The Lowell Spinners have extended their player development contract with the Red Sox to 2014. This is another affiliation which I don’t think will be changing anytime soon. The Spinners always draw crowds and there’s no way that either side would want to break this.
For Short Season A, currently there are 17 of 22 PDCs that expire at the end of 2012.
The Greenville Drive have extended their player development contract with the Red Sox to 2016. There shouldn’t have been any doubt about this one, just look at the left field wall.
For Low A, currently there are 20 of 30 PDCs that expire at the end of 2012. Even though this is still a pretty high number at this point, most will be renewed before the end of the season.
The Colorado Springs Sky Sox have extended their player development contract with the Rockies to 2014. There were some rumors that the Rockies might be looking at some other options, but given the proximity of their current AAA affiliate, it would surprise me if the two did not remain together.
For AAA, currently there are 15 of 30 PDCs that expire at the end of 2012. This was the second PDC extension announced this week, and there may be a handful more before the season starts. And even though half of the AAA player development contracts are set to expire, a good chunk of those will be renewed before September.
The Carolina Mudcats have extended their player development contract with the Indians to 2014. At first I was a little surprised that the Indians would extend the PDC prior to playing their first season there since moving from Kinston. But after I looked at the state of the High A PDCs, it made much more sense. The Indians wanted to remain in the Carolina League and the only other team that may be available is the Wilmington Blue Rocks, who I expect will remain with the Royals. The California League may see some shifts because there are so many teams with expiring PDCs. And I’d be interested to see if the Reds try to take one of the Florida State League teams.
For High A, currently there are 13 of 30 PDCs that expire at the end of 2012.
By the way, I do plan on attending a Mudcats game in 2012, most likely in June or July when I can combine it with a trip to see an Appalachian League team, but I have time to figure out what I’m doing.
The Connecticut Tigers have extended their player development contract with Detroit through 2014. Since they play in one of the largest Short Season A stadiums, I’m sure they are happy with how the team is doing.
For Short Season A, currently there are 18 of 22 PDCs that expire at the end of 2012. Most of those will be renewed, but with some potential movement with NY-Penn League teams, which I know seems to be a rumor every year, it could influence how the PDC pieces fall into place.
I’ve been reading about some rumors recently about some shifts in minor league baseball teams which involve Binghamton moving to Ottawa (via New Hampshire) and Erie moving to Montreal, with NY-Penn League teams taking their places.
The Ottawa Citizen has had some articles recently talking about how the Eastern League has received permission to explore a franchise move to Ottawa. The scenario would have the New Hampshire Fisher Cats moving to Ottawa to be the Blue Jays AA affiliate and the Binghamton Mets moving to New Hampshire to be the Mets AA affiliate. Since both of those teams player development contracts expire at the end of 2012, I don’t think that the affiliation connections would hold in such a manner. The franchises could move, but as things stand right now, they would be free to negotiate with any team, although you would think that if Ottawa gained a team that they would do their best to become a Blue Jays affiliate. And if there were no longer a AA team in Binghamton, I could see the Mets showing some interest in New Britain as well. As usual when reports like this come out, those franchises involved are denying that these have any truth behind them.
There has also been some talk about the Erie SeaWolves looking into moving to Montreal, although it’s unclear which stadium they would play in. Erie was previously mentioned as a possibility to move to Ottawa as well.
If either or both of these plans were put into motion, part of the arrangement would be a NY-Penn League team moving into Binghamton and/or Erie, where the cities wouldn’t have to worry about the spring weather issues as they would be playing a shorter season from mid-June to Labor Day. If this were the case, I would expect Batavia and either Jamestown or Vermont to be the most likely teams to make the move.
So while I don’t think that anything could happen until 2013 at the earliest, these kinds of moves need to be finalized far enough in advance that announcements would need to be made sometime soon.
The Toledo Mud Hens have extended their player development contract with the Tigers through 2016. Given how close Toledo is to Detroit and the fact that they have been a Tigers affiliate since 1987, this seemed like a formality.
That leaves 16 AAA PDCs that are ending after next season. Since that’s more than half of the teams, it’s very difficult to speculate how things may play out next year, although I expect most of those 16 to remain with their current affiliation.
Previously, I had talked about how it looked like the Yakima Bears would be moving to Vancouver, WA, potentially for the 2012 season, but stadium talks have fallen through and the Yakima Bears announced that they will not be moving for the 2012 season. The article is over a month old, so I’m behind on this information.
They are still looking for a new home with Vancouver, WA and Milwaukie, OR both working on stadium plans. Both cities are in the Portland, OR area, which has been without a team since the Beavers left after the 2010 season. While it isn’t happening for next year, I think there is a pretty high likelihood that the Bears will be playing elsewhere in 2013.
The Casper Ghosts will be moving to Grand Junction, CO for the 2012 season pending a City Council vote tonight. The Rockies bought the team last year with the intention of moving them to Grand Junction in the future. The team will be called the Grand Junction Rockies for now, with a more permanent name selected by the 2013 season.
Casper is a rather small market and had trouble drawing fans. There were issues with the field conditions there as well. Grand Junction is a bigger market and a little bit closer (although it looks like the drive time is still about the same from Denver to their Pioneer League affiliate). So it looks like Wyoming will be without affiliated baseball for now.
The Charleston RiverDogs have extended their player development contract with the Yankees to 2016. Any team affiliated with the Yankees enjoys the extra attention associated with being an affiliate of the team that’s won the most World Series. The Yankees must be happy there since they aren’t trying to align with a South Atlantic League team that is a little closer to New York.
Since the 2011 minor league season has wrapped up, I’ve updated my page for the 2012 season. The Player Development Contract page now shows in red which teams have expiring PDCs after the 2012 season. Since teams still have about a year to figure out what they want to do, and there are so many that haven’t been extended yet, I really can’t comment much at this point. But take a look and feel free to speculate yourself.
And yes, that’s me in the picture above at a RiverDogs game in 2010.
minorleaguesource.com blog