The Athletics were the first to go. Playing out the string at the old Coliseum in Oakland and heading to Las Vegas. In no rush of course as there will be a three year wait until the new stadium is complete.
For the next three years Major League Baseball has decided that the A’s will play their home games in a minor league park in Sacramento. They will share Sutter Health Park with the triple A Sacramento River Cats.
The Tampa Rays won’t be able to use their long time home in the forseeable future. Tropicana Field’s roof was destroyed by hurricane Milton. As Marc Topkin wrote this week in the Tampa Bay Times, the damage went far beyond just the stadium’s covering.
Bottom line however was much like the Athletics, The Rays would have to find a new temporary home. Also much like the A’s, the Rays will end up playing their 2025 games in a minor league ballpark. It’ll be at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
They’ve made a deal with the Yankees to play in their AL rival’s spring training facility. While the latest news for a new stadium in the area suggests that owner Stuart Sternberg and the Rays may never get their new stadium, they needed a home for 2025. The Trop is unavailable until at least 2026.
So how will these two parks impact the teams compared to the homes they had gotten used to? Have Athletics hitters finally escaped the huge expanse of foul territory that costs them so many outs? Will Rays pitchers or hitters get a boost they never expected?
There will be more runs in Athletics games
Nico of Athletic’s Nation gives us the rundown on the A’s temp park in Sacramento:
“Some truths about Sutter Health Park: the dimensions are comparable to the Coliseum. In fact it is an identical 330 feet to straightaway LF and a few feet deeper to CF at 403 feet. RF is 5 feet shorter at 325 feet. So it is not a “band box” by any means”
It will however with weather conditions and more minimal foul grounds play more as a hitters park with batting averages surely expected to rise. Thus run scoring will increase even if home run production might remain stagnant. A huge change from a pitcher’s park.
This should make hitters like Brent Rooker break into huge smiles. His breakthrough season already included 39 homers and 112 RBI, a jump in his .293 batting average could catapult him to near MVP type numbers.
There will be more home runs in Rays games
As for the Rays, Steinbrenner Field is 318 feet to the left-field foul pole, 408 feet to dead center and 314 feet to the right-field corner. Those are the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium in the Bronx with its famous short porch in right field. by comparison, Tropicana Field is 315/404/322.
Besides that short right field porch, playing outdoors in Florida will also create more home runs. Balls simply travel farther in the heat and humidity. More bad news for pitchers. More smiles for more hitters, but that’s not all.
Tack that on to the shorter distances and lower fences in Baltinore and there should be more long balls. more runs scored and higher ERA’s in the American League in 2025.
