rewrite this title MLB approves Patrick Zalupski as new Rays owner

Major League Baseball owners have officially approved a group led by Patrick Zalupski as the new owners of the Tampa Bay Rays, reports Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. Topkin notes that the official transfer is still pending the formal closing of the sale, which is expected later this week. Previous reporting has indicated that the team is being sold for somewhere around $1.7B.

“It’s good to go,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says.

It was originally reported back in June that Sternberg was in “advanced” talks about a sale to the Zalupski-led group which will soon take over the majority stake of the team now. Those negotiations came on the heels of Sternberg receiving pressure to sell from both the commissioner’s office and other owners throughout the league. Sternberg will retain a minority stake in the Rays but will take a backseat after owning the club since purchasing it for $200M back in 2004.

Zalupski is the CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a publicly traded, Jacksonville-based developer that has built more than 31,000 homes across ten states. Back in June, Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.4B, while his company’s valuation rested at $3.4B. It’s not entirely clear how many other investors are a part of the group. Sportico reported over the summer that Ken Babby, who owns multiple minor league teams and is the son of a prominent NBA agent, and Bill Cosgrove, CEO of the Union Home Mortgage Group, are among the others involved in the incoming ownership group.

The new ownership group is expected to keep the Rays in the Tampa Bay area, though Zalupski’s vision is for an eventual stadium in Tampa proper, rather than the Rays’ longtime home in St. Petersburg. That’d mean a move from Pinellas County to adjacent Hillsborough County and would also mean negotiating with a different collection of local government officials than the Pinellas County officials who regularly clashed with Sternberg throughout his quest for a new stadium.

For the time being, of course, the Rays are playing in Tampa. They’ve temporarily relocated to George M. Steinbrenner Field — the spring facility and Class-A home for the Yankees — in the wake of massive damage to Tropicana Field at the hands of Hurricane Milton last offseason. The Rays are hoping that they’ll be able to return to Tropicana Field for the 2026 season. They still have another three seasons remaining on their prior lease there, and now that new ownership is all but in place, that period could serve as a bridge to the construction of a new stadium — though there will obviously be numerous hurdles to clear as the new management commences talks with the requisite governmental bodies in Tampa and looks to secure funding.

Broader questions about what the change in ownership means for the Rays will persist for the foreseeable future. Longtime fans will dream of larger payrolls helping to fuel a club that’s managed to be near-perennially competitive despite spending less than the vast majority of the league. However, new ownership is not always a path to exponentially larger payrolls. That may be the case for Steve Cohen’s Mets, but one need only look at the Marlins, Royals and Orioles to find recently sold teams that have yet to significantly invest in bolstering player payroll. An eventual new stadium could be a major step in that direction, but that’s years down the road.

Presumably, there will be some other turnover within the organization. Rays presidents Matt Silverman and Brian Auld are departing once the sale is finalized, but it’s not at all clear what, if anything, a sale might mean for the baseball operations or dugout staff. (Silverman was once Tampa Bay’s head of baseball operations but has been on the business side of operations since 2017.) 

President of baseball operations Erik Neander is signed through at least the 2028 season, while manager Kevin Cash’s most recent extension carries him all the way through 2030. That pair is among the most respected in the industry at their positions, and one would presume that their presence is a selling point for incoming ownership. Other changes could still ensue, but until the deal is official and Zalupski first meets with the media, there will be at least some level of uncertainty regarding matters of this nature.