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The world of Minor League Baseball was completely turned upside down last week when Major League Baseball announced a total restructuring of the entire system.
What used to be fourteen leagues spread across five tiers is now eleven leagues across four tiers, massive realignments have been implemented to address this and sadly dozens of teams have been kicked out of affiliate pro baseball. The new system allows Major League teams and their Minor League affiliates to be much closer to each other than before, in most cases, as well as increased salaries for ball players. of the Minor League. But, again, this to the detriment of many teams.
“We are thrilled to unveil this new model, which not only provides a pipeline to Majors, but continues the minor league tradition of entertaining millions of families in hundreds of communities,” said Major League Commissioner Rob Manfred. , in the official press release. “In modernizing our minor league system, we have prioritized the qualities that make minor leagues an integral part of our game while strengthening the way we develop professional athletes on and off the field.
The four levels will be known as Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, and Low-A, with the lower three of these levels split into three regional leagues, the Triple-A level remains at just two leagues. Several teams have either been upgraded or dropped and three previously independent league clubs have been invited and are now affiliated with Major League clubs.
TRIPLE-A REALIGNMENT
We’re going to start with Triple-A, which was previously divided into International League and Pacific Coast League. The official statement did not state that these names would be used in the future, listing them instead as (I’m told, “temporary names” of) Triple-A East and Triple-A West.
Overall, Triple-A East is basically the International League and Triple-A West is the old PCL, but there have been some changes here. The Iowa Cubs, Memphis Redbirds, Nashville Sounds and Omaha Storm Chasers have all moved from the PCL to “East”, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp secured a nice promotion from the Double-A Southern League to the Triple-A East. There are also two former independent clubs here, the St. Paul Saints of the American Association join Triple A East, and the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League now at Triple-A West.
Some teams that are no longer at the Triple-A level include the Fresno Grizzlies going down to Low-A, missions from San Antonio will be sent to Double-A and the New Orleans Baby Cakes, who have moved to Wichita for the season. 2020, which never happened, will now play in Double-A as Wichita Wind Surge. Another Triple-A move for 2021 is the former Pawtucket Red Sox who will remain at Triple-A level as Worcester Red Sox.
DOUBLE-A REALIGNMENT
Relatively speaking, the Double-A level didn’t see as much movement as the other three. The Texas League, Eastern League, and Southern League have all remained for the most part intact – although a few teams have still been successful.
Starting with the Central Double-A, which is the old Texas League. No team was eliminated, but two were added from Triple-A, the San Antonio Missions and the Wichita Wind Surge (formerly the New Orleans Baby Cakes) both joined the league as former members of the Pacific Coast League.
In Double-A Northeast, a new team has been added to what is essentially the old Eastern League. The Somerset Patriots, a former member of the Independent Atlantic League join in the fun while the Trenton Thunder is left out, they will join the new MLB Draft League.
Finally, the Double-A South, which is made up of teams from the Southern League, added no teams but lost the Jackson generals who still don’t know what they will do in 2021. The Mobile BayBears have moved to Madison, Alabama and will remain in the league as the Rocket City Trash Pandas.
HIGH-A REALIGNMENT
The newly named “High-A” class, which was previously known as A +, has evolved a lot as it crammed five leagues into three.
High-A West is the Northwestern League minus two teams, the Boise Hawks (Pioneer League) and Salem-Kaiser Volcanoes (Maverickes League) both join independent leagues. High-A Central is the Midwest League with four teams retired – the Burlington Bees and Clinton Lumberkings go to the Prospect League while the Kane County Cougars move to the American Associaiton filling the void left by the St. Paul Saints. The Bowling Green Hot Rods are moved to High-A East.
Speaking of High-A East, this is where things get really muddy as teams from four different leagues all get crushed. Do you remember the New York-Penn League? Say goodbye, of the fourteen teams that played in the NYPL in 2019 only three will continue in affiliate baseball, those three are all here in the High-A East – the Aberdeen Ironbirds, Brooklyn Cyclones and Hudson Valley. Renegades. . We’ll get into the details of who left the NYPL and where they went later in the job, but most of them were rounded up in the new MLB Draft League.
From the Carolina League, we have the Wilmington Blue Rocks and Winston-Salem Dash. The South Atlantic League gives us tourists from Asheville, Greensboro Grasshoppers, Greenville Drive, Hickory Crawdads, Rome Braves and the renowned Lakewood Blueclaws who will now be the Blueclaws of the Jersey Shore.
LOW REALIGNMENT
Things are calming down a bit at the Low-A level, in terms of realignment anyway… because two entire leagues have been cut – the Pioneer League and the Appalachian League. The two leagues will continue but will no longer be part of the official Minor League Baseball system and will have no affiliation with any Major League clubs.
In the Low-A West we have the California League plus the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies and minus the Lancaster Jethawks who are still figuring out what they’ll do in 2021. The Low-A East is a Carolina mix. League and South Atlantic League teams that were not promoted to High-A rank, two teams got the boot of affiliate baseball – the Frederick Keys (MLB Draft League) and the Lexington Legends (at determine).
Finally, the Low-A Southeast is your Florida State League with two eliminated teams, the Charlotte Stone Crabs and Florida Fire Frogs. The Stone Crabs have fully retreated, the Fire Frogs are still looking for a place to play.
That leaves us with the teams that unfortunately didn’t make the cut, 42 teams that were affiliated with a Major League Baseball franchise in 2020 will no longer be in 2021. This includes all of the Pioneer and Appalachian leagues and most of the New York-Penn League.
The graph above shows 32 of these teams (the ten Appalachian League teams are not included in the graph, each club is given an entirely new name and identity, as they previously all used MLB names). Many clubs will be part of the new MLB Draft League, a Collegiate Summer League (CSL), a showcase league for the top prospects in the annual MLB Draft to compete in. Others have found new homes in various independent leagues across the country, some are still not sure what to do, and a few have even quit and thrown in the towel.
It’s a shame to see so many communities losing in Minor League Baseball, although I’m happy that many were able to find new leagues to partner with to keep baseball alive in these small towns.
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