Hardball Capital has filed a relocation application with Minor League Baseball to move the Savannah Sand Gnats (Low Class A; Sally League) to Columbia (S.C.), according to a report from a local TV station, but that doesn’t mean Savannah is losing affiliated ball.
The relocation application was confirmed by a local reporter, who wrote that paperwork has been filed with Minor League Baseball. As Hardball Capital owns only two teams — the Sand Gnats and the Fort Wayne TinCaps (Low Class A; Midwest League), who aren’t going anywhere — it’s a simple process of elimination to see that the Sand Gnats are the team in question.
A new Columbia (S.C.) ballpark is set to open for the 2016 season.
Hardball Capital owner Jason Freier has also been talking with Savannah officials for months and months about a new ballpark, but those talks may not be dead; acquiring another team for Savannah certainly isn’t out of the question, and we’ve raised that scenario here in the past. There is one intriguing twist to this path involving a MLB team; let’s see if it indeed plays out.
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