The Rays may soon stand alone as baseball’s problem child.

A’s officials last week announced that they had signed a binding agreement to purchase 49 acres of land for a stadium in Las Vegas and were focusing all efforts on relocating, abandoning the years-long “parallel path” of seeking a new facility in Oakland.

For more than a decade, the Rays and A’s have been lumped together as the teams that needed new homes, whose bad stadium situations were a drag on Major League Baseball, drawing large revenue-sharing checks and holding up expansion to 32 teams. Now the A’s, if they can get a reported $500 million in public money for the $1.5 billion project that includes an entertainment district, will have resolution.

So how does the A’s-Las Vegas deal impact the Rays’ efforts — which they are optimistic about — to get a new home?

“There was an eye on them and an eye on us, so when and if that (deal) happens, it’ll be two eyes on us,” Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said.

The Rays are working hard on a deal of their own, seeking to negotiate an agreement by the end of the year to build a new $1.2 billion stadium adjacent to the current Tropicana Field site as part of a massive development of the surrounding Historic Gas Plant District. They also have continued conversations with Tampa officials about potentially building there.