Rays' Cash embraces unusual home arrangement after Tropicana Field damage

DALLAS (AP) — Rays manager Kevin Cash returned to the Tampa Bay area the morning after Hurricane Milton struck the Florida coast in October and saw the extensive damage to the roof of his home ballpark, Tropicana Field.

“Like many people, I didn't think it was real,” Cash said at the winter meetings near downtown Dallas on Tuesday. “Your mind just starts racing and wondering what is going to take place.”

In other words, the winningest manager in Rays history realized quickly what it might mean for home games in 2025.

The Rays settled on Steinbrenner Field at the spring training complex of the rival New York Yankees in Tampa, Florida for the upcoming season. What's next for the domed stadium in St. Petersburg is uncertain, as is the plan for a new stadium there.

The season opener for the Rays was pushed back a day to March 28 to allow more time to get the temporary home ready. The Yankees' final home spring training game is five days before that.

“I do think it’s going to be a challenge. But I think it’s going to be a fun, exciting, good challenge,” Cash said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make the most of it. It’s just going to be a little different being outdoors now.”

Rain and heat are the primary concerns, but the Rays have an interesting advantage. They were the pioneers of using openers for an inning or two as starting pitchers, which could help with games that get interrupted early by rain.

“We’ve done that here recently,” Cash said. “If we’re in Baltimore, we’re in Boston, and we think there’s a chance of rain or we’re going to have a delay, call it 45 minutes to an hour in a ballgame, we kicked that idea around. We haven’t started having those conversations, but I think everything will be on the table for us to discuss.”

As for the heat, Cash said the club can draw on the experience of summertime trips to Cleveland, Baltimore and Atlanta, all of which can get extremely warm.

Average temperatures in Florida aren't as scorching as in other cities, including the three-year temporary home of the Athletics in Sacramento, California, starting this season. Humidity is the bigger issue.

“You’re in the summer playing on the road, you see how teams manage their workload, shave off batting practice,” Cash said. “First and foremost, you have to listen to your players. We try to work really hard and try to do that really, really well.”

Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli spent seven of his eight seasons as a player with Tampa Bay from 2003-10. The images of the torn-away Tropicana roof hit home with him.

“It was an incredibly sad picture,” Baldelli said. “I didn’t really have any words for it. That was my home in baseball for a long time. Part of me still feels that way.”

The Rays signed catcher Danny Jansen this offseason. He was with Toronto when the Blue Jays played all their 2020 home games at their Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, New York, because of COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. Then they split 2021 home games between Buffalo, Toronto and their spring training site in Dunedin, Florida.

“I don’t think that we’re going to be as challenged as maybe they were because of playing out of their country without their fans,” Cash said. “We’re going to have our fans. I’d like to think a lot of them are there showing up for us.”

While Cash was quick to shut down comparisons to the COVID-19 days, the manager said there could be some value in those experiences.

The Rays reached the neutral-site 2020 World Series at the home of the Texas Rangers, just a few miles from the site of these winter meetings, before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games.

“We did a really good job embracing that, and I think we can pull from maybe some of those experiences,” Cash said. “Is it ideal? Is it perfect? Probably not. It’s not going to be, but we still can make the most of a tough situation.”

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