The 2021 minor league season is shrouded in mystery. No schedules have been released, and it’s been known for a few weeks, at least that Double-A, High-A and Low-A leagues won’t be starting in early April. No start date has been pinpointed.
To keep the number of players in Florida lower, minor league spring training won’t begin until April, and the season won’t start until May. The Triple-A season might be delayed, too, Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias hinted in a video conference call on Friday.
Earlier on Friday, Major League Baseball released the final list of 120 affiliated teams. In December, the Orioles invited Norfolk to continue as its Triple-A affiliate for 10 years. Bowie will continue as the Orioles’ Double-A team, and Aberdeen is to replace Frederick in High-A. Delmarva remains the Orioles’ Low-A team.
While those affiliations were all disclosed more than two months ago, what wasn’t known was how the teams would be grouped.
The old minor leagues are gone, in name and in fact.
No longer is there a Pacific Coast League, which once featured the largest cities on the West Coast, many of which began major league strongholds. The old International League has vanished, too.
The Eastern, Carolina, South Atlantic and New York/Penn leagues are gone.
Norfolk is part of the Triple-A East league. The Tides will play in the Southeast Division, along with Charlotte, Durham, Gwinnett and three teams that hadn’t been in the International League — Jacksonville, Memphis and Nashville.
The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are one of the cooler names in minor league baseball. Overall, there are 20 teams in the new Triple-A East.
Three new teams — Iowa, Omaha and St. Paul, formerly a successful independent outfit — are in the same Midwest division as Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville and Toledo.
The Northeast Division is more familiar with Buffalo, Lehigh Valley, Rochester, Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Syracuse and Worcester, which was formerly Pawtucket.
It’s unknown how many of the other 19 International League teams Norfolk will play each season.
Bowie plays in the Southeast Division of Double-A Northeast. Its opponents are recognizable names from the Eastern League. Only Somerset (New Jersey), which was long a successful team in the independent Atlantic League, is new. The New York Yankees moved on from Trenton after last season and affiliated with Somerset.
Along with the Frederick Keys, the Trenton Thunder are among six teams in new MLB Draft League — designed to showcase top MLB draft prospects.
The Aberdeen IronBirds are part of the five-team North Division of High-A East. The IronBirds join Brooklyn and Hudson Valley, also former members of the New York/Penn League, and two members of the old Carolina League — Jersey Shore, formerly Lakewood, and Wilmington.
Delmarva joins the North Division of Low-A East along with three teams formerly in the Carolina League — Fredericksburg, Lynchburg and Salem.
Washington’s longtime Carolina League affiliate, Potomac, has moved to Fredericksburg. Hagerstown, which was as soon as an Orioles affiliate and in recent times the Nationals’ Low-A group, has misplaced its affiliation, leaving Western Maryland with out skilled baseball.
The Florida State League, which was on the identical stage with the Carolina League, has morphed into Low-A Southeast.
Different adjustments embody one other impartial group, the Sugar Land Skeeters changing into Houston’s Triple-A group.
Due to an absence of accepted Triple-A associates within the East, the Nationals had been compelled to have their high minor league group in Fresno, California.
The St. Paul Saints have affiliated with Minnesota, leaving open Rochester, a longtime Orioles’ Triple-A group. Washington snapped it up. Fresno drops from Triple-A to Low-A West.
Main League Baseball’s absorption of the minor leagues reduces the variety of affiliated groups, depriving many communities in smaller areas of watching future stars of their earliest skilled days.
Nevertheless, MLB says that minor leaguers will see an increase in pay of from 38-to-72 p.c this season. Journey shall be reduce with the geographic realignment of the leagues.
Substandard services, corresponding to Hagerstown, have been eradicated, making for higher ballparks.
Quick Season Low-A groups are gone. Of their place are developmental leagues, together with the one which Frederick is part of. Unbiased leagues may have higher prominence. The Atlantic League has six groups, three of them — the York Revolution, Lancaster Barn Stormers and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs — inside driving distance of Baltimore,
Main league groups proceed to personal and function groups at their spring coaching services. This season, the Orioles are scheduled to have two groups at Gulf Coast.
For many groups, the brand new alignment signifies that their associates are nearer to the key league membership. For the Orioles, who’ve lengthy had probably the most geographically logical minor league association in baseball, it means the deserved promotion to Aberdeen, however saying farewell to Frederick, a metropolis and area that enthusiastically supported minor league baseball for 3 a long time.
