Picture by Josh Finkelstein/MMO
JJ Cooper of Baseball America and David Waldstein of the New York Times detail proposal from Major League Baseball that would significantly change the minor league landscape including the elimination of at least 40 lower level teams.
Under the current proposal, the amount of non-complex league teams in the minors would drop from 160 to around 120 teams beginning in the 2021 season. The Professional Baseball Agreement between Major League Baseball and minor league teams expires at the of the 2020 season.
Waldstein reports that the most vulnerable teams are the ones in the Appalachian League (Mets have Kingsport Mets), Northwest League, and the New York-Penn League. Though he does note that successfully ran operations like the Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets affiliate in New York-Penn League) could be converted to a full-season team.
“From the perspective of MLB clubs, our principal goals are upgrading the minor league facilities that we believe have inadequate standards for potential MLB players, improving the working conditions for MiLB players, including their compensation, improving transportation and hotel accommodations, providing better geographic affiliations between major league clubs and their affiliates, as well as better geographic lineups of leagues to reduce player travel,” MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem said.
The proposal would also include changes of classifications as well, with some teams moving from Class-A to Triple-A and from Triple-A to Class-A.
MLB would like to move the draft back to August and would reduce it to 20-25 rounds. The undrafted players would have the option of playing in the Dream League or going to the independent leagues.
In addition to their 40-man rosters, MLB organizations would be limited to 150 players on minor league contracts.
Compensation – or the lack of – for minor league players has been a hot topic in baseball over the last couple of years.
