Minor Leagues, Major Changes

After months of speculation, Major League Baseball has finally announced what the new structure of the Minor Leagues for 2021 will be.  Last year, when it became obvious that this was going to happen, it was controversial.  The main sticking point was that the Minor Leagues were being reduced from more than 160 affiliated teams to 120, and Minor League owners wanted to make sure their team wasn't one of the 40.  Now they have their answer.

Predictably, there were some unhappy teams included among the 40.  The Staten Island Yankees, upon hearing the news, immediately filed lawsuits against Major League Baseball and the Yankees.  They were offered a place in MLB's new "Dream League," but declined.  They also realistically could've moved to the independent Atlantic League, but chose not to.  The Staten Island Yankees will be folding instead.

The same can be said about several other teams that lost their Major League affiliation.  It's an unfortunate situation for those teams and the communities that support them.  (My friend Jim Henneman wrote a great piece about the Frederick Keys, who lost their affiliation with the Orioles after 30 years.)  Some will probably take up the offer to join the "Dream League" or become independent, but, sadly, others will follow Staten Island's lead and go out of business completely.

Make no mistake, this didn't happen because of the pandemic.  The pandemic and the cancellation of the entire 2020 Minor League season exacerbated the situation, but it was already in the works.  The Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and Minor League Baseball expired on September 30, and MLB has taken over the organization of the Minors.  And that includes assigning Minor League affiliates to particular teams, which is something that the Major League clubs had always needed to do themselves every two years, resulting in some odd pairings!

Minor League teams are now invited to become "affiliate partners" of their MLB parent club as a part of a longer-term agreement.  Over the past few years, more and more Major League teams had been purchasing their Minor League affiliates, so those direct relationships were obviously going to continue.  The real question was how many other teams would be moved around and which ones would either drop or go up a level.

Frankly, fewer teams switched levels than I thought would.  And those that did seemed to make sense.  Although, I am curious to see how the Minor Leagues will realign as a result of the changes.  Particularly Triple-A.

Triple-A obviously gets the most attention since it's the level just below the Majors and that's generally where the extra players on the 40-man roster play.  Three new teams will be moving to Triple-A next season, the formerly independent St. Paul Saints and Sugar Land Skeeters, as well as the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, who moved up from Double A.  They replace Wichita and San Antonio, who both moved down to Double A, and Fresno, which went all the way down to Low-A ball.

It's Jacksonville that makes things interesting, though.  There's no interleague play in the Minors, so the leagues are split 16 and 14.  Wichita, San Antonio and Fresno were all in the Pacific Coast League.  It makes absolutely no sense for Jacksonville, which is about as far east as you can get in this country without being IN the Atlantic, to be in the Pacific Coast League.  Which means one of the westernmost International League teams will likely need to flip leagues.

As a part of the restructuring, the Washington Nationals have a Triple-A affiliate that makes sense again, as they'll be paired with the Rochester Red Wings moving forward.  And with the Nationals' affiliate back in the International League, that's nine of the 10 franchises in the AL and NL East.  The Marlins are the only Eastern Division team with an affiliate in the PCL.  Again, it makes no sense for Jacksonville to not be in the IL, so I fully expect that to change.

But, in order to keep the number of teams in the two leagues even, someone will have to move.  The most logical options would seem to be Louisville and Indianapolis, the two westernmost IL teams.  And, frankly, either one would make sense.  There are PCL teams in Nashville and Memphis, which are obviously close to both cities.  However, since Louisville is closer to the IL's Ohio teams, I'd have Indianapolis switch leagues.

While they've announced how (or if) Triple-A will be restructured, I think that's what makes the most sense.  There have been some suggestions that they might drop the IL and PCL designations and make Triple-A one massive 30-team unit, but that seems unlikely.  It would be entirely unnecessary since minor realignment is all that's needed.  And, the International League and Pacific Coast League both have rich histories that should be preserved.

I have no idea how they'll actually do all this (or if there will even be a 2021 Minor League season), but here's how I would break down the two Triple-A leagues in 2021:

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE
North: Buffalo, Columbus, Lehigh Valley, Rochester, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Syracuse, Toledo, Worcester
South: Charlotte, Durham, Gwinnett, Jacksonville, Louisville, Norfolk

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE
(American) East: Memphis, Nashville, Round Rock, Sugar Land
(American) North: Indianapolis, Iowa, Omaha, St. Paul
(Pacific) South: Albuquerque, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake
(Pacific) West: Las Vegas, Reno, Sacramento, Tacoma

No matter how they end up structuring the individual leagues, the new Minor League setup will probably end up being a good thing for all involved.  The Major League teams will have more control, and their affiliates will be closer to both their parent club and each other.  I actually think the quality of play will improve, too, since the Minor League teams will have more support and better resources (and the players will be better compensated).

Obviously this restructuring wasn't going to go over well with everybody.  It's incredibly unfortunate for those teams that are losing their affiliation and those towns that are losing their team.  Especially since they didn't get a chance to have a proper goodbye in 2020.  But for everyone else, this is the dawn of a new era that could end up being better for everybody.