The Tampa Bay Rays aren’t going far to play their home games in 2025 as Tropicana Field undergoes hurricane repairs – though they will be inhabiting the longtime spring home of their division rivals.
The Rays announced Thursday that they will play their 2025 games at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field, the spring-training home of the New York Yankees with a capacity of around 11,000 fans.
For the first and perhaps only time in their history, the Rays will play home games in Tampa proper, having occupied St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field since their inaugural season of 1998. And they have received preliminary approval to build a new stadium next to the Trop in time for the 2028 season.
But after Hurricane Milton did significant damage to Tropicana Field – most notably shredding its roof, a crucial blow for a facility with no drainage system – the Rays needed a place to play in 2025. The team and Pinellas County estimated earlier this week it would cost $55 million for repairs – for the 2026 season.
In Steinbrenner Field, the Rays get a relatively major league-ready facility with more capacity than most spring training homes, while remaining in their home area. They will have to battle the elements – searing heat and humidity as early as late April, and thunderstorms throughout the summer – as they bunk with the Yankees’ Class A Tampa Tarpons minor league squad.
But as stopgaps go, it could be worse.
“We deeply appreciate that the Yankees have…
