The Tampa Bay Rays have been playing their home games this season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, because of the damage sustained at Tropicana Field after Hurricane Milton in October.
If the Rays earn a trip to the playoffs this year, they’ll play their home postseason games at Steinbrenner Field, too, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told the Tampa Bay Times Monday.
“Our rule has always been that people play in their home stadiums during the World Series. And I’m not of a mind to change that rule,” Manfred said, via the Tampa Bay Times. “I understand it’s a unique situation. It’s different, but that’s where they’re playing.
“That’s where they’re going to play their games.”
The Rays are currently 50-47, 5.5 games back of the first-place Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. Additionally, they are 1.5 games back of a wild-card spot in what’s shaping up to be a competitive second-half race to the postseason alongside fellow division rivals such as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, as well as the Blue Jays.
This season, the Rays’ interim home has seated a capacity of 10,046 fans, whereas St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field fit approximately 25,000 with the upper deck closed. So even before the move, the Rays played in a ballpark with, by far, the lowest capacity in MLB. The next lowest non-temporary home for a team in the majors is Progressive Field in Cleveland, but that holds 34,830 fans.
The Athletics are the other MLB team currently playing their home games at a temporary site. As the franchise transitions from Oakland to Las Vegas, the A’s are located at the Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California. That’s where the franchise will be from at least 2025-27 while their ballpark is built in Vegas, and it’s where the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats, plays.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser reported Tuesday that MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark was “less than enthusiastic” about the A’s and Rays’ stadium situations right now. He’s particularly uneasy about the A’s staying in a minor league park in West Sacramento through at least 2027.
“Playing in a minor league ballpark is less than ideal,” Clark said Tuesday, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
Clark, who met with members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Tuesday, reportedly added: “One was an act of God. One was a decision.”
During spring training, Steinbrenner Field — named after longtime Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who ran a shipbuilding company in Tampa and eventually died at his home there in 2010 — is used by the storied New York franchise. Plus the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons, had also been playing there. The Tarpons have been using other fields at the spring training complex for their home games this season.
Following a consultation with MLB, the Rays reportedly chose Steinbrenner Field over the Philadelphia Phillies’ spring training stadium in Clearwater. In return, the Yankees are receiving about $15 million in revenue as part of the agreement.
The Athletic’s Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal reported Monday that a group led by Florida home developer Patrick Zalupski has agreed in principle to buy the Rays from current owner Stu Sternberg for about $1.7 billion.
The sale is expected to be completed as soon as September. While the Rays haven’t commented publicly yet, Manfred isn’t denying the report that’s surfaced about the impending sale.
“I have no reason to quibble with or dispute the reports that are out there,” Manfred said, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
Zalupski is expected to keep the Rays in the Tampa Bay area, according to The Athletic, which also reported that he has a “strong preference” for the team to stay in Tampa rather than move back to St. Petersburg where it had previously been playing.
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