MLB 2024-25 Hot Stove Thread

Imagine looking at soon-to-be 33-year-old Jorge Soler and saying, yeah not only would I like to pay him 16 million each of the next two years I'll give up a somewhat serviceable aribitration eligible pitcher to do so

 

Thank Jesus.

 

Good.
I’m sure he will still pen some stuff for MLB, which I actually don’t mind. The guy can tell a story.

 

Costas lost something off his fastball, but people seem to forget he was the state of the art for quite a while.

But we did the same thing with McCarver and anybody else who tries to talk intelligently about the game.

 

https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinel...mediation-fema-hurricane-milton-city-council/
They're still not sure if the Trop will be usable ever, much less next year. St. Pete city government doesn't know what the repairs cost will be (bad timing to reduce the insurance coverage right before the hurricane), and the Rays haven't said what they're doing next year. The Durham Bulls already said no to sharing, and Olympic Stadium is in the middle of its own renovation, so Montreal is not an option. So far, I've seen suggestions of:
1) a rotation of the three spring training / A-ball sites near Tampa
2) the semi-mothballed Wide World of Sports stadium at DisneyWorld in Orlando
3) A pop-up stadium in Chicago (no, really: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/10/20/chicago-the-78-ballpark-tampa-bay-rays/
4) Schwab Field in Omaha
5) Oakland Coliseum

 

When the Expos situation was all screwed up, Rob Neyer proposed the Expos play at Fenway. I don't know if it was possible then and the teams being in the same division might be a bigger problem.

 

Where am I going to get my long-winded anecdotes about Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford?

 

I see no reason why any other franchise, particularly the Yankees, would feel motivated to invite the Rays in as tenants in their spring training complexes.

IMO the Disney World park, modified with about 25,000 portable popup bleacher seats added to the permanent 7,500, along with a Euro style fiberglass/fabric sun canopy, is probably the most workable solution. That would allow the diehard fans the Rays have in Tampa to still make the drive for the games; for Disney it would be another traffic generator.

Hotels and other amenities should be workable.

 

WDW should make the renovations for the Rays and invite them with open arms.

Rays get a home for a while, maybe a long time, and WDW gets more fans-money-people at the sports complex. Also can promote it to the youth league events there as "Come to your U-13 'WORLD UNIVERSE REGION HORSE-CHOKING GAUDY RING SERIES' event and see the MLB stars, too."

 

Well the Yankees technically don't own Steinbrenner Field. The taxpayers of Hillsborough County do and the Tampa Sports Authoriity is the landlord. So it's going to be an issue for the County Commissioners, City Council and the rest of the lot to figure out what they want.

Disney is interesting. They make so much money off those facilities from youth sports frrom around the globe staying on the property, using the stadiums and resources, etc. that MLB would have to convince them they would benefit from this. That's why they were very accomodating in helping the Braves relocate.

 

I guarantee you the Yankees have 100.000 percent control over Steinbrenner Field usage. That's been a drop dead non negotiable demand in virtually all "major league" stadium financing deals for about 35 years -- since the evaporation of the USFL.

 

I'm not going to waste more than a sentence arguing with 100000-percent guarantee. The Yankees don't own the facility, it's a publicly-owned facility.