With the announcement today by the New York Yankees about their new affiliate structure, we’ve updated and overhauled our Affiliate Dance page to better track the offseason overhaul of Minor League Baseball.
You can view the current state of affairs here.
These are highly unusual times, as reflected in the uncertainty surrounding the state of Minor League Baseball in 2021 and beyond. To wit: with the expiration of the most recent Professional Baseball Agreement (PBA) between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball, MLB has announced it would be assuming control of MiLB and contracting MiLB from 160 teams to 120 teams. The MiLB league structures would be overhauled:
LOW A
California League (8 teams)
Florida State League (10 teams)
Sally League (12 teams)
HIGH A
Midwest League
Northwest League
Carolina League
New Mid-Atlantic League
Our Affiliate Dance page isn’t the cleanest of accountings; though the New York Yankees announced that the Tampa Tarpons are moving to Low A along with the rest of the Florida State League, there’s not been an official announcement of that move. These decisions are not a surprise: they fit squarely into what we’ve been reporting. But we expected an announcement from MLB about the overall MiLB changes for 2021, not a team-by-team approach. Still, we think this is the most up-to-date accounting of where things are, as plan move toward finalization.
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