Worldwide Sports News

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays are heading home.

The team announced it will return to an updated Tropicana Field for the 2026 season after playing its entire 2025 home schedule at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa while damage to the Trop caused by Hurricane Milton in October 2024 was repaired.

“We are excited to return home to Tropicana Field in April and to once again join our fans and neighboring businesses in downtown St. Petersburg in celebrating the return of Rays baseball,” team CEO Ken Babby said in a statement.

Repairs to the stadium’s roof and other internal areas are ongoing, and the Rays are planning to play their home opener against the Chicago Cubs on April 6 after starting the season on the road.

The team announced several new ticket options that go on sale, as well as ballpark upgrades including an expanded main videoboard, new video displays behind home plate and along both foul poles, a new sound system and updated suite interiors.

The club is planning events to celebrate former Rays third baseman Evan Longoria to commemorate his time with the franchise, including induction into the team hall of fame.

The Rays finished with a 41-40 record at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees, and sold out 61 of 81 games while drawing 786,750 fans. Playing home games in an open-air ballpark for the first time, the Rays experienced 17 rains delays over 16 games for a total of 17 hours, 47 minutes.

Tropicana Field’s roof was torn to shreds by Hurricane Milton. The stadium that opened in 1990 featured what the team called the world’s largest cable-supported domed roof, with the panels made of “translucent, Teflon-coated fiberglass” supported by 180 miles of cables connected by struts.

The team has new owners, who are starting a search for a new ballpark that could open in 2029.

The Rays have struggled with poor attendance at the Trop, although they have at times been successful on the field with World Series appearances in 2008 and 2020.

Tampa Bay went 77-85 this year and missed the playoffs.

The team also announced infielder Bob Seymour has been released to pursue a playing opportunity in Asia, and left-hander Nate Lavender was returned to the New York Mets after clearing outright waivers.

LAS VEGAS — Cleveland Guardians executive Chris Antonetti is sticking with the same approach that he adopted when pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were placed on non-disciplinary paid leave in July.

Days after Clase and Ortiz were indicted on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches to ensure successful proposition bets, Antonetti is focused on helping the Guardians return to the playoffs.

“I think from the very beginning, I just tried to understand what do we need to do next and what’s the next best thing to do?” Antonetti said at Major League Baseball’s general managers meetings.

“Obviously, there are lots of things outside of our control at this point. What we’re trying to do is focus on what we can and that’s build the best Cleveland Guardians team we can.”

Ortiz pleaded not guilty, and both players have maintained their innocence through their attorneys. Bettors allegedly made at least $460,000 off the rigged pitches.

In reaction to the scandal, MLB worked with its sports-betting partners to impose a $200 limit on so-called micro bets and to remove them from parlays.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called for the Ohio Casino Control Commission to end player-specific micro betting entirely.

“I realize it’s a really complicated issue,” said Antonetti, the president of baseball operations for the Guardians. “I’m grateful for the efforts by Major League Baseball and Gov. DeWine to try to find some way to address what seemed to be a problem, so hopefully that’s a step in the right direction.”

Prop bets also are at the center of a scandal in the NBA. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested Oct. 24 and accused of providing inside information on teammates’ injuries to gamblers and removing himself prematurely from a game.

Team officials at the GM meetings said they weren’t sure if more needed to be done to raise awareness of baseball’s gambling regulations, pointing out that the rules are posted in each clubhouse.

“We have those conversations, a lot of them,” Arizona Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen said. “It’s not something that is ignored or isn’t addressed repeatedly. How many times do you do it? I don’t know what the answer is to that.”

Agent Scott Boras said every player will be scrutinized even more in the aftermath of baseball’s latest gambling scandal, and he advocated eliminating prop bets altogether.

“I think for the players, the concern they have is for their integrity,” Boras said. “It raises the question when a player is out on the mound and throws a pitch that goes 55 feet. You have to create a system that does not allow such a bet. ... You have to remove those products to make sure the integrity of the players isn’t questioned.”

The Athletics had their own recent experience involving a player and sports betting. Reliever Michael Kelly and three other players were reinstated June 5 after a yearlong suspension for betting on baseball while in the minor leagues. All four received the same punishment for betting less than $1,000 each.

The A’s, who recently finished the first of three scheduled seasons in West Sacramento, California, plan to move to Las Vegas in 2028.

