The world of Minor League Baseball turned completely upside down last week, when Major League Baseball announced a total restructuring of the entire system.
What used to be fourteen leagues spread over five levels are now eleven leagues on four levels, massive realignments have been implemented to accommodate this and, unfortunately, dozens of teams have been kicked out of affiliate professional baseball. The new system allows Major League teams and their Secondary League affiliates to be significantly closer to each other than before, in most cases, as well as an increase in the salaries of Secondary League players. Although, again, this is at the expense of many teams.
“We are thrilled to reveal this new model, which not only provides a channel for Majors, but continues the tradition of Minor Leagues to entertain millions of families in hundreds of communities,” said Major League Commissioner Rob Manfred at the official launch. “By modernizing our Minor League system, we prioritize 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 three lowest levels divided into three regional leagues, the Triple-A level remains in only two leagues. Several teams have leveled up or fallen and three previous independent league clubs have been invited and are now affiliated with Major League clubs.
TRIPLE-A REALIGNMENT
We will start with Triple-A, which was previously divided into the International League and the Pacific Coast League. The official release did not indicate that these names would be used in the future, instead it listed them as (I was told, “temporary placeholder names” from) Triple-A East and Triple-A West.
Overall, Triple-A East is essentially the International League and Triple-A West is the former PCL, but there have been some changes here. The Iowa Cubs, Memphis Redbirds, Nashville Sounds and Omaha Storm Chasers were all moved from the PCL to the “East”, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp had a great promotion from the Southern Double-A League to the Triple East. There are also two former independent clubs here, the American Association’s St. Paul Saints joins Triple A East and the Atlantic League Sugar Land Skeeters now in Triple-A West.
Some teams that are no longer at the Triple-A level include Fresno Grizzlies, who are starting to descend to Low-A, San Antonio missions will be sent to Double-A and the New Orleans Baby Cakes, which have moved to Wichita for 2020 season that never happened, will now play in Double-A as the Wichita Wind Surge. Another Triple-A reallocation for 2021 is the former Pawtucket Red Sox, who will remain at the Triple-A level as Worcester Red Sox.
DOUBLE-REALIGNMENT
Relatively speaking, the Double-A level did not see as much movement as the other three. The Texas League, Eastern League and Southern League remained largely intact – although some teams have still been eliminated.
Starting with Double-A Central, which is 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 New Orleans Baby Cakes), both joined the league as former members of the Pacific Coast League.
In the Northeast Double-A, a new team has been added to what is essentially the old East League. The Somerset Patriots, a former member of the Independent Atlantic League joins the fun while Trenton Thunder is left out, they will join the new MLB Draft League.
Finally, Double-A South, which is made up of Southern League teams, did not add any teams, but lost the Jackson Generals, who are still unsure of what they will do in 2021. The Mobile BayBears moved to Madison, Alabama and will remain in the league playing as Rocket City Trash Pandas.
HIGH REALIGNMENT
The newly named “High-A” class, which was formerly known as A +, has undergone many changes as it has heaped five leagues into three.
High-A West is the Northwest League minus two teams, the Boise Hawks (Pioneer League) and the Salem-Kaiser Volcanoes (Maverickes League) who are joining independent leagues. High-A Central is the Midwest League with four teams removed – Burlington Bees and Clinton Lumberkings are going 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 were transferred to High-A East.
Speaking of High-A East, this is where things get really confusing, as teams from four different leagues are mixed. Remember the New York-Penn League? Say goodbye, of the fourteen teams that played on the NYPL in 2019, only three will remain in affiliated baseball, these three are all here at High-A East – the Aberdeen Ironbirds, Brooklyn Cyclones and Hudson Valley Renegades. We will go into detail about who left the NYPL and where it went later in the post, but most of them were taken to the new MLB Draft League.
From the Carolina League we have 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 that will now be the Jersey Shore Blueclaws.
LOW REALIGNMENT
Things calm down a little at the Low-A level, in terms of realignment anyway … because two entire 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 Baseball League system, nor will they have any affiliation with Major League clubs.
At Low-A West, we have the California League plus the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies and less the Lancaster Jethawks, who are still figuring out what to do in 2021. Low-A East is a mix of Carolina League and Atlantic League Teams South who were not promoted to High-A, two teams were kicked from affiliate baseball – the Frederick Keys (MLB Draft League) and the Lexington Legends (TBD).
Finally, Low-A Southeast is the Florida State League with two teams removed, the Charlotte Stone Crabs and the Florida Fire Frogs. The Stone Crabs closed the store completely, the Fire Frogs are still looking for a place to play.
This leaves us with teams that unfortunately were not eliminated, 42 teams affiliated with a Major League Baseball franchise in 2020 will no longer be in 2021. This includes all Pioneer and Appalachian leagues and most of the New York-Penn League.
The chart above shows 32 of these teams (the ten teams in the Appalachian League are not included in the chart, each club is being given an entirely new name and identity, since previously they all used MLB names). Many of the clubs will be part of the new MLB Draft League, a Collegiate Summer League (CSL), a showcase league for the best candidates in the annual MLB draft. Others have found new homes in several independent leagues across the country, some are still unsure of what they will do, and some even gave up and threw in the towel.
It is a pity to see so many communities lose in the Secondary Baseball League, although I am happy that many have managed to find new leagues to partner with to keep baseball alive in these small towns.