At their core, fantasy managers will do everything in their power to gain every possible edge that they can heading into draft season. They’ll pore over all available data and information on every player, just hoping to glean undiscovered nuggets of information that they can use to their advantage to defeat the competition.
It doesn’t stop at just information on players and their skills though. Savvy fantasy managers are constantly digging through ballpark data as well to decipher where the best places to hit and to pitch are and where the platoon splits may leave some players more vulnerable. Most seasons, these types of changes are viewed through the lens of players that are changing teams – to see how their skillset will play in a new venue. While we’re still looking at those types of examples, this season brings another whole new element into play.
It’s not often that any team gets a new ballpark or makes major renovations to their existing stadium. One team may bring the fences in a bit or push them back to help attract starting pitching, but it’s very rare that multiple teams have major changes in their stadiums from season to season.
That’s why we have decided to dedicate an entire article to the major ballpark changes that you need to be aware of heading into your fantasy drafts this spring.
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Athletics – Sutter Health Park
After a tumultuous fallout in Oakland, the Athletics will begin their three-year journey of being wanderers before their new stadium in Las Vegas is ready to open. They’re going to play in West Sacramento, but they’ll simply be known as the Athletics, or the A’s are fine if you have mentioned them already.
Their new home for the next three (possibly four) seasons will be Sutter Health Park – the home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. The River Cats have played the last three seasons in the norotiously hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, where the ballpark has actually been one of the most pitcher-friendly venues in the league.
While the outfield dimensions are somewhat similar to the Oakland Coliseum – roughly 400 feet to center and 330 feet down each of the lines – it’s still a much cozier ballpark overall and one that should lead to increased home run production for A’s hitters. There’s also a massive difference in the amount of foul territory – no longer having by far the most in the league — which will further aid the A’s hitters and hurt their pitching staff.
Knowing that the ballpark would be more intimate and likely lead to increased home run rates, A’s skipper Mark Kotsay told reporters over the winter that he wanted to add more “swing-and-miss” ability to their pitching staff to help combat the change. The A’s were surprisingly active on in both the free agent market and on the trade front – landing Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs to bolster their rotation – so it looks like they stayed true to that.
The assumption from folks around the league is that the new venue will play about league average for offense. So it won’t be the next Coors Field or suddenly be a major launching pad for home runs, but it should represent a nice upgrade for hitters from the Coliseum.
Overall, from a fantasy perspective, you should be able to add a couple of home runs to the projections for all of the A’s major bats – Brent Rooker, Lawrence Butler, Shea Langeliers, Zack Gelof, JJ Bleday and Tyler Soderstrom. It could also bump their overall counting stats up a bit with the increased run production, but until we really see how the major league product plays at Sutter Health Park it’s difficult to get a true read on the situation.
Roki Sasaki, Matt Shaw, and Brandon Woodruff are among the players to watch as spring training gets underway.
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Tampa Bay Rays – Steinbrenner Field
What’s super interesting about the upcoming 2025 season is that the A’s situation is not unique. They aren’t the only major league team that’s going to be playing all of their home games in a minor league park. Thanks to extensive damage from Hurricane Milton that tore the roof off of their facility, the Rays also find themselves without a true home for the 2025 campaign.
Fortunately, they were able to reach an agreement with the New York Yankees to utilize Steinbrenner Field in Tampa for all of their home games. It took nearly $50 million in renovations to get the stadium up to par – renovating clubhouses, wright rooms, training facilities, dining areas and concourse space – but all is ready for the Rays when they open the season with a three-game set against the Rockies in late March.
As far as how things will play on the field – and what the differences will be from Tropicana Field – let’s look into the data a bit.
First and foremost, Steinbrenner Field is an outdoor venue, while Tropicana Field was a climate-controlled dome. Historically, balls tend to travel farther in the heat, and the sweltering temperatures in Florida throughout the season are going to be a factor. It could also lead to more overall fatigue for the Rays’ players as the season wears on, as they’re used to playing indoors and avoiding that excessive heat.
