Could Phillies host Rays after Hurricane Milton’s Tropicana Field roof damage?

The Tampa Bay Rays are the latest MLB team tasked with looking for a temporary home for the 2025 season following significant damage to the roof of Tropicana Field in the wake of Hurricane Milton. The playing surface of the stadium has now been exposed to the elements for three weeks, with a full assessment of the 34-year-old stadium's condition still yet to get underway.

While the structural health of Tropicana Field is evaluated, the Rays find themselves in a similar situation to that of the relocating Oakland Athletics, who will play home games over the next couple of seasons at the team's Triple-A ballpark in Sacramento with construction on a new stadium in Las Vegas an ongoing debacle. Unlike the A's, MLB will reportedly not allow the Rays to use the team's Triple-A stadium in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina next season as a temporary home.

According to a recent interview with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on The Varsity podcast, the league's preference is for the Rays to remain located in geographic proximity to the team's fan base and television market. With repairs to the damaged stadium yet to get underway, the focus has now shifted to the possibility of the Rays playing home games at other complexes in the nearby Florida area.

Could Phillies host Rays after Hurricane Milton’s Tropicana Field roof damage?

One of those options could be BayCare Ballpark, the Phillies' Class-A affiliate Clearwater Threshers home ballpark, and the yearly location of the Phillies' spring training activities. According to Marc Tomkin of the Tampa Bay Times, the 8,500-capacity BayCare Ballpark and the Yankees' George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa are two facilities in the region currently under consideration to host the Rays in 2025 (subscription required).

While nothing concrete has been announced yet, Manfred was recently quoted in a piece by The Athletic's Evan Drellich that there will have to be a plan in place by the end of the year (subscription required). While BayCare Ballpark suffered some damage when Hurricane Milton tore through the area, the damage was considered minimal when compared to the destruction that took place in other parts of the region.

“I think by Christmas they gotta have a pretty good plan in place, and there’s a lot to that,” said Manfred per Drellich.

While the Rays figure out how to proceed with playing home games in 2025, it remains to be seen how a temporary move by the Rays to BayCare Ballpark would affect the Phillies' spring training plans as well as the Threshers' home schedule next season. A lot could happen between now and Manfred's stated deadline for a plan to be in place, but hopefully the Rays ballpark drama won't have a negative impact on the Phillies organization next season.

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