MLB says Rays can host potential playoff games at minor-league stadium with capacity of 10,046

Tampa Bay has been playing at Steinbrenner Field as Tropicana Field undergoes major repairs after Hurricane Milton

Major League Baseball on Thursday clarified that the Tampa Bay Rays would be allowed to play any postseason home games at their temporary home ballpark, Steinbrenner Field, MLB.com reports. 

The Rays are playing the 2025 season at the New York Yankees' spring training complex as their usual home venue, Tropicana Field, undergoes major repairs after Hurricane Milton severely damaged it in October of 2024. While Tropicana Field is expected to be game-ready in time for the 2026 season, it will not be ready to host postseason baseball. As such, the Rays, should they qualify for the playoffs, would play any home games at a 10,046-seat stadium that typically hosts the Single-A Tampa Tarpons of the Florida State League. This, of course, raises the complicated possibility that such a small ballpark could be the setting for ALCS and even World Series games. 

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Under the current playoff format, the second- and third-wild-card teams in each league do not play a home game unless they advance to the Division Series round. For the Rays to be guaranteed a home playoff game, they would have to either secure the top wild-card spot in the American League or win their division. The first step, then, is for the Rays to earn one of the six available playoff berths on the AL side. At the break, the Rays are 50-47 and in fourth place in the tough AL East. However, they're also just 1 ½ games behind the Seattle Mariners for the third and final wild-card spot. The Rays' plus-61 run differential also suggests they've been a bit unlucky thus far and probably deserve a better record than the one they have. 

They'll enter the second half with a 3-9 record in July -- a trend they'll need to reverse hurriedly if they're going to make up the necessary ground.