Minor League Affiliates Picked
Wednesday, December 09 2020 @ 02:03 PM EST
Contributed by: John Northey
As expected the Jays have decided to go with AAA Buffalo, AA New Hampshire, A+ Vancouver, A Dunedin (lowest level of the minors now). Goodbye to Lansing (who should find another affiliation - probably Oakland it appears), Bluefield, and GCL Jays. The DSL team might survive though.
What does this mean?
- No more short season teams - Vancouver is now a full season team (140 games roughly)
- Tons of teams now will be shifted to indy leagues or close down
- A list of all AAA/AA affiliates
- A new Draft League is now formed using some of the cities that lost affiliation. 2 Short Season, 2 full season A, and 1 AA (Trenton Thunder, formerly affiliated with the Yankees) are parts of it with a 6th team to be announced.
- Some leagues, such as The Pioneer League will still work with MLB and be a kind of half way house between affiliates and indy league teams. Some might remember Medicine Hat was part of the league for years as a Jays affiliate in rookie ball. The Atlantic League, the American Association and the Frontier League are also getting that odd status where they get help from the majors to survive for a few years as MLB decides how much they need those teams.
Big shakeup, but expected. Should be interesting to see how this changes things in 2021 and beyond.
Edit: Full list for 2021 affiliates but 1 team to be named still - Colorado's Low A affiliate, they made an offer but that team isn't interested yet.
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