The biggest takeaway here is in the park factor for power. According to Baseball America, Steinbrenner Field has a park factor of 104 for home runs, which is around four percent above average. That seems like a nice boost for hitters, but nothing too extreme. When you look deeper though, you’ll see that the park factor for home runs for right-handed hitters is only 86, while for left-handed hitters it’s a jaw-dropping 128. Yowza.
Part of the reason that the park is so hard on right-handed hitters is that the fence is 399 feet in the power alley in left-center. That’s going to be frustrating for Rays’ right-handed hitters throughout the season. Junior Caminero has enough raw power that he can crush a ball out of any park, so the change shouldn’t impact him too negatively. The same thing probably goes for Christopher Morel, though knocking a home run or two off of his projection still seems prudent. It’s the fringe power guys – Yandy Diaz, Danny Jansen and Jonny DeLuca who will probably be hurt the most.
On the flip side, it’s all systems go for Brandon Lowe, Josh Lowe and Jonathan Aranda. All should benefit greatly from the short porch in right field.
As far as the Rays’ pitching staff is concerned, fantasy managers should expect all of them to serve up more home runs than they would have at Tropicana Field – both with the smaller dimensions and having to play outdoors in the heat. The issues would seem to be exacerbated for right-handed pitchers, as left-handed hitters benefit the most from the park shift. That means that Shane Baz, Ryan Pepiot, Zack Littell, Taj Bradley and Drew Rasmussen need to make sure to keep the ball down in the zone. Shane McClanahan shouldn’t see as much of a difference, though it’s still a downgrade in venue.
Josh Lowe is looking like a value as a rebound candidate in 2025.
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Baltimore Orioles – Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Unlike the Athletics and the Rays, the Orioles will be playing in their own major league stadium once again in 2025. Their changes are more of the minor variety, with the club bringing the fences in left field back in once again.
Prior to 2022, Oriole Park at Camden Yards played as one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in all of baseball. It was such an advantage for hitters to play in Baltimore that the Orioles finally decided to move the fences back in left field to help out their pitchers. What we’re learning now though, is that they may have taken things a bit too far.
In the three seasons since the fences were pushed back, Oriole Park at Camden Yards had park factors of 0.94 for runs scored (six percent lower than league average) and .91 for home runs (nine percent lower than league average). That’s a massive difference. It was especially hard on right-handed hitters, who experienced a park factor of 0.71 – the lowest mark in all of baseball.
The wall will stay the same down the line and into the corner – going from 333 feet at the foul pole to 373 feet in the corner, while the rest of the wall from left-center over to the bullpen area will move in anywhere between nine and 20 feet.
It’s not just that the walls are moving in though, they’re also being lowered in spots. Instead of the 13-foot wall that spanned most of that distance, it will now be eight feet in some spots and just under seven feet in others.
Orioles general manager Mike Elias explained, “Our hope is, by pulling the dimensions in a little bit — and in some areas it’ll be as much as 20 feet; in others, it’ll be more like 11 feet and as little as 9 — that we will be able to get closer to what our initial goal was: a neutral playing environment that assists a balanced style of play at a park that was overly homer-friendly prior to our changes in 2022… It is now a little overly skewed given what we did back then.”
From a fantasy perspective, it’s easy to see that the biggest winners here should be the right-handed power bats in the Orioles’ lineup – namely Ryan Mountcastle, Jordan Westburg, Tyler O’Neill, Adley Rutschman, Ramon Urias and Gary Sanchez. The left-handed hitters will get a boost as well when going the opposite way, but nothing game-changing like the others.
Ryan Mountcastle’s initial reaction to #Orioles’ left-field wall change?
“Excited,” he said with a grin.
— Jake Rill (@JakeDRill) January 31, 2025
On the pitching side, expect a few more baseballs to fly over the fences, so bump up the ERA expectations on Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer compared to what they have done the past few seasons.
Presenting this year’s Top 300 rankings for 5×5 fantasy baseball leagues, led by Bobby Witt Jr.
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While none of these changes are going to suddenly vault a player from obscurity to fantasy superstardom, there should be enough of an impact to make a real difference over the course of the season. Hopefully you can utilize some of the information presented here to gain an edge on your competition this March.
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