The Week That Was: November 19-24

Rays won’t get repairs, and everyone’s a winner, but especially Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.

Happy Monday, everyone. The past week was a busy on in the baseball world. For some (the big award winners) it was a great week. For others (the Rays and their fans) it wasn’t so ideal. We won’t dwell too much on the preamble, as there’s a lot to dig into, so let’s just dive right into it.

Award Updates

It was a big week for awards, as the major accolades for the 2024 season were handed out this past week. Some history was made as well.

For the MVP award we had two repeat winners (both unanimous) with Aaron Judge winning his second in the AL, and Shohei Ohtani won his third (and joined Frank Robinson in winning in both leagues). While these wins weren’t surprising, they were very well deserved. Judge and Ohtani also both won the Hank Aaron Award.

In terms of the Cy Young, we know how that went for the AL, as Tarik Skubal took the award home on his birthday. In the NL it was former Tiger-killer Chris Sale completing his bounceback and getting the award for his work with the Braves. But since we’ve mentioned Chris Sale I’m obligated to share this clip.

The Rookie of the Year title went to Luis Gil of the Yankees for the AL, while Paul Skenes took it home for the NL (making me wonder when the last time two pitchers won in the same year).

Manager of the Year accolades went to Stephen Vogt of the Cleveland Guardians and Pat Murphy of the Brewers . Kind of nice to see managers getting a nod for turning teams around rather than just getting the most wins.

• A full overview of all the season award winners .

Bad News for the Rays

If Rays fans thought the worst thing that could happen to the team was losing the stadium roof to Hurricane Milton, but the hits just keep on coming as the entire future of the team in Tampa Bay is now up in the air.

First, a price tag of over $26 million to repair all the damage to the stadium came down, though it wouldn’t be done before 2026. The Rays made a deal with the Yankees to play at Steinbrenner Field. The Rays do stand to lose a substantial amount of revenue by playing at a smaller field, and the future for the team and its new stadium deal are very much in the air and not looking good.

There’s a lot to unpack with what’s unfolding, but our sister site DRaysBay has a very thorough timeline of everything that happened and is ongoing, and in a way that won’t make your brain want to explode. Rays Stadium Drama Timeline .

At this point it doesn’t appear that the stadium will be repaired, and it also doesn’t look good for the new stadium deal, leaving the future of the Rays in Tampa Bay very uncertain, just after Rays fans celebrated the approval of a new stadium only a few months earlier.

• John Romano looks at how everything went wrong and what the future holds .
• How local businesses are feeling as they wait to learn what is going to happen .

Robot Umpires Are Coming

We’ve all been making jokes about robot umpires for several seasons (especially when the human variety are having a particularly bad game) but we’re about to see what that will look like in action.

Starting in 2025, Rob Manfred announced that robot umpires will be tested in spring training, with an eye on a potential MLB debut in 2026. So, let’s get ready to see how that actually looks in real life and not just our imaginations.

Also curious to see the response of umpires to this change.

• More on the arrival of robot umpires .

Roki Sasaki’s Agent is Not a Fan of the Rumor Mill

We all love rumors this time of year, when everyone is obsessed over which free agents will sign where. One person who is not loving the rumor mill is Roki Sasaki’s agent, who got incredibly mad about the supposition that his client had signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers .

Rob Manfred also added to this by explaining that he doesn’t believe Sasaki will sign anywhere until after January 15th.

But word to the wise, teams shouldn’t imply they’ve reached a deal with the Japanese star, because his agent won’t like it.

• Sasaki’s agent shoots down the rumors of his client signing with the Dodgers .

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