Rays Must Adjust to Temporary Home

Mother Nature has put the Tampa Bay Rays into a difficult spot for the 2025 season.

The roof of Tropicana Field, the Rays’ home stadium in St. Petersburg, was almost completely torn off in January during Hurricane Milton. The Rays will not only be able to play at The Trop this year and the stadium’s availability for the start of the 2026 season is also in question.

The Rays will play their home games this year across the bay in Tampa at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the divisional rival New York Yankees.

Changing home ballparks could be a reason for the Rays to change the makeup of their roster. However, they think it doesn’t make sense to overhaul the roster for what they hope is a temporary situation.

However, what the Rays can control is their attitude as they try to reach the postseason for the sixth time in the last seven years. They missed getting there last year after finishing 80-82 for their first losing season since 2017.

Manager Kevin Cash thinks there will be similarities between this year and the 2020 season, which was shortened to 60 games because of the pandemic and did not begin until late July.

“This is not COVID, it's definitely not, but the change and the transition that we're going to have to make in this organization is going to be similar to maybe what 30 other teams had to do in 2020,” Cash said. “We did a really good job embracing that, and I think we can pull from maybe some of those experiences.”

That’s where the attitude of players could make a difference.

“We want our players—and I certainly am going to hear what they’re going to say—and want them to have their voices and be as accommodating as possible,” Cash said. “But there is going to have to be some tunnel vision put on and some motivation, inner motivation and group motivation. Is it ideal? Is it perfect? Probably not. It’s not going to be, but we still can make the most of a tough situation.”

One area in which the Rays feel they could benefit is scoring runs.

Tropicana Field is considered one of the best pitchers’ parks in MLB. Pitchers thrive by being able to work in the only fixed-roof stadium in the majors, which eliminates the effects of weather and provides consistent conditions.

The Rays were 29th among the 30 MLB teams in runs scored last season with just 3.73 a game, finishing ahead of only the 121-loss Chicago White Sox (3.13). However, much of that could also be attributed to poor player performance as the Rays scored six more runs at home in the same number of games.

Steinbrenner Field tends to favor hitters, though, because of wind patterns.

“I hope it’s as good as everybody (is) talking about,” Cash said. “Runs were tough to come by. We talked about it more than I would have liked last year. A lot of belief in our offensive group. Really like the way some of the guys finished in September.

“Our venue has maybe not been the friendliest to left-handed hitters in the 10 years I’ve been there. I think we could see a really quick turnaround, and if we get some of those winds we’ve seen in the past, that’s going to make it more friendly for righties and lefties.”

The Rays have three left-handed hitters in their projected opening-day lineup – second baseman Brandon Lowe, right fielder Josh Lowe and designated hitter Jonathan Aranda.

The Rays are the inventors of the opener concept and use the strategy as aggressively as any team in the majors. They might even use closers more frequently this year while playing outdoors in Florida, where rain is always a factor in the summer months.

‘If we’re in Baltimore, we’re in Boston, and we think there’s a chance of rain or we're going to have a delay, call it 45 minutes to an hour in a ballgame, we kicked that idea around,” Cash said. “I think we’ll put our heads together. I think everything will be on the table for us to discuss. I’d like to think we’ll be better in July than maybe we were in March.”