“Can’t help but think a team in Las Vegas will have even more in the spotlight on it, and hopefully all the guys are educated on avoiding it,” A’s GM David Forst said. “We had Michael Kelly in the clubhouse with a year’s suspension, and we’re very aware of those things.”

Playing without Clase — a three-time All-Star closer — and Ortiz, Cleveland rallied from a 15 1/2-game deficit in July to catch Detroit and win the AL Central. The Guardians were eliminated by the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs.

“We didn’t have either guy available to pitch for us,” Antonetti said. “So we had to figure out how to make it (work).”

LAS VEGAS — Baseball’s general managers are meeting in Las Vegas, and negotiations over the collective bargaining agreement are hanging in the background of their team-building conversations.

The GMs are well aware of what could be coming, but when it comes to roster construction, they said little has changed in their approach.

“I’m looking at long term always,” Milwaukee Brewers GM Matt Arnold said. “Right now, we’re worried about the ’26 season. We’re always keeping an eye on ’27, ’28 and ’29 as well.”

The CBA expires Dec. 1, 2026, and the sides appear to be far apart, increasing the likelihood of a lockout roughly 13 months from now. Barring an agreement, regular-season games could be lost for the first time since 1995.

“Every team seems to be approaching that a little bit differently, which I think is to be expected,” Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said. “The position that we’re in here with the Red Sox is pretty firmly focusing on what we can do for the ‘26 roster and contending for the World Series.”

Major League Baseball is the only major North American league without a salary cap, and the players’ association staunchly opposes a cap.

Commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed concern about the vast spending gap between clubs. The Los Angeles Dodgers exceeded $500 million in payroll and projected luxury tax in capturing their second World Series in a row, while teams at the bottom of the money table spend a fraction of that.

How negotiations progress and when the dispute is ultimately settled is anyone’s guess.

“I think it’s something on the horizon that’s well above my head,” Atlanta Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said. “I just want to try to win games.”

That was the common sentiment at the GM meetings. The executives have enough to be concerned about with the immediate future and are operating as usual.

“It has not affected us so far,” Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “I can’t speak for other clubs, but we’re moving forward.”

Athletics GM David Forst said he wasn’t concerned about CBA talks overshadowing next season, pointing to the lockout from December 2021 to March 2022 that is still present in the minds of those involved in the talks.

“It’s not part of our daily conversation,” Forst said. “We let other people sort out the labor situation.”

Officials tour A’s stadium site

Forst said he and other team and league officials toured the future site of the A’s $2 billion stadium. He said Manfred checked out the site on the Strip later that day.

“It’s great to see the progress that’s been made,” Forst said. “It’s moving quickly to my eye. I don’t have a lot of experience with that.”

The club, which plans to move to Las Vegas in 2028, just completed the first of three scheduled seasons in West Sacramento, California.

Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami may be the most difficult free agent to evaluate as MLB's Hot Stove gets underway.

The 25-year-old, left-handed slugger is coming stateside and has an extreme boom-or-bust profile driven by serious power and terrifying swing-and-miss concerns.

Is his ceiling worth betting on? Or are his flaws too much to overcome? Let’s figure it out.

MLB Free Agent Tracker 2025-26: Latest signings, top players, and biggest offseason deals

Stay up to date with the MLB free agent market this offseason, including player signings, contract details, and team fits as the 2025-26 Hot Stove heats up.

• D.J. Short
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We've also predicted the contracts for hittersPete Alonso, Kyle Schwarber, and Bo Bichette and Matthew Pouliot ranked every free agent on the market this offseason.

Don’t forget: Check out theRotoworld player news feed for all the latest news, rumors, and transactions as MLB’s Hot Stove gets underway!

▶ Murakami in Review

Murakami debuted for the Yakult Swallows in the Nippon Professional League at 18 years old and was instantly a premier power hitter.

His 103 homers over his first three seasons led the league. Mind you, these were his age-19 through age-21 seasons. Just a few years later, he became the youngest player in NPB history to reach 200 home runs.

In the midst of breaking that record, Murakami’s 2022 season was the stuff of legends. He won the triple crown and hit a whopping 56 homers. That’s the second-most in NPB history, trailing only Wladimir Balentín’s 60 in 2013.

