Changing Out Infield Clay The Latest Chore For Tampa Bay Rays’ Busy Grounds Crew

Mother Nature has done her best in playing havoc with the Tampa Bay Rays the past two years. The irony with damage from Hurricane Milton preventing the team from playing at Tropicana Field this season, is only two years ago Hurricane Ian-related damage at the Rays spring training facility 85 miles south in Port Charlotte forced the club Tropicana Field for the bulk of their 2023 Grapefruit League home schedule.

Including two weeks of training and hosting one game at Disneys complex in Lake Buena Vista ahead of moving operations to the Trop that spring, the Rays have had a nomadic time of it with spring training in three cities and regular season games in two. With this 2025 season being played in Tampa, the organization did a remarkable job of transforming Steinbrenner Field, spring training home of the New York Yankees, at the conclusion of Grapefruit League play.

Through the various venue transitions the Rays have had to endure, a grounds crew has had to diligently prepare and maintain indoor and outdoor fields at spring training/minor league and MLB facilities. The latest task checked off by crew chief Dan Moeller and his team of dedicated workers was changing out the clay on the infield at Steinbrenner Field.

Clay arrives from Vero Beach

Moeller, who owned a construction business that did not allow him to dictate his hours, procured some insight about maintaining ballfields prior to being hired by the Rays in 1997, one year ahead of their maiden season. He served as president of a Little League in St. Petersburg, a responsibility that required him to be around the diamond.

“When the position with the Rays came open, I was tired of owning my own business,” he said. “There generally were no weekends, no holidays and no health insurance. But I had some experience with ballfields and maintaining them. So, to have a more stable career, I jumped on board with the Rays. It is the best thing I have ever done.”

Moeller and his staff changed out the infield clay at Steinbrenner Field when the Rays were in Arlington for a three-game series against the Rangers in early April. It was during that five-day window, including an off day on either end, that the new infield clay was installed – there was no need to change the clay on the mound, warning track or foul territory – and ready in time for a 13-game homestand that began April 7. The clay was transported from Pennsylvania to a facility in Vero Beach, on Floridas east coast, where it was prepared before being trucked across the state to Tampa.

“The clay is tailor mixed,” said Moeller. “It is a rounder sand, which makes a difference. There is about 25 percent clay, about 70 percent sand and five percent silt. It is a new experience for us, though it is very similar to what we had at the Trop.”

Moeller, who was promoted from head groundskeeper to director of special projects and field operations prior to 2024 spring training, which was back in Port Charlotte where the 61-year-old also oversees field operations, and his crew had an excavation project on their hands. The clay at Steinbrenner Field and other MLB venues is six inches deep on the infield, though only the top two inches needed to be replaced. After all, as Moeller said, what is on top is what matters to the infielders.

“The bottom four inches is the existing clay,” said Moeller, whose staff includes five fulltime employees at Steinbrenner, plus eight part-timers on game days. “We took out two inches of the older clay, did a light till job and brought in two inches of the new clay.”

Tilling is necessary so that the new clay properly bonds with the existing clay.

Why change infield clay？

Bringing every element of Steinbrenner Field up to MLB standard as much as possible for regular season play was essential. That included the infield clay used at the ballpark, which in addition to being the spring training home of the New York Yankees has also been the home of one of their Single-A affiliates, the Tampa Tarpons. (The Tarpons are playing this season on an adjacent field that is part of the larger complex.)

“It is supposed to give you truer hops,” Moeller said of the new clay, while noting the Yankees are largely responsible for maintaining the grass. “Players do not like the clay chunked up. They basically like to see just cleat marks in it. Now, you are going to get smaller chunks, but the thing about this clay is that it breaks right up whereas the clay that was (removed) would chunk up, and those chunks would not break up. The players would kind of do a little landscaping with their cleats, tapping the chunks down. The clay that was here, like most Florida clay, does not break up that easily.”

TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays grounds crew waters new infield clay at Steinbrenner Field before

Tom Layberger

Those fielding ground balls and turning double plays on the new infield are appreciative of not only the results to date, but the effort of Moeller, head groundskeeper Mike Deubel and the rest of the crew.

“They did a very good job,” said second baseman Brandon Lowe, noting how what is typically a 10-day chore was shoehorned into half the time while the Rays were in Texas. “Each day we come out here it gets better and better. It‘s just that we’re outside in Florida, so they have to wet the crap out of it (before a game). (The clay) hardens late (in a game), so its an ever-adjusting thing.”

Hardening clay is something that is accelerated during day games with an unrelenting sun beating down. That is something the players are becoming accustomed to.

“You have to understand what the field is feeling like and what it‘s going to play like because (during) day games, it’s going to get hard a little bit quicker and the ball is going bounce,” said Lowe, who has spent his entire nine-year career with Tampa Bay. “Youve got to make some good reads and change some things up. From what we were playing on before to playing on this, I think they did a fantastic job.”

Manager Kevin Cash has praised the effort of all concerned with respect to the scope of the transition. That includes the infield.

“I give Dan and ‘Dewey’ a lot of credit,” said the Tampa native. “Very appreciative of their efforts. It seemed like any little thing that we saw with the field or stadium, people were working very hard over the four or five days that we were (in Texas).”

Trop Could Be ‘Extremely Tricky’

The Rays grounds crew has a good amount of outdoor maintenance experience with the Port Charlotte complex, experience that is coming in handy this season. Contrary to what the average fan might believe, there was plenty to do at Tropicana Field as well. That includes outside the venue where 85 acres require plenty of maintenance and where two crew members are keeping things spiffy while the team is playing in Tampa. After all, grass needs to be mowed, trees need to be trimmed and palm fronds need to be picked up. Inside, seemingly simple tasks such as watering the infield had to be done very carefully.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Members of the Tampa Bay Rays grounds crew prepare the field before the start

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“Similar, but yet very different,” said Moeller of the responsibilities between the outdoor and indoor fields. “(At the Trop) you still have clay, a mound, the warning track. It is mowing versus grooming.”

Watering of the infield could be a delicate chore. After all, there was no sunshine to help with the drying process if the Trops infield was watered too heavily. There could also be problems with the infield being too dry. Indeed, a balancing act was required.

“Between having concrete underneath sucking the life out of the clay and the air conditioning drying it out, the Trop was extremely tricky,” said Moeller. “You also had to be very careful with the water because if you overdid it, there was really no way to dry it up.”

Heavy rain, and certainly stretches of rainy days, could prove to be a challenge when it came to, believe it or not, taking care of the infield at Tropicana Field. Remember, in Florida you do not have to dig down far to find water. Also, Tropicana Field is less than two miles from Tampa Bay in one direction and about four miles from the Gulf of Mexico in the other.

“The field is also below street level,” said Moeller. “If the water table began to rise, we would actually start getting wet from the bottom up, so we had to be careful not to overwater.”

That concern may come into play again in 2026. For now, it is about making sure Steinbrenner Field is as top-shelf as possible for the remainder of the 81-game home schedule, which is front-loaded to avoid the inevitable summer heat, humidity and thunderstorms as much as possible.

“So far, the players know this clay is a work in progress,” said Moeller. “They know there will be a learning curve for us in how to deal with this particular clay outside, so they are very understanding in that respect.”