The Tampa Bay Rays are playing their home games this season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, because of the damage sustained at Tropicana Field during 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 on 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 and 5.5 games back of the first-place Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. They’re 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 division rivals such as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
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This season, the Rays’ interim home seats 10,046 fans, whereas St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field fit approximately 25,000 with the upper deck closed. Even before the move, the Rays played in the ballpark with by far the lowest capacity in MLB. The next smallest non-temporary home for a team in the majors is Progressive Field in Cleveland, which holds 34,830 fans.
The Athletics are the other MLB team currently playing home games at a temporary site. As the franchise transitions from Oakland to Las Vegas, the A’s are located at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California. That’s where the franchise will play for at least 2025 through 2027 while their ballpark is built in Vegas, and it’s where the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats, play.
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.
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“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 on 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 died at his home there in 2010 — is used by the storied New York franchise. The Yankees’ Single-A affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons, also play there. This season, the Tarpons have been using other fields at the spring training complex for their home games.
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.
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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, Manfred isn’t denying the report that has 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 reported that he has a “strong preference” for the team to stay in Tampa rather than move to St. Petersburg, where it previously played.