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Rays officially terminate stadium negotiation window

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The 86 acre Tropicana Field site, home of the Tampa Bay Rays … at least until 2027.

The Tampa Bay Rays formally closed the three-year negotiating window that permitted the team to search both Pinellas and Hillsborough and counties for a new stadium site.

The team sent a two-sentence letter, drafted by Senior Vice President of Administration John P. Higgins, to St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman which was similar to the announcement made by Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg last week at Major League Baseball’s winter meetings in Las Vegas. You can read the text of the letter below.

Dear Mayor Kriseman:

This letter shall serve as the “Decision Notice” [as that term is defined in that certain Memorandum of Understanding between Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Ltd. (the “Rays”) and that City of St. Petersburg (the “City”) dated January 15, 2016 (the “MOU”)]. Please be advised that, as required by Section 9.B. of the MOU, the Rays hereby notify the City that the Rays will not attempt to negotiate the “New Agreements” (as that term is defined in the MOU) or prepare a “Termination Agreement” (as that term is defined in the MOU).

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Very truly yours,

John P. Higgins

The team — which stands to net 50% of the development rights at the Tropicana Field site — remains silent on its future, although there is far more money available for the Rays if they choose to renegotiate in St. Petersburg. In fact, when asked by Noah Pransky (WTSP) if Sternberg would sign away the developments rights at the Trop in July, the answer was pretty clear: “no.”

At the moment, St. Petersburg can contribute $100-million+ in county bed taxes, $75-million+ in county infrastructure funds, and $40-million+ in general revenue funds.

St. Petersburg City Council Chair Charlie Gerdes said it’s time to make sure the team stays here for the long haul.

I don’t have a sense of relief, said Gerdes, who said he’d rather see the team find a long-term home in Pinellas County, but would also rather the team stay in the Tampa Bay area than leave altogether. It’s not time to be relieved, it’s time to make sure they stay here for a long time.

I want them to find a place where they can keep ‘TB’ on their hats for a long time.

The Rays decision to pull out of the Hillsborough County stadium proposal not only marks the second time the team hasn’t seen a proposal through in a decade but has also stoked local sportswriters dire warnings that if you don’t build it, the team will leave. That, however, is patently false in most cases, yet many people continue to believe it. That narrative has been driven home by those sportswriters, not the team which up to now has been very clear that it remains committed to finding a new stadium in the Tampa Bay area.

Neil de Mause (Field of Schemes) attempted to quell the fears of Rays fans, saying:

Look, Tampa Bay is, it has now been well established, a middling MLB market, but that’s still better than most non-MLB markets, since they are non-MLB markets precisely because they can’t even manage to be middling. All things being equal, would Stuart Sternberg make as much money running a team in Montreal as in Tampa Bay? Maybe! Would he make more? Probably not, all things being equal. Could all things not be equal, like if Montreal throws the kind of money at Sternberg that Tampa Bay is so far refusing to? Conceivably, but that didn’t go so well the last time, and the current Montreal mayor sounds at least somewhat skittish about promising piles of cash — saying “We need to evaluate what kind of participation, how we will collaborate, but so far, so good” and “if it comes to asking Montrealers for money, for example to build a stadium, yes, I will ask Montrealers” — so probably won’t to the degree that this is likely to turn into an international bidding war.

It is absolutely important to remember at all times that sports leagues have a monopoly on franchises, and can use that as leverage — but it’s also important to remember that there are only so many cities with the population (and TV eyeballs) to enable a pro sports team to make fistfuls of money, and cities can use that as leverage, too. Romano is right about one thing: This is a business negotiation, and team owners are just trying to maximize their profits (plus maybe their egos), and will use any advantage they can to do so; but there’s nothing stopping elected officials from doing the same. Right now, the Rays and Tampa/St. Pete are still in the staring-each-other-down phase of negotiations, so there are likely at least a few more summers of baseball left before anybody starts storming off and slamming doors.

All of which is to say: Everybody take a deep breath, okay? I know it’s bad for clicks, but it’s good for making sensible policy decisions, and journalism is still about trying to inform people so they can make the world a better place — or at least that’s what the internet tells me.

The Rays previously said they had no interest in getting into the real estate business, yet they commissioned a study on real estate opportunities in Ybor City. It could be assumed that Sternberg could be coming around to the idea of property development since the study also identified downtown St. Petersburg and Mid-Pinellas/Carillon as two of Tampa Bay’s largest areas of growth.

