Tampa Bay Rays forced in major MLB 2025 season shakeup after being forced into temporary stadium by Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton will force the Tampa Bay Rays to make significant changes to their 2025 schedule.
The MLB team will have to play at a minor league stadium next season due to Tropicana Field’s devastation.
The 2025 season will see the Tampa Rays play at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field.
The Rays’ agreement to host their home games next season at the spring training stadium of the New York Yankees and the regular-season home of their Single-A team was completed earlier this month.
In order to accommodate the outside playing conditions, the MLB modified two aspects of the Rays’ schedule this week.
The April and August home-and-home series against the Los Angeles Angels was switched so that the later games would be played in Anaheim, California, and the earlier ones in Tampa.
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A different pair of home-and-home series with the Minnesota Twins in May and July also underwent the similar schedule shuffle.
The changes will aid in battling Florida’s extreme heat and precipitation.
The Rays will play most of their home games at the start and finish of the season.
The Rays will now travel for 69 of their previous 103 games after playing 47 of their first 59 games at home.
The team’s ability to capitalize on the schedule shift and get off to a solid start will be highlighted.
But for the first time in their nearly three decades as a team, the Rays will be playing their home games outside of a domed stadium.
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In the meanwhile, the Tampa Tarpons, the Yankees’ minor league affiliate, will have to go to the team’s complex to play at a back field.
One of the improvements the Rays will need to make to Steinbrenner Field is to hide the Yankees’ current signage.
Where the Rays will play after the 2025 season is yet unknown.
There is also a chance that the recently announced $1.3 billion stadium agreement would fail.
In a statement, Rays co-president Brian Auld said the organization is looking to work with Florida officials to find a way to keep the team in Tampa Bay.
“We are eager to work with all partners on a solution for the 2029 season that keeps Major LeagueBaseballin Tampa Bay for generations to come,” the statement continued.
“As we always have, we will maintain contact with the city and county as we navigate ourfuture.”
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Votes to issue public-sector bonds covering nearly half of the new stadium’s cost and the retraction of an appropriation to restore the damaged Tropicana Field roof have been postponed by the county and city of St. Petersburg.
To use Steinbrenner Field, the Rays will have to pay the Yankees $15 million.
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