TBNL: The Rays sale, HOF writers, MLB Draft thoughts

The sale of the Tampa Bay Rays is expected to be completed sometime in September, although the actual change in team control may not occur until after the postseason concludes. A group led by real estate developer Patrick Zalupski is purchasing the team for $1.7 billion.

The principal ownership group also includes mortgage broker Bill Cosgrove and Ken Babby, who owns the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Miami’s Triple-A affiliate) and Akron RubberDucks (Cleveland Double-A). Depending on how involved Babby will be in the Rays, he may be required to divest his interest in the RubberDucks down the road, but for now, there doesn’t appear to be a conflict of interest, according to the Akron Beacon Journal’s George Thomas (via Yahoo! Sports).

Perhaps most notable about Zalupski, he intends to keep the Rays in central Florida. It remains unclear where the group may explore building a new stadium, let alone how they will finance it, but early reports suggest that Zalupski hopes to keep the team in Tampa rather than St. Petersburg.

The Rays are still expected to return to Tropicana Field next season as repairs continue at the hurricane-damaged stadium. St. Petersburg approved $22.5 million in funding in April to begin repairs, including replacing the roof with a new one that will withstand hurricane-force winds as high as 165 mph, according to a report from the Associated Press. The unique panels are fabricated in Germany and assembled in China, making the roof replacement a 10-month project.

There are also repairs needed for the playing surface and other internal areas of the stadium, according to the report. The audio and visual electronics, including potentially the outfield scoreboard, may need to be completely replaced.

The Rays are contractually tied to Tropicana Field through the 2027 season.

Meanwhile, while the Rays continue playing at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field (the home of the Class-A Tampa Tarpons) this season, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers reported Tuesday that the team will indeed host postseason games there should they reach the playoffs. Discussions had been taking place about hosting the games at a neutral site (such as Miami’s LoanDepot Park), but the 11,000-seat minor league stadium will instead be used. The Rays will come out of the All-Star Break with a 50-47 record, 4th place in the AL East and just a game and a half behind the Mariners for the final Wild Card.

HOF writers

Nominees for the BBWAA Career Excellence Award were announced on Tuesday. The winner of the prestigious award is honored in the Hall of Fame.

Admittedly, I have long had a semantic argument with the idea of this honor. There are some who refer to those who have won the award as “Hall of Fame writers,” which isn’t truly accurate. There were no ballots or a voting process to elect them. They are not, technically, being enshrined in the HOF. No plaques are created for their career accomplishments.

The other issue I have is referring to this as the “writer’s wing” of the HOF. A “wing” would suggest at least a good-sized room dedicated to the writers, reporters, and voices who have helped shape and share the history of the game. Instead, it’s simply a singular display tucked away from the main parts of the Hall of Fame (near the baseball in films section, back by the library). It’s quite easy to miss.

Semantic argument aside — and with all respect intended towards Paul Hoynes and Scott Miller, both fantastic writers in their own right — but this would seem like an absolutely easy decision to give Tom Verducci, who has written for Sports Illustrated since 1993, the award. He is, without question, one of the best writers in the sport and has been for quite some time.

Obligatory Rich Hill update

Rich Hill is still toiling away in Triple-A, waiting for the Royals (or another team, as his contract has an upward mobility clause if someone is willing to put him on the active roster) to bring him back to the major leagues once again.

Hill is making history, too, while doing so.

Hill allowed one run over five innings on Sunday, striking out 10. In doing so, Hill became the oldest player with 10+ strikeouts in a pro game since Nolan Ryan did so in 1992 against the A’s. Ryan was 45 years, 6 months, and 6 days old at the time (the last of his 215 career double-digit strikeout games).

Hill is 45 years, 4 months, and 2 days old.

Hill has made 8 starts with the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, posting a 5.63 ERA and 1.675 WHIP over 40.0 IP.

He’s the last remaining player older than me, so yes, I will root for him to continue pitching forever.

Draft thoughts

The 2025 MLB Draft took place Sunday (Rounds 1-3) and Monday (Rounds 4-20). I wrote a handful of things on Monday morning on the draft’s early rounds. Those links are below.

Still, I have other thoughts.

Washington selecting Eli Willits with the first overall pick was a definite surprise, though there were rumblings that afternoon that his agent was “shopping a below-slot deal” with the hope of getting him to go with the first few picks (while it seems shady, it’s completely legal). The Nationals absolutely saved some money here by going with Willits — and were seemingly aggressive with their other picks, meaning they’ll use the savings from Willits to secure other players — but I’m not convinced it was the right move.

Before the pick was made, Mark DeRosa commented on the broadcast about what the team’s pick would mean. I think he was right. Essentially, DeRo said that whoever the team ends up picking first overall will reveal a great deal about where the new front office believes the team stands. If they pick a high-upside high school shortstop like Ethan Holliday, it’s a sign the FO doesn’t think they’re ready to win soon. If they pick one of the elite college arms like Kade Anderson, the eye is on adding talent that could supplement their MLB roster sooner rather than later.

