Instead of playing Opening Day this year in an air-conditioned 72 degrees environment under the LED lights at Tropicana Field, the Tampa Bay Rays will instead start the 2025 campaign Friday under the afternoon sky of their temporary home, Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. It’s a prospect that manager Kevin Cash has been asked about all spring, and now that it’s here, he’s excited to see first-hand.
“I’m excited by it,” Cash said prior to the team’s workout Thursday on the field. “I’m excited to hear and read that this place is going to be packed with Rays fans. I’m excited walking out here, seeing all the Rays banners and the burst and the TB stuff. I look forward to taking it in tomorrow and hopefully it gets loud.”
But don’t expect the club to lean into the aspect that they’re a team without a true home and embrace an us-against-the-world attitude this year.
“Me, personally, I would probably ignore it,” Cash admitted. “Because if you acknowledge it, then you have to be reactive to the flip side of that, when it’s not going your way. And that will not be an issue for the ups and downs of a season, us being displaced. We’re just going to make the most out of this and go play baseball.”
Jansen good to go to start season
Cash said Thursday that catcher Danny Jansen (rib) made it through his simulated game session Wednesday with no issues, and that he has been deemed ready for Opening Day.
The team had kept minor-leaguer Kenny Price with the club in case Jansen wouldn’t be ready to start the year. Cash said that Jansen would be “pretty close to full go” to begin the year, but that he and the training staff would keep an eye on things early.
“I’ll certainly ask [Jansen] after every game how he’s feeling, and I haven’t talked to the trainers yet,” Cash said. “We need to keep Jano healthy, [and if] shaving a day to his workload in the first two series will help, we’ll do it.”
Rays Get Down To 26-Man Limit
The Rays also reached the 26-man limit for the regular season Wednesday by placing reliever Alex Faedo (right shoulder tightness) on the 15-day injured list and shortstop Ha-Seong Kim (recovery from right shoulder surgery) on the 10-day injured list. In addition, the team got back to its 40-man roster limit by selecting the contract of shortstop Coco Montes, and optioning him to Triple-A Durham.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
