CHGO Cubs Podcast: Grading Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson’s 2024 season
He’s a finalist for another Gold Glove Award…but how will the guys grade Dansby Swanson’s 2024 season with the Cubs? Will a leg injury factor into the report cards? Plus, Luke Stuckmeyer, Cody Delmendo and Ryan Herrera grade the Cubs closer situation at the back of the bullpen. Join them live at 11:30am for the CHGO Cubs Podcast.
The roof at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, was destroyed by Hurricane Milton last week, as shown in the photo above. Here’s video of the aftermath:
About the only thing that seems certain is that the team won’t be able to open the 2025 Major League Baseball season at home as planned on March 27.
It has yet to be determined how much it would cost to replace the Teflon fabric roof that was destroyed, but any replacement cost is complicated by the fact that the Rays are planning a new stadium, essentially on the same site, to open in 2028. So why spend money on a temporary repair? Here’s one rumor of the possible cost:
So the Rays will likely have to play home games somewhere else in 2025. Several possible locations are Spring Training parks in Florida. Topkin points out the advantages of doing that:
The idea of playing in one of the nearby minor-league/spring stadiums could be appealing for several reasons. Most notably that fans could still attend. Plus players and staff can live in their usual homes, and there potentially could be jobs for their game-day employees.
Several facilities are at least worth exploring, including St. Petersburg’s Al Lang Stadium, Clearwater’s BayCare Ballpark (used by the Phillies), Dunedin’s TD Ballpark (Blue Jays) and Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field (Yankees).
But then there’s this:
But none has a roof, leading to frequent weather delays and pre-game work disruptions during the summer. And all would require upgrades to host regular-season games.
The weather disruptions are a big deal. The MLB schedule is not built to have that number of potential postponements. You might recall the Cubs had a High-A team in the Florida State League in Daytona, from 1993 to 2014. One of the reasons they moved out of that league to the Carolina League and Myrtle Beach (now a Low-A team) is the frequent rainouts, sometimes as many as a dozen a year. Most of those games were simply cancelled and not made up. That’s not an option for a MLB team.
Then there’s the idea of playing in Marlins Park, a MLB ballpark that has a roof. But:
… players and staff would be relocated, and there would be serious scheduling problems, as the Rays and Marlins currently have 49 conflicting home dates. MLB could make some adjustments, but there would be a need for some odd doubleheaders.
Here are some other suggestions from Topkin’s article. All of them have both pluses and minuses:
Expect to hear suggestions that include Durham, North Carolina, home of their Triple-A team, and near Raleigh, which is hot for an expansion team; Nashville and Charlotte, which have Triple-A teams and expansion aspirations; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, which has hosted big-league games. (Las Vegas appears to be off the table given the Athletics’ plans to move there in 2028.)