Noteworthiness

— Per Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), the two-year, $30-million deal with Charlie Morton expected to be announced later this week. The Rays still have to make room on the 40-man roster.

In other news, the race is still on for catcher J.T. Realmuto. The Rays, Astros, Padres, and Dodgers are said to be in on the catcher.

Rays trade Jake Bauers to Cleveland for INF Yandy Diaz

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Meet the Rays newest utility player, Yandy Diaz, who comes over from Cleveland in a three-way trade involving Jake Bauers.

In the waning hours of the 2018 Winter Meetings, the Tampa Bay Rays made another big trade, sending 1B Jake Bauers to Cleveland to for INF Yandy Diaz and a minor-league pitcher, RHP Cole Sulser, as part of a three-team deal also involving Seattle.

Long considered a top prospect for Tampa Bay, Bauers seemed to be a key part of the Rays’ core of young players. Yet his late-season struggles across August and September changed the calculus a bit.

Senior VP of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom told Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) they did not sour or give up in any way on Bauers, but felt Diaz — with the versatility to play first or third — was a better fit.

Obviously, giving up Jake in this deal is not easy to do, Bloom said. We love Jake and feel really strongly about him, too. That was just the price we needed to pay to get Yandy. We thought, all things considered, it was the right thing for us to do. It’s good for our roster going forward.

According to Bloom, the trade was about getting a player the Rays like … one who gives manager Kevin Cash additional roster flexibility.

I think it’s premature to say we know exactly where he’s going to play, Bloom said. We’ll have to see how things unfold from here. But the versatility he has does give us more options and more possible paths for our roster to go.

Diaz hits right-handed, has good contact skills and a developing power profile.

Diaz posted .797 OPS figures at both the Triple-A (426 plate appearances) and MLB (120 plate appearances) levels last season. In 299 overall big league plate appearances, Diaz slashed .283 BA/.361 OBP/.366 SLG and put up a 97 wRC+, with a  10.7% walk rate and 18.1% strikeout rate.

In addition to having huge biceps, Diaz hit the baseball hard more consistently than almost anyone, according to Statcast™.

Of 504 players over the last two seasons, Diaz ranks 19th with a 47.6% hard-hit rate, and 22nd in exit velocity at 92.1 mph. It bears mentioning, three of the top 26 players have been acquired by Tampa Bay in the last six months:

Diaz (19th), 47.6%
Tommy Pham (23rd), 46.6%
Mike Zunino (26th), 45.9%

However, Diaz hit just one home run in 265 at-bats and boasts just a .087 ISO. The question begs, why is that?

As it stands, Diaz has the eighth-lowest launch angle (4.4 degrees), resulting in the 25th-highest ground-ball rate. Bloom said the team is hopeful they can get him to elevate the ball.

We like him as is, Bloom said, but any time you get a guy who hits the ball really hard, there’s always an additional upside, to the extent they can drive the ball a little bit. Even if he doesn’t do that, we think he’s a very polished hitter.

As JT Morgan (DRaysBay) wrote, the answer might not be to drastically alter Diaz’s launch angle.

On average, Diaz was tied with Wilson Ramos in launch angle. And though they have posted very similar numbers, Ramos has a couple mph of exit velocity on balls in the air, whereas Diaz’s launch angle is just under Duffy’s 4.6.

… Diaz doesn’t need to go all out on launch angle. It’s more likely that he needs to get more line drives overall to improve his power output. He looks the part of a guy who should hit for quite a bit of power and the exit velocity readings mostly agree.

Sulser, 28, has yet to reach the big leagues, although he could factor into a deep Rays relief corps after throwing 105 innings of 3.51 ERA ball with 12.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 at Triple-A over the past three seasons.

Noteworthiness

— No, thank you, Jake, it was a pleasure watching you become Rake Bauers!

— Per Topkin, Bloom said they “are still open to getting another hitter” and this isn’t the end of their offseason plans.

— I’d reckon it’s been a pretty, uhh … confusing 24 hours for the Rays front office.

— In the words of Danny Russell (DRaysBay), Charlie Frago at the Tampa Bay Times is reporting the stadium deal died in November of this year after key business leader Ron Christaldi attempted to broker a deal to finance the stadium with little transparency.

Then again…

Sternberg: plan to build a stadium in Ybor City is no longer viable; Rays WM update

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…And, nope.