Just 22 years old at the time, he looked like one of the best power hitters on earth and someone that would command a superstar-level contract when he eventually was posted for MLB teams to sign.

Then, some troubling swing-and-miss issues emerged.

During that standout 2022 season, Murakami had a 20.9% strikeout rate. That along with his swinging strikes have risen sharply since.

The league average strikeout rate in the NPB was 19.4% last season. Murakami blew that out of the water and it’s clear a multi-year trend has developed.

That’s led to some scary realizations about his bat-to-ball ability. His zone contact rate was just 72.6% in 2025. That would’ve been the lowest among all qualified major league hitters.

Since 2023, only 17 hitters with at least 250 plate appearances have a z-contact rate below 77% and the list is horrifying.

Via Fangraphs

Nick Kurtz and Rafael Devers being here offer some hope while the rest of this group is a disaster. A lot of players on this list have stuck around mostly because of their defense as well, which won’t be the case with Murakami.

The stuff he faced in Japan is also nowhere near what he’ll see in the big leagues.

There were only 24 instances of a pitcher in the NPB with an average fastball (four-seam, two-seam, or cutter) velocity of at least 95 mph with a minimum of 100 pitches thrown according to Yakyu Cosmopolitan’s NPB advanced database.

The average fastball velocity in MLB last year was 94.3 mph and there were 365 instances of a pitcher having a fastball that averaged at least 95 mph with at least 100 pitches thrown.

Back to Murakami, DeltaGraphs (a private advanced data source for the NPB) said he had just a .095 (2-for-21) batting average and 41.7% strikeout rate against fastballs that were at least 150 kilometers per hour (or 93.2 mph) last season.

That sample is quite small and the results seemed harsh. Other sources confirmed he had closer to a .230 average across approximately 40 batted balls and 29% whiff rate against pitches that were 93+ mph.

These samples are so tiny that they shouldn’t be a death knell for Murakami’s ability to hit velocity anyway. The fact that he hasn’t seen much of it doesn’t mean he won’t be able to adjust to it.

Also, getting this NPB data is like finding a needle in a haystack. They don’t have sites like Baseball Savant or FanGraphs with public trackman (or Hawkeye) data to sort through. They also don’t track their velocity down to the decimal like we do, so specifics are tough to come by. Converting kilometers per hour back over to miles per hour adds another layer of confusion too.

Thanks again to Yakyu Cosmopolitan and two scouts for helping me source these velocity-based results.

Murakami may have struggled worse against breaking balls anyway.

Pitching guru and Marquee Analyst Lance Brozdowski has a great video out on his YouTube Channelbreaking down Murakami and other Japanese players being posted this winter. In it, he shared that Murakami had a 49% whiff rate against breaking balls last season.

Inversely, Lance made a great comparison with Murakami and not all hitters in MLB, but left-handed ones that had similar batted ball data to him.

That group who matched his 17° hard-hit launch and 108 mph 90th percentile exit velocity were Shohei Ohtani, Nick Kurtz, Kyle Schwarber, Riley Greene, Corbin Carroll, Matt Wallner, and Wilyer Abreu.

Via Lance Brozdowski

Murakami made less contact than those seven against lower quality pitching, but they at least show an avenue to him being a productive hitter.

Regardless of these swing-and-miss concerns, Murakami still makes excellent swing decisions. He had a 73.9% zone swing rate and 24.6% chase rate last season according to Yakyu Cosmopolitan’s database.

Here’s a list of every player in MLB last season to have a z-swing rate between 72% and 75% and a chase rate between 23% and 26% with at least 150 PA.

Purely in terms of swing decisions, this is an excellent list to be a part of. It’s still necessary to highlight that disastrous zone contact rate because it truly is a disaster. Yet, there’s something to be said about swinging at the right pitches as often as he does.

Especially with his raw power. His max exit velocity in the NPB last season was 116.5 mph. That was just a shade beneath Junior Caminero’s 116.7 mph max EV and was harder than Juan Soto or Cal Raleigh hit a ball. He also hit this 115.1 mph home run off Merrill Kelly in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

When Murakami connects, he hits the ball hard and he hits it in the air. That’s great. He also mostly swings at the right pitches and could run a walk rate up there with the league’s best. That’s also great.

The question is if he can make enough contact for these carrying tools to even matter.

