Rays Rumors

Back in 2019, Major League Baseball authorized the Tampa Bay Rays to pursue a plan that would involve splitting their home games between Florida and Montreal. However, just a few weeks ago, the league pulled the rug out from under those attempts. That leaves the club in a ticking clock scenario, as their lease at Tropicana Field runs through 2027, giving them until that time to figure out a different path forward.

One option that has at least been discussed is building a stadium on the land currently occupied by the Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, per a report from Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times. The airport is located right on the bay, just a short drive from Tropicana Field.

As noted by Wright, the mayor of St. Petersburg, Ken Welch, recently addressed the situation on Twitter. “St. Pete is back in the game!,” he tweeted. “I was excited to meet yesterday with the Rays and County leadership. Together with our City Council and community partners, we have re-engaged with urgency to keep baseball in the Sunshine City.” The mayor sent a memo to city council members saying that he wants to study the airport site for “current and potential future community impact.” Wright also quotes Pinellas County Commission Chairperson Charlie Justice on the matter, who says, “The bottom line is, it’s good after every decade or 20 years to look and say, ‘OK, what’s happening. This is 100 acres of valuable land.'” Justice adds, “Does it make sense to keep doing it? Does it need to be changed? We are open to that opportunity.” The plan is somewhat complicated by the fact that the airport is also considering expanding, as detailed by Wright.

However, despite that acknowledgement that the airport site was considered, Justice and Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton told Wright that there was more focus on other options, such as redeveloping the Tropicana Field or Al Lang Stadium locations. The latter site has previously hosted a ballpark, serving as the spring training venue for various teams over the years, including the Rays, back in the Devil Rays days. However, in 2011, it was turned into a soccer field and is the current home of the Tampa Bay Rowdies of of the USL Championship.

It seems that all options are still in the preliminary discussions stage, which makes sense given that the sister-city plan only died fairly recently. Decisions will have to be made in the near future though, given the limited amount of time remaining on the team’s lease at Tropicana. In a recent poll of MLBTR readers, more than two thirds of voters expect the team to eventually leave the Tampa/St. Pete area.

TODAY: Ramirez’s death was due to suicide, as disclosed today by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office (Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times had the information).  Though the Rays, Ramirez’s family released a statement:

“The loss of our son has been the most excruciating experience we have lived.  Unfortunately, we sometimes don’t see the signs.  Struggling in silence is not OK.  It is our commitment to honor our son’s life by helping other families.  No parent should have to endure the loss of their child.  We are very grateful to the Tampa Bay Rays organization, whom we consider our family, for their love and support.  Our son felt loved by all of you.  Thank you to our family, friends and everyone else far and near for the outpouring of love and support.  God bless you!  Rays Up in Heaven.”

JANUARY 11: The Rays announced that bullpen catcher Jean Ramirez has passed away at age 28.  We at MLB Trade Rumors send our condolences to Ramirez’s family and loved ones.

A 28th-round pick out of Illinois State in the 2016 draft, Ramirez played three seasons in Tampa Bay’s farm system before being released following the 2018 season.  Soon afterwards, however, the club rehired Ramirez for a new role as the bullpen catcher on the big league club, opening a door towards the coaching career Ramirez looked to establish in his future, as he told The Athletic’s Josh Tolentino in April 2019.

Ramirez quickly established himself as a key member of the Rays’ staff.  In a statement today, Rays manager Kevin Cash described Ramirez as “an incredible teammate and friend,” adding that “Jean will be deeply missed” throughout the organization.

“He brought so much passion and energy each day to our clubhouse and bullpen, and his love for the Rays and baseball was evident to all who interacted with him.  He had the biggest heart and the most infectious smile,” Cash said.

In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa mayor Jane Castor made clear that she hopes to see the Rays remain in the Tampa area. While she added the caveat that the Tampa region would “continue to grow without a doubt” regardless of the team’s future, reports Charlie Frago, Castor also made the case for the city to hold on to a team that’s been plagued by ballpark issues, low attendance, and limited revenue since its inception as an expansion franchise ahead of the 1998 season.

Tampa is “a large urban city growing each and every day,” she told the paper, “so we should be adding assets to our community rather than them being taken away by other municipalities or countries.” Financier and principal owner Stuart Sternberg floated the idea of moving the team to Montreal — which hasn’t had a major league team since losing the Expos to Washington following the 2004 season — as early as 2014, and in 2019 Major League Baseball gave the club permission to explore the possibility of playing half its home games in Montreal as soon as 2024.

Though a number of new stadium projects have been proposed throughout the years — most notably at the current site of Al Lang Stadium on the St. Petersburg waterfront and in the northeast Tampa neighborhood of Ybor City — none has garnered the necessary political support. An October report by Frago and C.T. Bowen in the Tampa Bay Times suggested the club had revived its attempts to build a new ballpark in Ybor City, though such a project wouldn’t necessarily rule out the club’s split-city plans; a January 8th open letter, signed by several dozen Tampa businesspeople and published in the Tampa Bay Times, expressed support for both a new stadium in Ybor City (which it calls “an economic development platform”) and the ’sister city’ concept.

Though Castor refers to the letter as “a step in the right direction,” she declined to commit any public money to the project, stating that as much as she hopes to keep the team in the Tampa area, “the community’s appetite to pay for a stadium has left the train station.” Though she continued to rule out using any of the city’s general fund money, she did suggest her office would explore alternate funding methods. According to Frago, the proposed stadium would cost approximately $700MM, of which the Rays have promised to pay $350MM.

Tropicana Field, which the franchise has called home for the entirety of its existence, was initially built in an attempt to lure the White Sox from Chicago should the team fail to secure a suitable replacement for the increasingly dilapidated Comiskey Park or to secure one of two 1993 expansion franchises (which were eventually awarded to Denver and Miami); a team of Tampa investors nearly moved the San Francisco Giants to the area in 1992, announcing their purchase of the franchise before National League owners blocked the move under pressure from then-Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga. It opened in 1990 as the Florida Suncoast Dome, briefly serving as the home arena for the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League and the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning.

Since opening for baseball use in 1998, it has consistently placed near the bottom of ballpark rankings, facing criticism for its aesthetic deficiencies, a lackluster fan experience, and its infamous catwalks, which are regularly hit by batted balls and have necessitated the introduction (and frequent revision) of specialized ground rules for the field. Despite substantial recent on-field success, the Rays have consistently performed poorly in fan attendance, drawing only 14,734 fans per game in 2019 (the last pre-pandemic season), beating out only the Marlins. This may in part stem from the unusual geography of the area, which requires most of its population to cross the region’s titular bay to reach the stadium. The Rays’ lease on Tropicana Field runs through the 2027 season.