Schedule modifications present Rays scenario worse than MLB hoped

With the information popping out on Monday that the Tampa Bay Rays are having to regulate their 2025 schedule to keep away from the summer season rain and warmth at their short-term out of doors residence in Florida, it is clear that Hurricane Milton did extra harm for the Rays than simply decimate Tropicana Subject.

Due to schedule swaps that can have the Rays away extra from Tampa through the peak summer season months, the Rays will play 69 of their ultimate 103 video games on the highway in 2025. That is not nice information for a group that has been a perennial postseason contender in current seasons, lacking the playoffs final season for the primary time since 2018. 

Not solely will the Rays have to regulate to taking part in at George M. Steinbrenner Subject this season, however they may also need to learn to win constantly on the highway late within the marketing campaign in the event that they hope to play significant baseball in October.

It was unhealthy sufficient that the Rays needed to spend no less than this season with a minor league/spring coaching stadium as its residence. Nevertheless, to have the strain of taking part in on the highway much more after the All-Star break and additional alienating its fan base is one other blow for a franchise that can also be questioning about its long-term future within the Tampa space after the most recent plans to maintain the group alongside Florida’s Gulf Coast imploded.

Whereas MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has admitted there may be “uncertainty” round the way forward for the Rays and the place they’ll play, Monday’s schedule shifting looks like a little bit of a panic from MLB’s standpoint. 

Adjusting the schedule to maintain the Rays residence when the climate is drier and cooler and on the highway to keep away from the warmth and moisture is a little bit of a head-shaker for these followers in Atlanta, lower than a seven-hour drive away however nonetheless encased in humidity each summer season. The identical may very well be mentioned in Cincinnati, St. Louis or different areas the place summers could be sweltering and warmth indices soar.

The transfer additionally shrugs off historical past. In spite of everything, the Texas Rangers handled the humidity and warmth within the Lone Star State whereas taking part in open air from 1972 till Globe Life Subject opened in 2020. The Miami Marlins performed open air from 1993-2011, coping with the identical scorching and wet results the Rays should endure with out Tropicana Subject within the equation. 

When the Athletics and Rays get collectively this 12 months, MLB must market the matchups because the Vagabond Collection. In spite of everything, these are the 2 franchises in search of a house and questioning precisely what the close to future will appear like for them.

Just like the A’s, MLB has watched one other franchise turn into unstable, and this schedule adjustment looks like one other potential step for the Rays out of the Tampa space with no domed stadium plan in its future. It is a scenario Manfred and MLB did not need in 2025, however is now a actuality that has shifted schedules and probably the way forward for the Rays.