With just 20 days left in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) window which allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to search regionally for a new stadium site, principal owner Stuart Sternberg told the media Tuesday the plan to build a stadium in Ybor City is no longer viable. The team remains committed to looking again for a new home in Tampa Bay.

During a press conference from the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas, Sternberg said the lack of details and progress for the proposed $892-million stadium in Ybor City was not going to work and there was no point in asking for an extension on the December 31 MOU deadline. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred earlier sent a letter to Hillsborough County officials, saying the framework of the deal was lacking too many details.

While the momentum and progress are real, we are not close at all to a workable framework, Sternberg said. We’ve had a long time. Three years is a long time. … While I am wildly disappointed by the result, I’m not discouraged.

Sternberg said they are are a “pretty resourceful” and “pretty determined” group that remains optimistic and firmly committed to helping the team remain in Tampa Bay for decades and generations to come … that the team has no plans to try to leave the area before the end of 2027 use agreement at the Trop.

Team president Brian Auld indicated that while there is no specific next step or site in mind,  “Everything is back on the table.”

Everything is back on the table, Auld said. As we’ve been at this for 10 years now we continue to take the same approach as we have over that time. … We are a resourceful group, we’ll get as creative as we possibly can, we’ll work with all the partners that we can to make this thing a reality. While today is certainly disappointing and represents a bit of a setback we have great partners on both side of the bay that have shown a willingness and eagerness to get this resolved. And both sides have a lot to gain from getting this resolved regardless where the ultimate location is.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman — by way of the Baseball Forever campaign — previously pitched a stadium proposal in April of 2017, where a stadium would be constructed on the eastern side of the Tropicana Field site.

On Tuesday, the mayor also left open the door to working with the team, saying in a statement he stands “ready if asked, to continue the conversation related to the organization’s future in St. Pete.”


As of now, there are four feasible and/or rumored sites in Pinellas: Tropicana Field, Derby Lane, Al Lang Stadium, and Albert Whitted Airport. However, only one site has been discussed as of now: the Trop. It should also be noted that Derby Lane is privately held property and on county land, not within the St. Petersburg city limits.

Should the Rays decide to build at Tropicana Field site, they stand to make 50% of the redevelopment rights of the site, which could make them far more profitable than in Tampa.

For what it’s worth, Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) thinks a facility could work splendidly at the Al Lang Stadium site.

This story is still breaking, and we will have more reactions and hot-takes as it unfolds.

Noteworthiness

— Rays Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations Bloom said Tuesday there were more talks of trades, that “we advanced the ball a little bit on some fronts.” However, no specifics were given. As I wrote yesterday, Nelson Cruz and Charlie Morton are among those in play, although nothing is imminent.

The interest (in the Rays) is genuine, Dixon said, planning to talk again with the Rays soon. We’re kind of in the middle of trying to get some concrete numbers and finish the dialogue with the teams. The Rays have been in there the entire time.

Both Cruz and his agent, Bryce Dixon, said the matchup would be “a perfect fit,” but three to four other teams (likely the Twins, White Sox, and Astros) also are interested, and because of it, the Rays are continuing to explore other options.

Other trade options are said to include Jose Martinez (Cardinals) and Carlos Santana (Mariners), and INF Yandy Diaz (Cleveland), who hasn’t much big league experience.

As for Morton, 35, the late bloomer spent the last two seasons in Houston, going 29-10 with a 3.36 ERA. Last season he earned $7-million (plus incentives) and threw 171-2/3 innings — his most since 2011. Despite his age, Morton has not shown any immediate signs of physical regression.

Insight on how to pay for a stadium provided; Rays head to Winter Meetings ready to make a deal

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The Rays look to add to their 90 win season in 2019, and that all starts Sunday at the Winter Meetings, in Las Vegas.

On Wednesday, Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill finally provided insight on how to pay for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium. In a memo released prior to Wednesday’s Hillsborough County Commission meeting, Merrill laid out the following:

  • The Rays would bear 50% of the cost for the acquisition of land and construction of a stadium.
  • The remaining 50% funding would come from some, or all, of the following sources: private investment via an Opportunity Zone Fund; private investment by Ybor landowners via a Community Development District(s), authorized by the City of Tampa; and Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) property tax revenues.
  • Construction cost overruns would be borne by the Rays.
  • Depending on results of future negotiations with private investors, a future guarantee provided jointly by the Rays, City of Tampa and County (estimated to be less than $50 million in total) may be necessary. Such a guarantee, if called upon, would be reimbursable to the Rays, City and County.
  • The Rays would be required to make annual rent payments.
  • The Rays would be required to fully fund and maintain reserves for stadium repairs and maintenance, as well as for future capital improvements to the Stadium.
  • The Rays stadium would be immune from property taxes, as is the case with Raymond James Stadium, Amalie Arena, and Steinbrenner Field (except for the private portions of the Stadium controlled by the Rays).