By selecting Willits (and several other high school prospects), there’s a clear sign that the new general manager, Mike DeBartolo, doesn’t view the current club as being close to contention. What will be curious is how this mindset translates to signing their young core (i.e., Mackenzie Gore, James Wood, and CJ Abrams) to long-term extensions. DeBartolo is going to need to work creatively to supplement around that group until ownership spends aggressively in free agency again.

Once Washington passed on the two big prospects in the draft, the assumption was that the Angels would take Anderson with the No. 2 pick, but they also surprised everyone by instead selecting Tyler Bremner. The UC Santa Barbara right-hander is a solid pitcher and was expected to be a first-round pick, but nobody predicted that he’d go among the first few selections.

The move just seems curious, particularly for an Angels organization that likes to draft players in the first round who could move quickly through the minor leagues. Anderson or Liam Doyle would have likely fit that mold much better than Bremner.

Anderson went to Seattle at No. 3 (and they signed him before the night ended). Holliday went to Colorado at No. 4 (which made a world of sense considering his father played for the Rockies). Doyle went to the Cardinals at No. 5.

Pittsburgh took Seth Hernandez at No. 6, the top high school pitcher in the draft class. Three of his high school teammates were also drafted across the two days.

Eight players from the Tennessee Volunteers were selected in the first three rounds, the most from any one school. A ninth went in Round 12.

In addition to the highlights played throughout the broadcast, there were occasional interview clips also shared from some players (a few visited the MLBN morning show, for instance). I fully accept that the clips were largely out of context, but they weren’t as flattering for these kids as DeRosa and the MLB Network team thought. Their “confidence” wasn’t the positive it was being portrayed as.

There were three sets of twins in this year’s draft class. Boston selected Kyson Witherspoon with the 15th pick. His brother, Malachi, went to Detroit at No. 62. Toronto took JoJo Parker with the 8th pick. His brother, Jacob, went to Arizona in the 19th Round (he’s likely heading to Mississippi State instead). The A’s took Daniel Bucciero in the 9th Round. His brother, Matthew, was not drafted and will return to Fairfield College for his senior season.

Baltimore had the biggest draft pool to spend this year and seemingly took advantage with some smart selections (numerous players who were projected higher than they went). Much of the focus centered on the team picking two of the best catchers in the draft, Ike Irish and Caden Bodine, which only feels odd when you consider the Orioles have Adley Rutschman behind the plate and Samuel Basallo coming up behind him (as one of the top prospects in the game). They also wound up with Wehiwa Aloy (the Golden Spikes Award winner).

Phillly grabbed Gage Wood, who pitched a no-hitter in the College World Series last month, and there’s already been speculation that they could consider fast-tracking him to the majors to help in the bullpen later this year. I’m not a fan of the idea, but it worked for Chris Sale years ago.

As for what Brian Cashman & Co. did with the Yankees’ selections, let’s just say I’m underwhelmed.

New York’s first pick wasn’t until No. 39 overall thanks to the team spending too far beyond the luxury tax threshold (the Dodgers and Mets also faced the same penalty). Still, there were options available with that first pick — OF Cam Cannarella, who went four picks later to Miami, would have been the perfect choice or RHP JB Middleton, who went at No. 45 to Colorado or Cam Leiter, who went at No. 65 to the Dodgers — but the Yankees took a high school shortstop named Dax Kilby (an upside play; he has a compact swing and there’s already talk he won’t stay at short — which begs the question, why draft him this early, but what do I know?).

Kilby was ranked No. 62 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 250 prospects entering the draft. Only one other Yankees pick, 4th Rounder Pico Kohn at No. 122, was on that list.

The only player the team selected that I’d heard of before this weekend: 3rd Round pick Kaeden Kent. Former MLB slugger Jeff Kent’s son. Kaeden will likely end up at second base like his dad and isn’t quite the same hitter, but still it could be interesting to see how he develops.

New York also used their last pick on Mark Grudzielanek’s son, Bryce (another infielder).

Lots of links

I’ve been writing lately, just not always here, so I’m a bit behind on sharing links:

Two-time Olympic medalist Eddy Alvarez announced his retirement.

Junior Caminero, the runner-up of Monday’s Home Run Derby, is on pace to break the ground-into-double-play record.

Shintaro Fujinami, who some scouts once preferred as a pitcher over Shohei Ohtani, has returned to Japan to pitch in the NPB.

Pittsburgh’s Class-A affiliate pitched two perfect games in nine days.

California’s Corona High School made MLB Draft history on Sunday.

Seattle wasted no time signing their 1st Round draft pick.

Family connections are always a big point of discussion with the MLB Draft.

MLB players in the 2028 Olympics might be happening.