Fastball

Report: Rob Manfred, Some Owners Trying to Force Stu Sternberg to Sell Tampa Bay Rays

With the Rays ballpark deal still in flux, some owners, and the commissioner, are trying to get the Rays to change hands.
Brady Farkas|
Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg talks with media as the Tampa Bay Rays announced today that a historic agreement has been reached with the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to move forward with a new state-of-the-art ballpark at Tropicana Field in 2023.
Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg talks with media as the Tampa Bay Rays announced today that a historic agreement has been reached with the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to move forward with a new state-of-the-art ballpark at Tropicana Field in 2023. | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

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Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays ballpark situation has been a nightmare for a number of years, and it's apparently reached a new crescendo now.

According to a recent report in The Athletic, Commissioner Rob Manfred and some owners are trying to get Rays owner Stu Sternberg to sell the team.

The bottom line is this: Major League Baseball sees Florida as a solid and viable market. They want the Rays to be in Florida, so Sternberg is facing pressure to build a new ballpark in the current market or sell the team to someone who will.

The Rays seemed to have a deal in place for a new ballpark, but Hurricane Milton and political turnover pushed back building dates and deadlines, and even though the ballpark has been approved, Sternberg has balked at the increased cost that the Rays would have to put up themselves.

Some think he'll try to get out of the deal entirely and even try to move the team to a different market. Manfred does not want that to happen.

On the field, the Rays are coming off a season in which they went 80-82 and finished fourth in the American League East. After adding Ha-seong Kim and getting back a healthy Shane McClanahan, the Rays figure to be more competitive this year, even in the highly competitive division.

The Rays will be playing at Steinbrenner Field this year, the Single-A home for the New York Yankees, because of damage sustained by Tropicana Field during Hurricane Milton in October.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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