Since the three public funding sources are very different in where the money would come from, that doesn’t tell us a whole lot. However, Neil deMause (Field of Schemes) separated the signal from the noise and explained things in a way that I better understand it.

The Opportunity Zones are a Trump creation that allows land development to be used as a tax shelter on capital gains taxes; it’s not entirely clear how the county would monetize this, though it’s certainly possible. CRAs are effectively tax increment financing, where any rise in tax receipts in an arena gets kicked back to pay off a project’s construction bonds. CDDs are similar but are a tax surcharge, not cannibalization of existing taxes, so are somewhat easier on the current public purse.

Clearly those are all different kinds of subsidies with different pros and cons — the CRAs are the most straight-up of a cash grant, while with CDDs and OZs the concern would be more if the county would have to promise to backstop any shortfalls if the new revenues didn’t turn up, which is a thing that happens.

There are other options as well, including a 1% hotel tax increase that the county could put in place, which as Pransky notes would raise less than $100 million, but every drop counts.

The concern here is that Tampa is going to get caught focusing on “How can we find enough money to make this happen?” instead of “How much is it worth to taxpayers to make this happen?”, which as any experienced eBay bidder knows is a great recipe for paying more than you wanted to. There are some potentially not-terrible funding ideas here, but none of them are likely to get anywhere close to the kind of public money Sternberg is looking for — which raises the question, if Sternberg doesn’t think it’s a good investment to put more than a couple hundred million into a new $900 million stadium, are we sure that building one is a good idea in the first place?

And the likelihood of this all coming together to pay for the almost $900-million stadium?

Meanwhile, Merrill also set a do-or-die deadline for the proposed stadium deal, and if the Rays don’t agree to the county’s terms within the next three months, then there will be no ballpark in Ybor City. Yet a decision needs to be made in the short-term, with just 26 days left to commit.

As it stands, the Rays now have three choices:

  1. Ask St. Petersburg city officials for an extension (the team hasn’t approached the city yet). Such an extension could cost the team millions of dollars and delay the construction of a new stadium.
  2. Give formal notice they will move to Tampa without a finance package in place (According to Pransky, the Rays can give St. Pete notice they intend to leave on December 31, and nothing really changes. St Pete will still be held hostage by the inability to finalize a deal in Tampa. The team can give notice they are moving across the bay, without specifying a timeframe.)
  3. Give formal notice they will stay in St. Petersburg through 2027.

For his part, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said he hasn’t talked to the Rays about extending their agreement with the city. Kriseman did not show his cards in a statement after Thursday’s news broke.

There are some issues that need to be resolved if that were to occur, as my city needs some certainty regarding this matter. We tried to accomplish that by giving the team three years to look around.

Both Hillsborough County and Tampa have had many more years to prepare for this, so it’s unfortunate to see so much ninth-inning scrambling.

To put it another way:

Winter Meetings

Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) wrote on Wednesday that the Rays are looking to add players to the roster, although it is uncertain what moves need to be made since “the versatility and flexibility of their youthful roster leave them somewhat position agnostic on whether that hitter plays the infield, outfield or DH.”

Topkin added that they could add to the pitching staff — be that a legit starter, or an additional arm in the ‘pen — or an impact position player. Either way, an incumbent player stands to lose playing time, which Senior VP of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom spoke about.

This is less about trying to plug specific holes than it is about saying, okay, we have this group now that did what they did last year, that we feel strongly about their futures, how can we help support that group to put them in the best position to do what we didn’t do this past year, which is pop champagne and get to the postseason?

The Rays have reportedly kicked around countless ideas, including the acquisitions of players like Noah Syndergaard and Paul Goldschmidt, neither of whom are available on the market any longer. Other right-handed hitters who could be of some level of interest to the Rays include Nick Castellanos, Evan Gattis, Carlos Santana (switch hitter), Andrew McCutchen and Adam Jones, among others.

The Rays have plenty of financial flexibility with only about $32-million in payroll committed to the current squad. Expect something to come as early as this weekend.

