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At this point, not only do we not know which teams are surviving, we have no idea when and where they are going to play.
The Athletic reports that MLB is considering staggered minor league reporting in the spring.
MLB and Triple-A report in February. Triple-A teams play the regular season in their home cities or in the alternate sites if necessary.
Other minor leaguers report to camp when the first group leave. Their season would be delayed until mid-May. So the season would be shorter. If they can’t play in their home parks, then the back fields in FL and AZ are a possibility.
None of this is set.
Apparently, the rumors are coming to pass.
Breaking: Spring training for players at Double-A and below will not begin until after MLB and Triple-A players have departed from camps.
As such, the 2021 minor league season at Double-A and below will have a delayed start.@jjcoop36 has the story.https://t.co/XofqreIPYo
— Kyle Glaser (@KyleAGlaser) January 5, 2021
While not completely ideal, it at least suggests that there will be a minors season. It will be nice to at least have some prospect news to catch up on each morning.
The key for minor league teams is to be able to sell sponsorships and tickets. They are months behind on that already. And they are still at least a month more away from having schedules and maybe longer. And of course, we don’t know what local regulations will be regarding fans in ballparks in 120 different locales.
So hopefully the players can still play somehow somewhere.
I assume guys like Gorman, Montero, Liberatore, Herrera, and Thompson will still get an invite to big league camp even if they aren’t slated for AAA initially.
This is an interesting part of the minor league story. It could impact September call ups.
“Additionally, the memo told minor league teams to expect their schedules to run until as late as Oct. 3, a full month after regular season games normally end in early September. It is also expected there will be no minor league playoffs in 2021. With a delayed start, those playoff dates will be exchanged for more dates for all teams.”
September call ups are a relic from the past, anyway. Expanded rosters were eliminated as MLB saved money.
gscottar said:
I assume guys like Gorman, Montero, Liberatore, Herrera, and Thompson will still get an invite to big league camp even if they aren’t slated for AAA initially.
I am not assuming that at all. Or they wouldn’t have called it “Triple-A roster”. It is not “alternate camp” like in 2020. I just finished taping with Danny Mac and I went into this in depth. (with my speculation only)
The expectation is that the “Triple-A roster” players will head from Jupiter to Memphis and open the regular season on time in early April. Only at that time are the players slated for Double-A and Class-A even allowed to report.
I think it will be a tell if these top prospects are on the “Triple-A roster” to start the spring, as it could signal them being accelerated to St. Louis later in 2021. I hope it happens, but nothing should be assumed.
P.S. If we get time with Mo during WWU, I will ask for clarification.
I think it will be a tell if these guys are on the “Triple-A roster” as it could signal them being accelerated to St. Louis in 2021. I hope it happens, but it should not be assumed.
I agree. I also think we will see several of those guys on the Memphis roster on the accelerated program.
gscottar said:
Ugh…. That would stink if those guys can’t even get on the field until May or June.
Play the domino game. What about the high school draft picks from 2020 who are slated for the GCL? They might not play until July. Still, it would be better than the nothing they got in 2020, but my take is that the odds of getting in a full minor league season other than Triple-A maybe are low. And this is in early January. Hard to see it improving ahead.
From my point of view, MLB is slowly killing itself. All the changes they have made will negatively the teams over the next 10 years. They have had almost 10 months to have contingency plans in place but they don’t seem to have them. Another lost minor league season will keep players from developing like they should. Anything less than a full minor league season is “lost”.
Agree forsch.
It seems that these issues are C-19 related. This is January…. this country may be in a better place sooner than later. At least that is my hope. Keeping the players safe should be the the top priority and if the vaccine proves to be effective…. “things” should look brighter.
I will have a detailed article up later with my take on this…
In addition to the coaching staff, Tim Leveque returns as Senior Pitching Coordinator with Russ Steinhorn (Hitting Coordinator), Randy Neimann (Pitching Instructor) and Jose Oquendo (Infield Instructor) also returning. pic.twitter.com/vyTQRyz4ou
— Cardinals Player Development (@CardsPlayerDev) January 16, 2021
Love Russ Steinhorn’s future…… especially if he could ever finally learn to master the Spanish language. He’ll manage from the top step of the dugout in this league one day. Hopefully, it’s with us.
When I saw our old buddy Dean Kiekhefer’s name as pitching coach for Palm Beach something compelled me to see what he has been up to since leaving our organization. After finally reaching the Card’s bullpen in ’16 (his seventh season in our farm system) and he pitched in 26 games for our guys. SEA signed him in ’17 for their AAA Tacoma affiliate and later released.
CIN picked him up for 2 months early in ’18 then let him go. OAK grabbed him up and he got to pitch for them in 4 games that season. But most of that year he was at AAA Nashville and all of his final pro season (’19) was spent at Las Vegas.
He always had his bags packed and made many of the stops along the way with the Card’s MiLB clubs…. and then several more stops with other organizations. He must have the game in his blood and it will be good to see him in a Card’s uniform again at Palm Beach. Best of luck Dean.
Kiekhefer signed a year ago to be the pitching coach at State College, but that obviously did not come to pass. It is good for him they decided to keep him over two more experienced pitching coaches let go. (I have a detailed article about all the changes for 2021 for members on the front page.)
I brought together today's schedule announcements by the #stlcards four full-season minor league affiliates, adding some commentary, of course! (free) https://t.co/CTLVYdpeRL pic.twitter.com/QYz5bGx74c
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) February 18, 2021
Alternate sites are coming back — and the AAA season, which was scheduled to begin April 6, will be delayed for at least a month, sources tell ESPN.
News at ESPN on the reason for delay, the wait for vaccines and how this alt site will differ from 2020's: https://t.co/zRRT6mn7Nz
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 2, 2021
I hope this doesn’t become a long term thing this year. The minor leaguers need this season to develop. I am glad they are extending the AAA season to make up some, if not all, of the lost games.
Of everything in the story, the extension of the season made the least sense to me. The prior Triple-A schedule was already extended through September 19. No way can they make up another month. I predict a shortened season like AA and A.
The September 19 extension (from the traditional Labor Day end) basically took the place of the playoffs, which will not be held in 2021. As I said above, my guess is that the Triple-A season will drop back to 120 games, like AA and A. If so, it would not be the end of the world. The Triple-A players will still get that month of work in while at the alternate camp. Not as valuable as real games, but far better than nothing.
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