- Nick Maton (Orioles)
- Zach Remillard (White Sox)
Pitchers
- Diego Castillo (Twins)
- Yonny Chirinos (Marlins)
- Chris Devenski (Mariners)
- Jonathan Hernandez (Mariners)
- Erasmo Ramirez (Rays)
- Josh Rogers (Rockies)
Rays Likely To Explore Catching Market
The Rays dropped to fourth place in the AL East, finishing the season at 80-82. After missing the postseason for the first time since 2018, Tampa Bay baseball operations president Erik Neander spoke Friday about the need for more offense. He specifically pointed to catcher as an area where the club must improve.
“We’ve got to find a way to get more output out of that position than what we got this year,” Neander said (link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). “We’ve got to find a way to be better back there, without question, and that’ll be a priority in terms of where our mental energy goes throughout this winter.”
While that’s not quite a definitive declaration the Rays will add from outside the organization, it’s clear they’ll examine the market. Tampa Bay had one of the lightest-hitting catching groups in the majors. The Rays got a .194/.272/.291 batting line out of the position. Only the White Sox had a lower batting average. Tampa Bay was 24th in on-base percentage and 28th (better than just the White Sox and Marlins) in slugging.
The Rays opened the season with René Pinto as their starter. That didn’t last long. Tampa Bay optioned Pinto after 19 games. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, where he hit .191 with a .257 on-base mark. Ben Rortvedt, whom the Rays acquired from the Yankees on the eve of Opening Day, ended up taking the majority of the playing time. The lefty hitter turned in a middling .228/.317/.303 slash over 328 plate appearances. Tampa Bay had Alex Jackson backing Rortvedt up from early May until designating him for assignment in September. Jackson hit .122 in a career-high 58 games. September call-up Logan Driscoll also struggled in his limited MLB work.
Like most clubs, the Rays have generally prioritized defense at the position. Rortvedt graded reasonably well as a receiver. Statcast credited him with better than average framing and blocking metrics. He also showed strong pop times, although his 16.2% caught stealing rate was subpar. Rortvedt presumably showed enough to hold an offseason roster spot. He’s out of minor league options, so the Rays would need to keep him in the majors or make him available to other teams to open the season. Driscoll still has a full slate of options and seems likely to start next season in the minors.
Jackson already elected minor league free agency after clearing waivers last month. Pinto remains on the 40-man roster but may have a tenuous hold on that spot. He’ll be out of options next season. It’s unlikely the team runs things back with a tandem of Rortvedt and Pinto; the latter might find himself on waivers at some point this winter.
The free agent catching class is light at the top. That’s not a huge issue for the Rays, who probably wouldn’t have made a huge splash even if the market were stronger. There are a handful of right-handed hitting backstops who should be available on one- or two-year deals. Kyle Higashioka, Carson Kelly, Danny Jansen, Jacob Stallings (whose deal with Colorado contains a mutual option) and Elias Díaz are among the top options. Anyone from that group could be a realistic target to share time with the lefty-hitting Rortvedt. Each should at least provide more offense than Jackson managed in that role.
