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NEW YORK – Major League Baseball has reorganized its minor leagues into a regional roster of 120 teams.
MLB on Friday released a plan for two Triple-A divisions and three divisions each for Double-A, high-A and low-A. Forty affiliates were removed from 2019, the last season under the old minor league system, and the remaining teams were offered the 10-year licenses in December. All 120 were accepted before Wednesday’s deadline.
The leagues have not yet been named. Major League owners Commissioner Rob Manfred and his staff have not decided to retain traditional league names, such as the International and Pacific Coast at Triple-A, East, South and Texas at Double- A and California, Florida. State and South Atlantic, which was in Class A.
For now, the MLB is calling the minor league groupings Triple-A East and West, Double-A Central, Northeast and South, High-A Central, East and West, and Low-A East, Southeast and Where is. There are geographic subdivisions in each league.
Triple-A teams remain scheduled to open a 144-game schedule in early April, but are expected to be pushed back until early May due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Double-A teams, scheduled for 138 games each, and the high-A and low-A teams, with 132 games each, are currently slated to open in early May.
The top minor leagues will likely spend April in alternate training camps, used by MLB teams to keep call-ups in shape last year, when the entire minor league schedule was canceled due to virus.
Regular season schedules are due to be announced next week. Schedules will be regionalized and will include six-game playoffs to reduce travel and expense, a person familiar with the planning told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as this detail was not announced.
Minor league playoff formats have yet to be determined due to the pandemic.
The top four affiliates from each franchise will include a team each at Triple-A, Double-A, high-A, and low-A. Additional clubs are permitted at spring training complexes and in the Dominican Republic.
The MLB ended the professional baseball deal that governed the relationship between majors and minors. The miners are managed from the MLB New York office under the supervision of Peter Woodfork, the new senior vice president of MLB minor league operations and development, succeeding the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues based in Florida, which had ruled the miners ever since. 1901.
The New York-Penn League, which started in 1939, was eliminated and the Pioneer League, founded the same year, lost its affiliate status and became an independent partner league. The Appalachian League has been converted to a university summer circuit for first-year and second-year students.
MLB said Big League teams will on average be 200 miles closer to their Triple-A affiliates, allowing most to be within driving distance of their parent team, and that PDL licenses will improve facilities. .
Salaries for players with minor league contracts increase from 38% to 72%. The weekly minimum goes from $ 290 to $ 400 at the rookie level, from $ 290 to $ 500 in Class A, from $ 350 to $ 600 in Double-A, and from $ 502 to $ 700 in Triple-A. For players registered on lists of 40 players in optional or outright assignment to minors, the minimum is covered by the collective agreement of the Major League Baseball Players Association and goes from $ 46,000 to $ 46,600 for a player signing his first contract major league. For a player signing a second major league contract or later, the minimum increases from $ 91,800 to $ 93,000.
Including four partner leagues of teams that are not big league farm teams – the Atlantic League, the American Association, the Frontier League and the Pioneer League – and a pair of showcase leagues of players preparing for the next Amateur Draft. – Appalachian League and MLB Draft League – The MLB system for 2021 will have 179 teams in 17 leagues in 43 states. Add in the two complex spring training leagues – the Arizona League and the Gulf Coast League – and there will be 209 teams in 19 leagues in 44 states and four provinces.
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