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 spread fourteen leagues across five levels is now eleven leagues across four levels, massive re-adjustments have been implemented to accommodate it and unfortunately dozens of teams have been kicked out of affiliated professional baseball. With the new system, the Major League teams and their Minor League partners can in most cases be significantly closer to each other than before, as well as an increase in the salaries of Minor League ball players. However, this is again at the expense of many teams.
“We are excited to introduce this new model, which not only provides a pipeline for the Majors, but also continues the tradition of the minor leagues to entertain millions of families in hundreds of communities,” the Major Commissioner said. League, Rob Manfred, said in the official release. “With the modernization of our Minor League system, we have prioritized the qualities that make the Minor League such an integral part of our game, while enhancing how 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 bottom three of the levels being divided into three regional leagues, and the Triple-A level remaining at just two leagues. Several teams have risen or fallen one level and three previously independent league clubs have been invited and are now linked to Major League clubs.
TRIPLE-A HERLYNING
We start with Triple-A, which was previously divided into the International League and the Pacific Coast League. The official version did not indicate that these names would be used in the future, but rather as a “temporary placeholder name” of Triple-A East and Triple-A West.
Overall, Triple-A East is essentially the International League and Triple-A West is the old PCL, but here has been somewhat shifted. The Iowa Cubs, Memphis Redbirds, Nashville Sounds and Omaha Storm Chasers have all been moved from the PCL to the “East”, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp has received a good promotion from the Double-A Southern League to the Triple-A East. Here are also two former independent clubs, the St. Paul Saints of the American Association joins Triple A-East, and the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League now join Triple-A West.
Some teams that are no longer at Triple-A level include the Fresno Grizzlies who get the low point to Low-A, the San Antonio missions that will be sent to Double-A, and the New Orleans Baby Cakes, who moved to Wichita for the 2020 season that never happened, now plays in Double-A as the Wichita Wind Surge. One other Triple-A relocation for 2021 is the former Pawtucket Red Sox who will remain at the Triple-A level as the Worcester Red Sox.
DOUBLE-A RELIGION
Relatively speaking, the Double-A level did not see as much movement as the other three. The Texas League, Eastern League and Southern League all remained mostly in tact – although a few teams still got the chance.
Start with the Double-A Central, the old Texas League. No teams were eliminated, but two were added from Triple-A, the San Antonio Missions and the Wichita Wind Surge (formerly the New Orleans Baby Cakes) both join the league as former members of the Pacific Coast League.
In the Double-A Northeast, one new team has been added which is essentially the old Eastern League. The Somerset Patriots, a former member of the Independent Atlantic League, join in the fun as the Trenton Thunder are left out, and they will join the new MLB draft league.
In the end, the Double-A South, which consists of Southern League teams, did not add any teams, but did lose to the Jackson Generals who are not yet sure 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 AND RELIGION
The newly named “High-A” class, formerly known as A +, moved around a lot as they summed up five leagues in three.
High-A West is the Northwest League minus two teams, the Boise Hawks (Pioneer League) and the Salem-Kaiser Volcanoes (Maverickes League) both join independent leagues. High-A Central has been eliminated by the Midwest League with four teams – the Burlington Bees and Clinton Lumberkings go to the Prospect League, while the Cougars move from Kane County to the American Associaiton and fill the gap that the St. Paul Saints left behind. The Bowling Green Hot Rods are being relocated to High-A East.
Speaking of the High-A East, this is where things get really muddy, as teams from four different leagues are all filled together. Do you remember the New York-Penn League? Say goodbye, out of the fourteen teams that played in the NYPL in 2019, only three will continue in affiliated baseball; the three are all here in the High-A East – the Aberdeen Ironbirds, Brooklyn Cyclones and Hudson Valley Renegades. We will inform in detail about who left the NYPL and where they were later in the post, but most of them have been included 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 the Asheville Tourists, Greensboro Grasshoppers, Greenville Drive, Hickory Crawdads, Rome Braves and the renamed Lakewood Blueclaws, which will now be the Jersey Shore Blueclaws.
LOW RELIGION
Things are getting a little calmer at the low-A level anyway, in terms of rearrangement … because two whole leagues have been removed – the Pioneer League and the Appalachian League. Both leagues will continue, but will no longer be part of the official Minor League baseball system, nor will they have any affiliation with 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 will still find out in 2021 what they are going to do. The Low-A East is a mixture of the Carolina League and South Atlantic league teams that were not promoted to the High-A, two teams got the start of affiliate baseball – the Frederick Keys (MLB Draft League) and the Lexington Legends (TBD).
Finally, the Low-A Southeast u Florida State League, with two teams removed, the Charlotte Stone Crabs and Florida Fire Frogs. The Stone Crabs store has completely folded and the Fire Frogs are looking for another place to play.
That leaves us with the teams that unfortunately did not reach the decision, 42 teams that were linked to a Major League Baseball franchise in 2020 were no longer in 2021. This includes the entire Pioneer and Appalachian League and most of New York-Penn. League.
The image above shows 32 of the teams (the ten teams of Appalachian League are not included in the image, but each club gets a new name and identity as they all used MLB names before). Many of the clubs will be part of the new MLB Draft League, a Collegiate Summer League (CSL), a showcase for the best prospects in MLB’s annual draft to participate. Others have found new homes in various independent leagues across the country. some are still not sure what they are going to do, and some have even mentioned it and thrown in the towel.
It’s a shame to see so many communities lose out on Minor League Baseball, but I’m glad many new leagues were able to find a way to work together to keep baseball alive in the small towns and cities.