Final preparations are underway for MLB to stage an unprecedented season with two of its 30 teams playing in minor league stadiums.
With the domestic start of the league’s 2025 season set for Thursday after a high-profile opener last week in Japan, last-minute work is happening at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park to house the A’s and at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field, where the Rays will play home games.
The circumstances of each situation are quite different, with the A’s choosing Sacramento as an interim step toward a permanent relocation to Las Vegas, while the Rays were forced to Steinbrenner Field by the damaging impacts of Hurricane Milton last fall.
In both instances, though, a frenetic amount of work is happening in these final days before the regular season to bring the minor league facilities up to MLB standards. Both Sutter Health Park and Steinbrenner Field are roughly a third the size of a normal big-league facility.
The ongoing work runs the gamut from back-of-house operations such as concessions and improved amenities for players to more fan-facing components such as improved scoreboards. The Rays also have the additional burden of temporarily changing some of the signage and branding at Steinbrenner Field from the Yankees, as the facility is also that club’s spring training home.
“Look, it’s going to be an adventure; there’s no doubt about it,” said Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner. “They’re not going to have much time once we leave to do certain things they need to do, but [the Rays] are going to get it done.”
Prior History
There is some precedent for this, as the Blue Jays played at both Buffalo’s Sahlen Field and TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla., home of two of its minor league affiliates, in 2020 and part of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scale of what’s happening now, however, is so much greater. Beyond the involvement of a second team in this unique scenario, the A’s plan to be in Sacramento for a full three seasons until the planned opening of their $1.75 billion ballpark in Las Vegas. The A’s will also be sharing Sutter Health Park with the Sacramento River Cats, the Giants’ top affiliate.
The Rays, meanwhile, are in a complete state of uncertainty between the hurricane repairs and the club’s recent decision to walk away from a deal for a planned $1.3 billion ballpark, and it’s anything but certain when they will be able to return to Tropicana Field.
The A’s also have an awkward situation of their own creation in which they will not use “Sacramento” on road jerseys, in media, or on scoreboards—insisting instead to simply go by “Athletics.” The club, however, has spent aggressively this offseason amid rising pressure from the MLB Players Association, and could contend for a playoff spot in a weaker American League West division.
With the reduced seating capacities for the A’s and Rays and the novelty of their new homes, the clubs now have the No. 1 and No. 3 median ticket prices for this season, respectively, according to Gametime.
