For years baseball people have marveled at the Tampa Bay Rays’ ability to remain competitive in the American League East despite consistently lowest industry payrolls and annual attendance. Since 2008, the Rays have been to the postseason nine times, including the World Series twice, always with payrolls of well over $100 million less than the Yankees.

At the same time, Tampa Bay fans have gotten used to the Rays’ jettisoning their favorite players (See: Isaac Paredes, Randy Arozarena, Brandon Lowe and Tyler Glasnow in just the last three years) as soon as they became too costly or neared free agency.  And with the clock continuing to tick on their expiring (2028) lease at dreary Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, there’s never been a sense of permanence of the Rays in Tampa Bay.

But now, finally, there is.

Last week, both the Tampa city council and the Hillsborough County commissioners both voted to approve a new $2.3 billion mixed-use stadium project near the Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry Boulevard campus, not far from Raymond James Stadium, the home of the NFL Tampa Bay Bucs. The plan is similar to what the Atlanta Braves constructed in Cobb County, GA in 2015 for a stadium surrounded by a village of shops and restaurants that would produce addition revenue for the team.

It was always the accepted view of most folks in the Tampa Bay area that if the Rays were going to survive they would have to be in Tampa where the large majority of their 3 ½ million residents are. This was part of the reason the Rays have remained one of the top revenue sharing recipients in baseball, an average of nearly $60 million a year. That’s on top of the $50 million they and the other 29 clubs receive annually from the MLB Central Fund. So they’ve had the money to increase payroll, but the previous Rays owner Stu Sternberg just chose not to spend it.

If the owners are able to establish a cap in the new collective bargaining agreement, revenue sharing would go away, but the Rays are anticipating revenues of far more than $60 million from the new park and surrounding village which is now slated to be ready by 2029. For sure, now that the stadium issue has finally been resolved, the Rays, under their new ownership led by Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski, are expected to be operating vastly different. Last week Zalupski told the Tampa Bay Times: “Tampa’s the No. 11 media market in the country. There’s nothing holding it back, “adding that with the new ballpark and the development around it, “we should be able to drive payroll (currently 27th at $116,208,358) into the top 15 circle and maybe even the top 10.”

In the meantime, the Rays have been leading the American League East since June 27, but will be facing their biggest challenge now in the September stretch, starting with this present road trip through Texas where they snapped a 10-game skid at Globe Life Field as of Friday, and three in Atlanta against the Braves. They then finish the season with three games with the Red Sox, four in New York with the Yankees and three more at home with the Phillies.

That four-game series at Yankee Stadium September 22-24 figures to be the biggest regular season series for both the Rays and the Yankees in years, especially since the Yankees expect to be (Aaron Judge) whole, while Rays GM Eric Neander made significant upgrades to his pitching at the trade deadline with Freddy Peralta from the Mets and hard-throwing righty reliever Tyler Wells from the Orioles, and in perhaps the best acquisition of all, filled the Rays longstanding need — a catcher who can hit — by landing Liam Hicks from the Marlins

If the Rays are able to emerge through that gauntlet still atop the AL East it should be cause for considerable concern for the Yankees. Because as improved as they’ve become this year, they figure to be this good and better for years to come with one of the top player development systems in baseball with a half dozen top 100 prospects including outfielders Theo Gillen, Jake Melton and Austin Overn and catcher Caden Bodine, all of whom could be making their debuts at some point next year.

In every way, the baseball future couldn’t be brighter in Tampa Bay.

IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD

It took another mind-blowing record franchise deal — in this case $4 billion — but baseball has at long last been ridded of its worst owner, Arte Moreno, who last week announced he had sold the LA Anaheim Angels to Stan Kroenke’s Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, the holding company that also owns the NFL’s LA Rams, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and MLS soccer’s Colorado Rapids and Arsenal F.C. of the Premier League. Understandably Angel fans are celebrating the departure of Moreno. Under his stewardship the Angels are enduring their 12th consecutive losing season and haven’t been to the postseason since 2014. Among Moreno’s egregious sins: Allowing Shohei Ohtani to defect to the Dodgers, his responsibility for three of the worst contracts of all time: Albert Pujols  (10 years/$240 million), Josh Hamilton (five years, $125M), Anthony Rendon (seven years/$245M), his hiring and firing five managers since Mike Scioscia’s departure after the 2018 season, and finally allowing Angels Stadium to become decrepit. Good riddance to Arte and thanks also for moving the press box from behind home plate to right field…Pete Crow-Armstrong’s decision to drastically alter his batting stance back in May has resulted in him catapulting past Ohtani as the leading candidate for NL Most Valuable Player. Crow-Armstrong is hitting .312 since May 27 (when he was at .223) and as of Friday led the majors in runs and total bases and was second in homers in the NL to the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber — at the same time Ohtani’s knee injury has precluded him from pitching since July 3. If Crow-Armstrong does win the NL MVP, there will be another consequence from the Mets’ standpoint: No longer will Nolan Ryan-for-Jim Fregosi stand alone as the worst trade in their history. Their decision at the 2021 trading deadline to send Crow-Armstrong, who’d been their No. 1 draft pick the year before, to the Cubs for Javy Baez, who was in his free agent walk year, must now rank right up there as one of the dumbest ever by any team.