NEW YORK – Major League Baseball has reorganized its minor leagues into a regional lineup of 120 teams.
MLB released a plan on Friday for two Triple-A divisions and three divisions for Double-A, high-A and low-A. Forty affiliates were withdrawn from 2019, the last season under the old minor league system, and the remaining teams received a 10-year license offer in December. All 120 accepted by Wednesday’s deadline.
The leagues have not yet been named. Major league owners Commissioner Rob Manfred and his team have yet to decide whether to retain the traditional league names such as International and Pacific Coast in Triple-A, Eastern, Southern and Texas in Double-A and California, Florida State and Atlantic Sul, who was in Class A.
For now, 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 West. There are geographical subdivisions within each league.
The Triple-A teams, for now, are expected to open 144 games in early April, but are likely to be delayed until early May because of 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 scheduled to open in early May.
The best players in the secondary league are likely to spend the month of April in alternative training camps, used by MLB teams to maintain potential calls last year, when the entire minor league schedule was canceled due to the virus.
Regular season schedules will be announced next week. The schedules will be regionalized and will include series of six games to reduce travel and cut expenses, a person familiar with planning told the Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that detail was not disclosed.
Secondary league post-season formats have not yet been determined because of the pandemic.
The top four affiliates for each franchise will include a team each in Triple-A, Double-A, high-A and low-A. Additional clubs are allowed in spring training complexes and in the Dominican Republic.
MLB ended the Professional Baseball Agreement that governed the relationship between the major and minor. Minors are being managed from the MLB New York office under the supervision of Peter Woodfork, the new senior vice president of operations and development for the MLB minor league, replacing the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, which has governed minors since then 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 into a college summer circuit for freshmen and sophomores.
MLB said teams in the major leagues will be on average 320 kilometers closer to their Triple-A affiliates, allowing most to be within driving distance of their core team, and that PDL licenses will improve facilities.
The salaries of players with contracts in smaller leagues are rising from 38% to 72%. The weekly minimum increases from $ 290 to $ 400 at the beginner level, $ 290 to $ 500 in Class A, $ 350 to $ 600 in Double-A and $ 502 to $ 700 in Triple-A. For players in lineups of 40 players with optional or permanent attribution to minors, the minimum is covered by the Major League Baseball Players Association collective agreement and increases from $ 46,000 to $ 46,600 for a player who signs his first major league contract . For a player who signs a second or later major league contract, the minimum increases from $ 91,800 to $ 93,000.
Including four partner leagues from teams that are not big league farm teams – Atlantic League, American Association, Frontier League and Pioneer League – and a pair of player leagues preparing for the next amateur draft – the Appalachian League and the MLB Draft League – The MLB system for 2021 will have 179 teams in 17 leagues in 43 states. Add the two leagues of the spring training complex – the Arizona League and the Gulf Coast League – and there will be 209 teams in 19 leagues in 44 states and four provinces.