The Week That Was: November 11 – 17

The Rays have a temporary home, but might be losing their permanent one.

Happy Monday, all. The past week has seen some interesting news, so we’ll touch in some of the bigger stories of the week. Spoiler alert: no one has signed Juan Soto, but there is a new suitor on the block. The Rays have found their new home for 2025, but does it come at the cost of their new stadium deal?

Plus, on the fun side of things, the Pirates are offering a fairly crazy reward for a rare rookie card, and the Orioles have decided to change their field dimensions again… for some reason.

So, let’s see what happened last week in baseball.

New Rays Home, and Stadium Deal Dead?

Following the devastating damage caused by Hurricane Milton, the final report for the Tropicana Field indicated it would not be playable for the 2025 season and the Rays would need to find a new home before Christmas. The Rays managed to do that, coming to an agreement with the Yankees organization to play at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the home of the Tampa Tarpons. This keeps the Rays in the Tampa Bay area for local fans, but will also pose a first-time problem for the team: weather. The Rays will now play in an open-air stadium, where 100-degree summer heat and regular thunderstorms may now be a factor for gameplay.

While this is great news for the coming season, there are now issues for the Rays’ long-term future. The hurricane damage created a cascading series of delays for bond hearings, and the end result might be that the Rays will no longer have a home in Tampa Bay, and the future of the Rays is back up in the air. There are several good articles that explain the nuances of the deal:

• Brady Farkas summarizes all the details pretty well .
• John Romano has the original details and a very thorough rundown of what is happening and why.

Juan Soto Sweepstakes

The hottest free agent on the market right now has a new team showing interest. The Yankees and Mets have made their pitches already (and the Mets are apparently feeling pretty optimistic about theirs), but they’re going to have to compete with another bidder. The Toronto Blue Jays (who were memorably in on the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes, and a certain private jet blowing up the hot stove). The Jays evidently have money they want to spend, and they want to spend it on Juan Soto.

So, are the contenders for Soto all on the east coast? Or will there be some more surprising teams who sneak in over the coming months to upset the balance and steal the slugger?

• A timeline of Juan Soto’s free agency so far .
• The Mets say they are “hopeful” following their meeting with Soto .
• The Blue Jays have made their first pitch to Soto .

Orioles Field Dimensions

While it feels like the Orioles only just adjusted their field dimensions, it seems as if they’re at it again. The reason being, evidently the last changes were an “overcorrection” and they’re trying to dial things back.

Orioles Executive Vice President Mike Elias said “It became apparent to us over three years of lived experience that it was a directionally correct move, but we overcorrected.” So the left field fences will move in, and be lowered, hopefully bringing more hits back to Baltimore.

• Here’s a little more detail from AP on the adjustments being made .
• And USA Today goes over the whole plan and reasoning behind it.

Paul Skenes Rookie Card Hunt

On November 13th, Topps Baseball cards released a card that is now akin to the Golden Ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A one-of-a-kind, autogrpahed Paul Skenes rookie card is drawing a ton of attention because of the bounty the Pirates have placed to get their hands on the card.

Genuinely insane. I think I’d be hard-pressed not to take that deal.

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