If you have a subscription to Baseball America then keeping up with the ongoing Minor League Baseball negotiations before the current agreement expires with Major League Baseball has been very well reported by JJ Cooper.
Since it’s a subscription based service I can’t sharethe article on this site however I will highlight a few things JJ has written for those who have interest.
1. The Minor League Office based in St Petersburg, FL recently regrouped their negotiations team ... it’s been long thought that Major League Baseball would prefer to take over total governance of the minor leagues and even beyond ... something they are calling “One Baseball” with extensions into amateur baseball including even more input into Organizations like Little League Baseball.
2. Minor League Baseball has offered a counter proposal which would slim down it’s current office but retain independent governance. They also propose a higher fee for independent league teams seeking to become affiliated than what MLB would preferMILB’s proposal would retain the four full season league format that MLB has requested but with a few tweaks :
A. The Florida State League would become a half season league in partnership with
the New York Penn League with the first half of the season played in the FSL and
the second half played in the New York Penn League. In the same vein the West
Coast teams would play a half season in their AZ spring training sites and the
second half of the season in the Northwest League. From my perspective I’ve
heard this approach has a great deal of traction ...
B. The Triple A season would be longer ( more games ) than Double A and Class A
teams would have shorter seasons than Double A.
C. The present ticket tax imposed on MILB teams would be eliminated.
D. Teams and Cities eliminated from current minor league franchise status would be
subsidized to operate in non-affiliated leagues by MLB.
There are just 55 days till the present PBA ( professional baseball agreement ) expires between the two organizations ... a short time left to decide the future for a lot of folks and communities.
How’s it effect the Phillies Affiliates ?
Conceptually a partnership season between the FSL/NYPL would keep Williamsport in the mix while taking a half season away from Clearwater and Spectrum Field. Perhaps if that comes to fruition the Gulf Coast League could switch from back field venues to the stadiums for their games in June, July and August 🤔 ... and even incorporate night games into the equation rather than playing noon contests in the stifling heat ...
With shorter seasons proposed for Double A and Single A squads there could be more wide spread use of the Carpenter Complex for player development training ... perhaps an extended spring format or even a delayed minor league spring training period till after the big leaguers move out from their spring training camps ... it’s already pretty much a year around effort regardless but this may allow for more players to be engaged ... especially if the much talked about upgrades to the Complex come to fruition like on site housing and improved indoor facilities.
Just saying ... we should know relatively soon.
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
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