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THE Tampa Bay Rays are in for a major reshuffle to their scheduling for the 2025 season due to Hurricane Milton.
The destruction of Tropicana Field has caused the MLB team will be forced to play the next season at a minor league stadium.
A view of the Tampa Bay Rays’ home stadium, Tropicana Field, with the roof destroyed by Hurricane Milton in St. Petersburg, Florida[/caption]
Hurricane Milton hit Florida in October[/caption]
The Rays will be playing the 2025 campaign at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
Earlier this month, the deal was finalized for the Rays to play their home games next year at the New York Yankees’ spring training stadium and the regular-season home of their Single-A team.
This week, the MLB has changed two parts of the Rays schedule to account for the outdoor playing situations.
The home-and-home series with the Los Angeles Angels in April and August was flipped, allowing the earlier games to occur in Tampa and the later ones to take place in Anaheim, California.
The same schedule flip was also done with a different pair of home-and-home series with the Minnesota Twins in May and July.
The shifts will help combat the intense heat and rain in Florida.
The majority of the Rays’ home games will be at the very beginning and end of the season.
The Rays will now play 47 of their first 59 games overall at home, and then be on the road for 69 of the last 103 contests.
The schedule change will emphasize the team taking advantage and having a productive start.
However, the Rays will be playing home games outside of a domed stadium for the first time in their nearly three decades of being a franchise.
The Yankees’ minor league affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons, meanwhile, will have to shift to play at a back field at the team’s complex.
The Rays will have to modify Steinbrenner Field and among the changes will be covering up the existing Yankees signage.
It’s yet to be known where the Rays will play beyond the 2025 season.
The proposed new $1.3 billion stadium deal is also at risk of falling apart.
Rays co-president Brian Auld shared a statement that the team wants to find a solution with Florida public officials to keep the franchise in Tampa Bay.
“We are eager to work with all partners on a solution for the 2029 season that keeps Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay for generations to come,” the statement read.
“As we always have, we will maintain contact with the city and county as we navigate our future.”
The county and city of St. Petersburg have delayed votes to issue public-sector bonds paying close to half of the new stadium’s cost, and the retractions of an appropriation to replace the damaged Tropicana Field roof.
The Rays will be paying the Yankees $15 million to use Steinbrenner Field.
New York Yankees pitchers Gerrit Cole and Ron Marinaccio talk during spring training at George M. Steinbrenner Field on February 22[/caption]
