If Rays stay close to home, heat and rain could be a pain

TAMPA, Fla. — Catcher Ben Rortvedt has a sense for what it could feel like if the Rays spend the 2025 season playing in one of the state’s spring training/minor-league stadiums:

About 15-20 pounds lighter.

Rortvedt was a 20-year-old, second-year pro in early June 2018 when he was promoted within the Minnesota organization. He went from the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, farm club to the Class A Fort Myers team in the Florida State League, where the temperatures were toasty.

“I remember when I played down there, I lost a lot of weight,” Rortvedt said. “A lot of it is water weight. So, you’ve got to take your nutrition really serious. … Your preparation. Your hydration. Your in-game (routine).”

Eventually, Rortvedt, who started the next season in Fort Myers and made brief FSL appearances for Tampa in 2022-23, figured out how to deal with the conditions.

But the Wisconsin native also learned the issue is not just the heat, nor the humidity. Florida’s summer rain patterns also are problematic to playing outdoor baseball.

Near-daily late afternoon/evening thunderstorms disrupt pregame work, force delays before and during some games and postpone others. Over the last 10 years, according to league data, FSL teams averaged close to six rainouts per season.

“It’s an adjustment for everybody, and no one really knows what it’s like until you’re really in it,” Rortvedt said. “But if you played in the Florida State League, and I think I can speak to say that, it’s definitely an experience that you remember.”

Seeking a temporary home

No decisions have been made, but the Rays — needing an interim home for at least the start of the 2025 season given extensive damage from Hurricane Milton to Tropicana Field — could soon find out.

Team officials have made no comment beyond an initial statement following the Oct. 9 storm, asking for patience as they assess the situation.

In absence of their prerequisites or preferences, there has been extensive speculation about sites across the Tampa Bay area, state and country, even internationally.

The closest to any direction has come from Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, who said in several interviews last week he prefers that the team keep playing close to its home.

That included a segment on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio channel Wednesday in which Manfred said has was going to “make every effort for that arrangement to be in (the Tampa Bay area)” and “there’s a number of (spring training sites) that might work.”

(An additional factor could be pressure from Pinellas leaders to keep the team in the county, since it is paying for part of the planned new stadium targeted to open in 2028.)

Based on stadium capacity (in excess of 10,000), facilities, player workout and game prep space, fan parking and access/egress, the most workable choices would be Clearwater’s BayCare Ballpark (used by the Phillies and FSL Threshers) and Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field (Yankees and Tarpons).

Both would seem quite capable, with some upgrades and additions, of hosting the Rays.

But neither has a roof, and thus no control over the weather.

“Playing outside in the state of Florida, it doesn’t happen at the major-league level,” said Rays outfielder Josh Lowe, who spent 2018 with the Port Charlotte-based FSL team. “The concerns would be the temperature and just battling the elements.”

Playing outdoors in the South

The Marlins did so for their first 19 seasons in South Florida before getting a new retractable roof stadium in Miami in 2012. They had only 26 games from 1993-2011 postponed by weather — 20 due to rain, six for hurricane-related reasons — but 177 rain delays, an average of more than nine per season, team data shows.

The Braves play in a somewhat similar summer climate in Atlanta. And the Rays have sampled some intense heat during select July and August road trips.

“I came out of a game last year in Kansas City because I was cramping so bad because of the heat,” Lowe said, “and that’s pretty much the same as to what it would be every single night at home.”

There also could be concerns about residual impact from the heat over a full season, with Lowe saying it will be vital for players and staff to prepare properly.

“Hydration is going to be really important, taking care of your body, the training staff, nutrition, everything,” he said. “That’ll all be extremely important.”

Lowe said he wouldn’t be as concerned about afternoon showers impacting game prep since major-league spring stadiums have covered batting cages and a lot of players hit there rather than on the field. Similarly, there are covered mounds for pitchers. Using those facilities also would limit the time players are in the direct heat.

Starter Zack Littell, who pitched for Tampa’s FSL team during much of 2017, said the impact of the rain could be handled.

“I’d be interested to see how many delays we actually have,” he said. “I know (the FSL) definitely has more delays than a normal league, but it’s not like every single night was delayed.

“Rain is going to pass through. What’s nice about Florida is it takes rain pretty well most places. I think the heat probably would be more of a factor, especially coming from playing in the Trop to other-worldly heat. But Atlanta does it, and I really don’t think Atlanta is that different than Tampa.”

The new normal?

There are some ways for the Rays to mitigate the elements.

Obviously, having major-league-level staffing on the grounds crew, expertise and forecast data will help, as well as improved fields and drainage. Another option would be to start games later — say, closer to 8 p.m. — after the typical round of summer showers, which could limit delays after play starts.

They also may have to accept the potential for rain as part of the new normal.

“You get those rains, but very often we’re still playing,” said Phillies Florida operations director John Timberlake. “Sometimes it’s those quick-hit thunderstorms, and you’re still starting at 7 or 7:30. And sometimes you need to wait and it’s an 8 or 8:30 start, and that happens.”

Littell, like Lowe and Rortvedt, is confident that if the Rays find themselves in one of the area stadiums, they can handle it.

“It would probably suck the first couple homestands, and then it would just be like it is what it is,” Littell said. “I don’t see that much really affecting anything. It would definitely be an adjustment. But I think it would be just that — an adjustment.”

To whatever that entails, veteran closer and team player union rep Pete Fairbanks said.

“You’re just going to have to assume that there’s going to be a delay every game,” he said.

“You could adjust start times for it, but I feel like the July to October window in Florida is quite fickle. So, if it is outside and local, we’re going to have to be prepared for some new card games in the clubhouse and taking some entertainment with us for when we get stuck in the bullpen out there.”

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