MLB Is Launching College Wood-Bat Leagues For Displaced Minor League Clubs

Ahead of the announcement that Major League Baseball will be eliminating the affiliation of over 40 minor league teams, the league announced the addition of two college wood-bat leagues that some of the affected clubs would now be associated with them.

One will be what the league is calling the “MLB Draft League” which will comprise teams that were within the NY-Penn League. The founding members will be the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, the State College Spikes, the West Virginia Black Bears, the Williamsport Crosscutters, and the Trenton Thunder, who is the former Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. The addition of a sixth team is under consideration and is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. The league would play a 68-game season. The teams impacted by the move to the new college wood-bat league reside in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New Jersey.

By MLB moving their draft back to July as part of the All-Star break, it will allow colligate athletes to play in the league without impacting their college eligibility.

The league is partnering with Prep Baseball Report (PBR) on the effort.

“We are thrilled to partner with Prep Baseball Report and the founding members of the MLB Draft League to create a one-of-a-kind league that will attract the nation’s top players who are eligible for each year’s MLB draft and allow local fans to see top prospects and future big-league stars in their hometowns. This announcement continues MLB’s commitment to preserving and growing baseball in communities around the United States,” said Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball economics and operations.

On top of the new MLB Draft League, the league announced that the Pioneer League would move into being an independent affiliated league of Major League Baseball. Starting in 2021, the Pioneer League will transition from being affiliated with Minor League Baseball and into what the league is describing as an “independent professional MLB Partner League,” The teams impacted reside in Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Colorado. All eight members of the Pioneer League – the Billings Mustangs, the Grand Junction Rockies, the Great Falls Voyagers, the Idaho Falls Chukars, the Missoula PaddleHeads, the Ogden Raptors, the Northern Colorado Owlz, and the Rocky Mountain Vibes – will continue participating in the league and will maintain their existing team names and brands.

Major League Baseball has said that it will provide initial funding for the Pioneer League’s operating expenses, as well as install “scouting technology in Pioneer League ballparks to provide MLB Clubs with first-class scouting information on Pioneer League players.” Major League Baseball did not define the length of covering operating expenses, nor what the technology component might be. Currently, MLB uses Statcast in big-league ballparks. As part of the announcement it was said that a process would be in place for players within that league to transfer to MLB clubs. There will also be an examination into joint marketing, ticketing, and fan engagement opportunities, although the announcement did not specify whether there was any hard commitment,

The change in the Pioneer League follows the late September announcement of the Appalachian League’s move to a college wood-bat league for the nation’s top rising freshmen and sophomores. All told, they join the Atlantic League, the American Association
AHA
, and the Frontier League as “MLB Partner Leagues.”

The addition of the first-of-its-kind ”MLB Draft League”, plus the changes to the other minor leagues that were once designated as MiLB affiliates are designed to lessen the political fallout of abandoning minor league markets. The league had said from the outset that plans to unaffiliate the 40 teams from Minor League Baseball would come with a commitment to retain some form of baseball within those communities.

The minor league owners of these teams transitioning to wood-bat away from being affiliated with Minor League Baseball have voiced deep concerns regarding the value of their franchises once under the MLB Partner League. Municipalities that host the teams have also been critical in the restructuring, and there are questions as to whether the change runs counter to MLB’s commitment to growing the game at the grassroots level.

Major League Baseball has said the changes reflect the over-abundance of prospects for the 30 teams. Before the expected restructure plan, there were 162 minor league affiliates. Annually there are approximately 2,000 players drafted. The lowering of minor league affiliates to 120 is also allowing the league to realign affiliates more closely by geographic location and control sales to retain that. As an example, the Washington Nationals, which are located in Washington, D.C. have had a Triple-A affiliate on the west coast in the Fresno Grizzlies, making bi-coastal travel a regular part of life for the players at a considerable cost. Now, the Nationals will see the Rochester Red Wings as their new Triple-A affiliate keeping them in the eastern time zone. The Rochester Red Wings had been affiliated with the Minnesota Twins since 2003 until the league started the process of unaffiliating the clubs.

The complete list of clubs that will retain minor league affiliation, along with realignment is expected soon, possibly as early as this week or next.