The Eugene Emeralds (Short Season A; Northwest League) have announced an extended player development contract (PDC) with the Chicago Cubs, carrying their affiliation through the 2022 season. The extension is for four years.
“We started this partnership with the Eugene organization in 2015, and have really enjoyed seeing the work Allan Benavides and the Emeralds front office have done to help develop our young players both on and off the field,” said Jason McLeod, the Cubs Senior Vice President of Scouting and Player Development. “Additionally, Eugene continues to offer our players the best facilities to be found at the short-season level, and we are pleased this relationship will continue through at least the 2022 season.”
“We are incredibly excited to continue our relationship with the Cubs, as they have been tremendous in their support of our organization in Eugene,” said Allan Benavides, General Manager of the Ems. “We have enjoyed unprecedented success in the past four seasons and look forward to even more in the near future.”
Eugene was previously a Cubs affiliate in the 1999-2000 seasons.
You can read more about the current state of affiliations on our Affiliate Dance page. We expect a number of affiliations to be renewed in coming weeks, but there are always intriguing openings at every level of baseball. As you can see on the Affiliate Dance page, MLB and MiLB teams can renew their existing affiliations at any point. At the end of the 2018 season, teams can file to search new affiliation options, so there’s always a shuffle of sorts at the end of the year.