![]() "That obviously muted the impact and obviously prevented us from progressing as quickly as we wanted." But all in all, he says, "we were really happy about how things went." "None of us would have chosen to have Year 1 be in a global pandemic," says Morgan Sword, MLB's executive vice president for baseball operations. MLB officials say they're mostly pleased with how their plan to restructure the game has gone. The de-affiliated teams that survived joined either independent professional leagues or MLB's new amateur Draft and Prospect leagues, which use college players swinging wooden bats. "Now that I've realized it, the quality of baseball is better, the name recognition is better, and there's still that autonomy that we have." "The first initial reaction was 'change is bad, change is bad, I want status quo,'" says Andy Shea, the CEO of two teams that lost affiliation. Minor league owners see the potential for a banner 2022 season. The lockout only affects players on MLB teams' 40-man rosters, and the minor league seasons will begin on schedule, pandemic permitting. The Owlz were one of the eight that didn't play because their stadium was incomplete, but they plan to resume this year.Ĭome spring, if major league owners and players have not resolved their labor impasse, both affiliated and unaffiliated minor league baseball will be the only professional game in town. I would've told you it was going to be a s- show, and it wasn't." "I thought fans cared more about affiliation than they actually do. "I was wrong," says Jeff Katofsky, the owner of the now-independent Northern Colorado Owlz and a vocal critic last year. While they lament their team's loss of value and worry about MLB's long-term commitment to their new leagues, they say the reorganization worked out better than they expected. Officials from teams that remained affiliated expressed general satisfaction, although some said they wouldn't air gripes publicly for fear of angering Major League Baseball.īut for the owners who lost affiliation - those who felt they had the most to lose - a number were like Davis. ![]() Eight teams that lost affiliation either folded altogether or did not play in 2021 (one because of an unfinished stadium), and some of those teams are suing MLB for breach of contract and tortious interference. Recently, we reached out to more than 50 teams to see how they fared - especially those teams that lost affiliation.įor some clubs, the reconfiguration was indeed a disaster. In 2020, before realignment, ESPN spoke to dozens of minor league officials, many of whom predicted disaster as MLB moved to reduce the number of affiliated teams from 160 to 120, four for each major league club. ![]() yes, we loved being an independent team." "You really were hamstrung as an affiliated team. "We had a great season, and we had a blast doing it," Davis says. They stayed in the Pioneer League, newly independent for the 2021 season, and won the championship. "We had no clue what we were going to do at that point."īut the PaddleHeads learned they could swim. As was the financial value that came with owning an affiliated team. The Diamondbacks had been responsible for paying PaddleHeads players and coaches, and that money was now gone. The PaddleHeads, who had been a farm team for the Arizona Diamondbacks, were now "de-affiliated," one of 43 teams jettisoned into life as an independent club. ![]() In November 2020, Peter Davis, proud proprietor of the Missoula PaddleHeads, was two years into life as a minor league baseball owner when disaster struck. 'I was wrong': Why MLB's restructuring of the minors turned out mostly better than expected You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser ![]()
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