When minor-league realignment settles, look for Rockies to remain Hartford Yard Goats’ parent club
Minor League Baseball is on the verge of a massive realignment. The Yankees announced the first big moves last Saturday, ending their long-standing affiliations with Trenton and Staten Island, and the Mets laid out their plans on Tuesday.
That generates questions for Hartford. What major league team will be providing its prospects to the Yard Goats? And what will the Eastern League look like when play does eventually resume?
It’s complicated, as MLB will take over the role of matching affiliates and parent clubs. However, it looks most likely, according to multiple industry sources, that the Yard Goats will continue as the Rockies Double A affiliate, even though the new way will emphasize geography, convenient travel.
The agreement between MLB and Minor League Baseball expired Sept. 30, and talks for a new agreement, which have been going on for a year, will eventually create a new landscape with 120 teams, cut from 160, and short-season leagues to vanish.
The Yankees' decisions, precursor to the general announcement soon to come, shed some light on it. The moves, according to GM Brian Cashman, “will allow for a more consistent application of training with similarly aligned facilities in terms of structure, quality and ease of travel."
The focus of realignment will be on creating smaller leagues, with easier travel. That will bring Advanced Class A baseball, which has long been limited to the Carolina, California and Florida State Leagues, to the Northeast. There will be four leagues designated Advanced Class A, including a new Mid-Atlantic League. The Yankees will place their affiliate in Fishkill, N.Y., which had been home to a short-season Class A franchise, the Hudson Valley Renegades. Also, the Yankees will move their Double A, Eastern League affiliate from Trenton to Somerset, N.J., which could leave Trenton out of affiliated baseball.
The new “Mid-Atlantic League” will include Brooklyn, too. Mets president Sandy Alderson revealed their plans during the press conference to introduce new owner Steve Cohen. Speculation had been that Brooklyn would become a Double A team, but instead the Mets will apparently stay in Binghamton, in the Eastern League at that level, though Alderson didn’t specify which city would get which team.
“For us, we’re going to be in Syracuse [Triple A], we’re going to be in Binghamton, we’re going to be in St. Lucie and we’re going to be in Brooklyn,” Alderson said. “The nice thing about Brooklyn is I think it’s going to become a full-season affiliate, so people can start watching baseball on Coney Island in April if they can stand the wind coming off the ocean. We’re really excited about our continuing affiliation with those four teams.”
So neither the Yankees, nor Mets nor Red Sox, who are set in Worcester for Triple A and Portland, Maine for Double A, will be moving an upper-level affiliate to Hartford, despite its proximity to those major league franchises.
That would suggest the Rockies will stay put, although nothing is announced or signed yet. The Yard Goats and Rockies have had a smooth relationship since partnering in 2015, the parent club remaining patient for a last season in New Britain and the first season in Hartford, as Dunkin' Donuts Park was not ready until 2017.
The $71 million ballpark is one of the best in all of minor league baseball and its backstage amenities for players make it an attractive destination. While MLB assigns franchises to parent clubs, preferences will be considered and it’s likely the Rockies would want to stay with Hartford, and vice versa. With Bradley Airport nearby, the travel between Hartford and Denver, or other Rockies' affiliates, is not difficult.
Hartford’s viability as a Triple A franchise is hurt by the seating capacity, 6,000, well short of the 10,000 standard for the higher classification, but the proximity to Bradley could make the Yard Goats franchise a contender for Triple A designation in the future.
The Norwich franchise, currently known as the Sea Unicorns, is likely to be left out of affiliated baseball by the time things return to normal from the pandemic. Hudson Valley (Fishkill) and Brooklyn are NY-Penn League franchises that will find homes in the new Advanced Class A league, it appears others, like Norwich and Staten Island, could be part of a new player development pipeline, as an independent professional or collegiate summer franchise.
Still up in the air is when the pandemic will allow any of these teams to take the field and if fans will be allowed. No minor league schedules for 2021 have been released as yet.
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com
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