The Tampa Bay Rays Are Now at a Massive Disadvantage in 2025

The Major League Baseball schedule makers have altered the schedule for the Rays in 2025 to accommodate their temporary ballpark solution, and the result is a complete unbalanced schedule that puts the Rays at a disadvantage in more ways than one.

The Tampa Bay Rays logo on a batting helmet prior to the game against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field in 2022. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Recently, we learned that the Tampa Bay Rays will spend their 2025 season playing at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

This is the result of severe damage done to Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton in mid-October. "The Trop" will not be playable in 2025 and there are questions if the Rays will ever play again.

While it's nice for the Rays to be able to stay in the Tampa area, this plan also now presents several problems. The heat and rains of Florida's summer are now a major issue for the team to navigate, and the league shuffled around the schedule on Monday to help get around that.

Per our own Sam Connon on Monday:

Instead of facing the Los Angeles Angels on the road from April 7 to April 9, the Rays will host that series between April 8 and April 10. In return, the Rays will head out to Anaheim from Aug. 4 to Aug. 6, rather than playing the home series that was initially scheduled from Aug. 5 to Aug. 7.

The Rays also added an additional home series against the Minnesota Twins from May 26 to May 28, rather than playing at Target Field that weekend. Tampa Bay will now head out to Minnesota from July 4 to July 6.

As a result of the reshuffling, the Rays are slated to play 19 of their first 22 and 47 of their first 59 games at their temporary home. Just 16 of their 51 games between July and August will be played at Steinbrenner Field.

It should also be noted that the Rays will play 69 of their final 103 games on the road. While this certainly helps mitigate the challenges of the weather, it appears to be a massive disadvantage for the Rays overall. While they could absolutely use the front-loaded home schedule to their advantage and get off to a good start, it's going to be extremely challenging to be on the road as much as they are over the final three months.

Furthermore, as the team tries to sell free agents on coming to Tampa Bay, this has to be a major deterrent. For players with families, it's got to be a tough sell that guys will be barely be home for three months.

The Rays have a good roster and should be ready to compete in 2025, but this news absolutely puts them behind the eight-ball.

The Rays went 80-82 this past season and finished fourth in the American League East.

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