MLB insider predicts Rays will call Blue Jays affiliate's stadium home in 2025

By now, everyone has seen the destruction that Hurricane Milton wrought on the west coast of Florida. The cleanup from one of the worst hurricanes in decades is still ongoing and will continue in the months and years to come. Here's hoping that everyone in the Tampa Bay region, including Jays personnel, is recovering from this unfortunate situation.

On a baseball level, the destruction to the roof at Tropicana Field is posing an ongoing question as to exactly where the Tampa Bay Rays will be playing home games next season. It's a huge problem because the facility lacks water drainage and is not built to deal with the harsh elements of Florida weather.

MLB insider predicts Rays will call Blue Jays' TD Ballpark home in 2025

It has spawned all kinds of speculation, but a noted baseball insider has an interesting prediction that will involve the Rays and Toronto Blue Jays teaming up to partially remedy the issue.

The Athletic's Jim Bowden predicts that the Blue Jays' minor league complex in Florida will host the Rays for at least a portion of the season (subscription required).

"The Rays start the season playing in the Blue Jays' spring training complex in Dunedin, Fla., staying until a fix is in place for the Tropicana Field roof to make the ballpark playable again," Bowden writes.

TD Ballpark is the home of the Blue Jays' Single-A affiliate, the Dunedin Blue Jays, and the spring training home of the big league club. Fans have seen and heard all the great things about this facility, which has seen numerous amounts of money poured into it from ownership. TD Ballpark has become a staple of the Dunedin community and should be in a position to host MLB games if the necessary adjustments are made.

Plus, the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies have facilities located within spitting distance of the Trop. However, therein lies the dilemma. As wonderful as the TD Ballpark may be, it can't possibly be at a major league level of quality just yet.

It wasn't that long ago when the facility was hosting Blue Jays games. While the COVID pandemic was raging around the globe and Canada had very strict regulations concerning border entry, the Jays decided it would be easier to start playing the 2021 season in the warm climate of Florida.

Buffalo, New York, their home for the 60-game COVID season in 2020, would have freezing temperatures during the start of the regular season. Before long, the Jays would transition to Buffalo when the Florida weather became unbearable and the Buffalo weather more bearable. That is exactly how it played out and the Jays eventually triumphantly returned to the Rogers Centre in late July.

In terms of TD Ballpark, the Jays played 21 games and racked up a 10-11 record. Some truly wacky baseball games played out on a daily basis. Everyone appreciated the opportunity to still play baseball in the midst of a health pandemic, but there were problems. Issues with the stadium lighting (particularly at sunset) caused plays in the outfield to be more complicated.

An article from Gregor Chisholm at the Toronto Star observed that: "The ocean is a few blocks to the west and the breeze varies by the day. Home-run balls to left sometimes fall well short of the warning track. Weak bloopers to right field somehow find their way to the wall."

We will see how all of this plays out in the weeks and months ahead. Officials are still trying to exactly assess the scale of damage to the Trop; MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to see a plan by the start of Christmas. What seems certain is that the Trop definitely won't be ready to host baseball games in late March/early April.

The stadium situations of the Rays and Oakland Athletics have probably caused Manfred more than a fair share of headaches during his tenure. In regards to the Rays, the plan seems fairly straightforward. Unfortunately, those best-laid plans were thrown off course by something that no one could control. Now, the Blue Jays could offer to help their rivals out in the best way possible.