There will be a lot of pressure on his bat too. While he played third base in Japan, he’s not considered a passable defender there and will likely be relegated to first base and designated hitter duties with whoever signs him.

▶ Market Outlook

MLB teams will have to walk the tightrope between evaluating Murakami for what he’s been over the last few seasons — a flawed slugger with little to no defensive value – and who he hopes to be again – a game-breaking power hitter.

If he’s viewed as the former, he could be stuck with short-term deals we often see for older, one dimensional, DH-types. Something like Joc Pederson’s two-year, $37 million deal with the Rangers or Rhys Hoskins’ two-year, $34 million deal with the Brewers.

Yet, Murakami isn’t in his mid-30s like they are. He can’t even rent a car yet in America. There’s still tantalizing upside here. Some teams will bet on his ridiculous raw power and convince themselves they can navigate through his deficiencies with a little player development magic.

It’s rare to find players this young and this volatile on the open market though.

Oftentimes, players with this type of profile don’t reach free agency until they’re much older. It just takes them longer to find their foothold in the majors. That delays their team control through these prime years and when they’re finally available, they've already lost a step. That’s not the case with Murakami, which makes his situation so rare.

We can probably glean something from other players who’ve signed from Japan and Korea over the last few years.

Masataka Yoshida and Seiya Suzuki also lack defensive value and received nearly identical five-year deals at a $17 million and $18 million average annual value, respectively.

Looking back, Suzuki’s deal has been a success and Yoshida’s is a bit of a disaster. That was generally the consensus when each was signed, too.

Also, both were far more consistent and didn’t swing-and-miss as much in the NPB as Murakami. They were also closer to 30 when they posted.

The Giants signed Jung Hoo Lee to a six year, $113 million contract ($18.8M AAV) two years ago and while a completely different type of player to Murakami – plus defender in center field and contact-oriented hitter – he similarly had an outlier season offensively that likely drove his contract value up.

He hit 65 total homers in seven KBO seasons and 23 came in one year. It was the only time he hit more than 15 in a single season and second where he hit more than seven.

The dream he could hit for even average power along with that speed, contact, and defense helped him land a deal probably larger than his skillset warranted. He has just 10 homers in 187 MLB games, albeit in one of the most difficult home parks to hit in.

In the end, whoever takes the plunge to sign Murakami will have to have a player development plan in place ready to solve his contact issues.

There’s also a question as to whether or not he is ready for those difficult conversations. Jeff Passan had a great note in his piece about Roki Sasaki’s late season turnaround that it took him months to heed the Dodgers’ advice in overhauling his mechanics.

If a team has ideas to try and solve Murakami’s contact issues, will he listen to them? Or rest on his laurels as a heralded phenom? There’s no way to know this and nothing about Sasaki’s situation makes it more or less likely Murakami is ready to make adjustments. It’s just an additional variable to consider.

▶ Best Fits

Padres: Most major league front offices are risk averse and prefer to play it safe. AJ Preller does not fall into that lot. If anyone out there would want to take a big swing and see if Murakami can reach his ceiling, Preller may be the guy. Especially with holes at first base and DH on San Diego’s roster.

Mariners: Sticking on the west coast, Josh Naylor is a free agent and Jerry Dipoto made it clear that the two sides are unlikely to reunite. With that, Murakami’s market could wind up quiet enough to give the eternally cheap Mariners a chance to take a big swing without paying top dollar.

Red Sox: Desperate for a middle-of-the-order bat and first baseman, Murakami could be that guy. He could also easily not be that guy. At least Boston has plenty of recent player development success stories from young players they can boast in negotiations and use to give themselves confidence in taking on this risk.

Mets: There’s a gaping hole at first base in Queens without Pete Alonso and they don’t have an obvious DH on the roster either. Early indications are that they’re not interested, but the fit makes sense.

Contract Prediction

Murakami’s serious flaws and lack of defensive value will make his deal much cheaper than initial reports suggest. There will be an acknowledgment of his ceiling though driven by the gaudy power and plus-plus swing decisions.

Using Suzuki and Yoshida’s deals as a base, Murakami will land in a similar range and it will be fascinating to watch his development. I’m expecting him to build some opt-outs into the contract as well, assuming he’ll want a chance to seek a larger one while he’s still so young if something clicks.

Padres - Three years, $51 million with opt-outs after each of the first two seasons.