Rays manager Kevin Cash returned to Tampa Bay the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the Florida coast in October. He saw the severe damage to the roof of Tropicana Field, the team’s home stadium.
“Like many people, I didn’t think it was real,” Cash said at the winter meetings in Dallas on Tuesday. “Your mind just starts racing and wondering what is going to take place.”
Cash quickly understood the impact this would have on home games in 2025.
The Rays decided to play the upcoming season at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training facility of the New York Yankees in Tampa, Florida. The future of the dome stadium in St. Petersburg and the plans for a new stadium remain unclear.
The Rays’ season opener was pushed back a day to March 28 to allow more time to prepare the temporary stadium. The Yankees’ final spring training game will be five days earlier.
“I do think it’s going to be a challenge. But I think it’s going to be a fun, exciting, good challenge,” Cash said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make the most of it. It’s just going to be a little different being outdoors now.”
Rain and heat are the main concerns, but the Rays have an advantage. They were the first team to use “openers” as starting pitchers, which could be helpful if rain interrupts games early.
“We’ve done that here recently,” Cash said. “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. We haven’t started having those conversations, but I think everything will be on the table for us to discuss.”
As for the heat, Cash mentioned the Rays’ past experience in hot cities like Cleveland, Baltimore, and Atlanta.
Average temperatures in Florida aren’t as extreme as in other places, but humidity can be a bigger problem.
“You’re in the summer playing on the road, you see how teams manage their workload, shave off batting practice,” Cash said. “First and foremost, you have to listen to your players. We try to work really hard and try to do that really, really well.”
Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli, who spent seven of his eight playing years with Tampa Bay from 2003-2010, was saddened by the image of Tropicana Field’s damaged roof.
“It was an incredibly sad picture,” Baldelli said. “I didn’t really have any words for it. That was my home in baseball for a long time. Part of me still feels that way.”
The Rays signed catcher Danny Jansen this offseason. He was with the Blue Jays when they played all their 2020 home games at their Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, New York, due to COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. They then played some 2021 home games in Buffalo, Toronto, and their spring training site in Dunedin, Florida.
“I don’t think that we’re going to be as challenged as maybe they were because of playing out of their country without their fans,” Cash said. “We’re going to have our fans. I’d like to think a lot of them are there showing up for us.”
Although Cash quickly rejected comparisons to the COVID-19 days, he mentioned that those experiences could be useful.
The Rays made it to the neutral-site 2020 World Series at the Texas Rangers’ stadium but lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games.
“We did a really good job embracing that, and I think we can pull from maybe some of those experiences,” Cash said. “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.”
