The offseason has not begun, but already one in every of baseball’s greatest free brokers has drawn extra hypothesis than anybody might have foreseen a month in the past: the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays won’t be able to start the 2025 season at Tropicana Subject, the stadium they’ve known as house for the reason that franchise’s inception in 1998, due to damages incurred by Hurricane Milton. Two questions loom over the now-roofless indoor stadium: how lengthy will it take to restore, and does the town of St. Petersburg (which owns the venue) have the money and the persistence to restore it?
Extra information: One Potential Rays Relocation Site Withdraws From Consideration
No matter Tropicana’s long-term future, the short-term future is obvious: the Rays want a brand new house.
Julio Aguilar/Getty Photos
That has prompted hypothesis from far and large about the place the staff ought to relocate.
Pinellas County Commissioner Chris Latvala advocated the staff keep throughout the county the Rays name house.
Philadelphia 76ers govt Daryl Morey recommended Canada, writing on his Twitter/X account: “I say Toronto to finish the house swap settlement with the Raptors.” The Raptors performed in Tampa throughout the pandemic-interrupted 2020 NBA season.
I say Toronto to finish the house swap settlement with the Raptors
— Daryl Morey 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) October 16, 2024
In the meantime, a column that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday advocated for a brand new venue that might give the Windy Metropolis three Main League Baseball groups, together with the White Sox and Cubs.
Extra information: Rays Might Not Have Tropicana Field Repaired In Time For 2025 MLB Season
A pop-up baseball discipline on The 78, a 62-acre South Loop website the place the Chicago White Sox additionally wish to construct a brand new stadium, might be transformed for momentary main league use, writes Paul Sullivan:
All it will want is a staff, a construction seating about 12,000 followers and a few ahead pondering by the Rays, MLB, the town of Chicago, and the 78 builders.
The proposal comes days after a spokesperson for Montreal’s Olympic Stadium confirmed the venue wouldn’t be playable in 2025.
Extra information: Rays Issue Heartfelt Statement About Hurricane Milton Damage to Tropicana Field
“Till 2028, the sector of play will likely be inside a development website and subsequently not open to the general public,” stadium communications officer Anik Parisé told the Tampa Bay Times by way of e mail.
Montreal had been seen as a well-liked vacation spot as a result of in 2019 the Rays explored a “sister metropolis” partnership with Montreal through which the Rays would play a few of their house video games within the Expos’ former metropolis. MLB finally rejected that plan.
For extra MLB information, go to Newsweek Sports.