This is a time to look at a wide array of possibilities, Bloom said. The important thing for us is to make sure we balance our opinion that we have a group that is capable right now of competing for the postseason with knowing this is something we want to do not just once, but we want to do year in and year out and have a consistently and sustainably competitive club.

Frago: “Rays’ Ybor stadium deal nears deadline with no agreement in sight”

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Tampa Bay Times columnist Charlie Frago suggested that the Rays quest for a Ybor City stadium wasn’t entirely dead on Saturday, rather it is on an IV drip.

With just 29 days remaining in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) window which allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to search for a new regional stadium site, Charlie Frago (Tampa Bay Times) wrote Saturday that there is no agreement in sight with the New Years Eve deadline looming — something that has been discussed at length both on this site, and by Noah Pransky (WTSP).

While leaders in the effort to nail down a funding mechanism say the outlines of a deal can still be reached before the deadline, questions loom over whether the team will make enough progress in Tampa between now and the end of the year.

A major hurdle to the proposed Ybor City ballpark has long been the funding model. Construction of the proposed stadium has been estimated at $892-million and would be funded by a public-private partnership. Yet specifics from the parties involved — including the Rays, who have said they are willing to contribute $150-million to the project — remain a mystery.

Corporate support is vital to the plan since local officials will likely rely on increased tax revenue from new development to help pay off the stadium.

In terms of naming rights, two-high profile Florida-based companies are said to be interested in the project, although the identities of those companies have not been disclosed. A naming rights deal could gross somewhere in the $5 million to $10 million range.

On November 26, Rays president Matt Silverman issued a statement about the talks, saying

From all accounts, they are working diligently on corporate support and we are very grateful.

Even so, any private funds — by way of ticket purchases, or development in the area surrounding the proposed ballpark site — and naming rights money would be revenue for the team, and likely would be used toward the team’s overall contribution to the project, not in addition to the Rays’ overall contribution.

The Tampa group would like the Rays and any private investors they can persuade to invest in the project to shoulder at least half of the stadium’s cost, or about $450-million, writes Frago.

All this will factor heavily into whether the Rays are able to strike an agreement to construct in Ybor City as the December 31 looms.

With details about a prospective funding model still scant, and the work to build corporate support still unfolding, the Rays will be faced with three choices come 11:59 PM on December 31:

  1. Ask St. Petersburg city officials for an extension (the team hasn’t approached the city yet, with just 29 days remaining).
  2. Give formal notice they will move to Tampa without a finance package in place (According to Pransky, the Rays can give St. Pete notice they intend to leave on December 31, and nothing really changes. St Pete will still be held hostage by the inability to finalize a deal in Tampa. The team can give notice they are moving across the bay, without specifying a timeframe.)
  3. Give formal notice they will stay in St. Petersburg through 2027.

Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, Mayor Rick Kriseman recently expressed doubts in a deal when asked by John Romano (Tampa Bay Times):

I asked Kriseman on Tuesday to put a number on Tampa’s odds of pulling off the Ybor stadium deal before the deadline. Initially, he pegged it at 20 percent. Later, he agreed that sounded too pessimistic.

He upped it to 25 percent.

It’s a huge (dollar) amount that has to be put together, Kriseman said. And they’re doing it right in the middle of an election for a mayor in Tampa. Is the city of Tampa going to come up with money? Will Hillsborough County be expected to do it on their own? There are a lot of obstacles to this deal.

Kriseman later boasted that there is absolutely nothing to worry about related to the Tampa Bay Rays’ upcoming decision:

The idea of incorporating a new ballpark on the Tropicana Field site had been floated previously, although the 86-acre property will be redeveloped with or without the Rays in the mix. The proposal is outstanding until it isn’t. Should the Rays and taxpayers approve of a stadium on the site, the team stands to share 50% of the redevelopment rights with the City of St. Petersburg on the property which has been appraised at $1-billion.

The team also recently shocked the local sports business world with the announcement of the October purchase of the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

The Rowdies play at and control the rights to Al Lang Stadium, on St. Petersburg’s waterfront, the former future site of the Rays. However, the team maintains the purchase had “nothing to do with short-term or immediate plans they have for baseball,” rather it was simply investing in the community. They, however, have not ruled out any long-term development.

A cloud also lingers over the future of Derby Lane since voters approved of Amendment 13, which will phase out dog racing in the state of Florida by 2020. Derby Lane is long thought to be one of the more promising potential stadium sites due to its proximity to Hillsborough County.