{"id":153730,"date":"2026-02-13T00:22:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/153730\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:22:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:22:31","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-begin-spring-training-for-2026-in-port-charlotte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/153730\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays begin spring training for 2026 in Port Charlotte"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; The Tampa Rays are one of the final teams of the Grapefruit League to begin spring training for 2026. Pitchers and catchers reported today at their spring training home, the Charlotte Sports Park, in Port Charlotte. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Fans are uncertain of what to make out of this ball club for the upcoming season, but one thing they know for sure is they want better results than they\u2019ve for the past two seasons. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tampa Bay finished in fourth place in the American League East Division in 2025. They went 77-85 and missed the playoffs for the second straight year after making it every season from 2019 until 2023. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Shortstop Carson Williams spoke about some of the challenges that happen as the team starts to prepare to get another campaign on the diamond underway. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/02\/11\/pittsburgh-pirates-kick-off-spring-training-pirate-city-bradenton-wednesday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/02\/11\/pittsburgh-pirates-kick-off-spring-training-pirate-city-bradenton-wednesday\/\">The Pittsburgh Pirates kick-off spring training at Pirate City in Bradenton on Wednesday<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s getting your feet wet, and kind of experiencing the entirety of the big leagues,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThe pitching, the fielding, the fans and the fields. I think it just goes to show just the work that we need to put in. It\u2019s my fifth spring training now. That\u2019s kind of weird. I\u2019m getting more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">One thing fans are sure to be optimistic about is the return of Shane McClanahan. Tampa Bay\u2019s ace hasn\u2019t pitched since the 2023 season due to multiple serious injuries. One even included him having to have Tommy John surgery. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To say that he\u2019s excited to be back out on the mound and with the guys in the clubhouse, would be an understatement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI missed this, I really did,\u201d McClanahan said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy how much you miss this just like the little things like the play catch, being around the guys, the working out and just enjoying the game again. It was a long process, and I\u2019m still healing a healing a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Rays first day of full team workouts is Tuesday, February 17. <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; The Tampa Rays are one of the final teams of the Grapefruit League&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[749,5526,5531,5529,5528,5530,5532,135,137,136,5527],"class_list":{"0":"post-153730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breaking-news-video","10":"tag-live-speeches","11":"tag-live-updates","12":"tag-live-video","13":"tag-press-conference","14":"tag-real-time-coverage","15":"tag-tampa","16":"tag-tampa-headlines","17":"tag-tampa-news","18":"tag-video-updates"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}