A few weeks ago, baseball fans around Jackson, Mississippi got the worst kind of news: after their Braves AA club does a retirement tour of sorts this season, they will be relocating to Columbus, Georgia. Ironically, while teams often are attracted by spanking new ballparks, the Columbus Braves (or whatever they choose to call themselves) will be playing in a park which first opened nearly a century ago, in 1926. However, that park has been empty of affiliated baseball since Delmarva’s former SAL opponent Catfish (and RedStixx before that, among other names) left after the 2008 season for Bowling Green, Kentucky - a year later the Bowling Green Hot Rods left the SAL for the Midwest League due to geographic and travel concerns.
If you’ve been following me since my monoblogue days, you likely recall I was genuinely worried that Delmarva would lose its affiliated team in the minor league consolidation of 2020-21.
In a way, the M-Braves were a victim of this push toward consolidation: the Braves jumped at the chance to have all four of their affiliated teams above the Florida Complex League either in Georgia or just across the river from Augusta. Several teams have tried to bring their affiliates in as close to the major league team as they can and, in fact, Baltimore has a well-clustered farm system once you get out of Florida.
But, like the Mississippi club that was relatively close but not close enough, there are options for the Orioles. Hagerstown just built a brand new stadium for their freshly-minted Flying Boxcars Atlantic League team. They’re slightly closer to Baltimore and not across the Bay Bridge.
And as the state of Maryland is putting money into their facilities, certainly the Orioles would love to re-establish that relationship, one which made the Keys an affiliate for years. I believe the Shorebirds have a ten-year pact with the Orioles that began in 2021, but believe it or not we’re nearly halfway through it.
While Frederick and Hagerstown will likely be great Atlantic League rivals once the league regains an even number of teams in 2025 - Frederick’s Spire City Ghost Hounds volunteered to sit 2024 out as the league would otherwise have 11 teams - it’s certain either franchise would jump at the chance to get back into affiliated baseball. Two reasons: there’s a few more home games in a season and the talent level is better, plus they would be players on their way to a nearby MLB team.
As the decade wears down, it’s a sure bet that MLB teams will be re-evaluating their minor league options. There’s also the prospect that the minor leagues could shrink some more by taking further advantage of their spring training complexes for what’s now the low-A level. (Some teams in the Florida State League already do.)
There’s been several upheavals in the minor league system over the decades, but as a part of Major League Baseball, the desires of the major league teams will now come first. Because the Braves wanted to consolidate their minor leagues, there are over 160,000 unhappy fans in Jackson. Being seventh in an eight-team league attendance-wise isn’t great, but a long tradition of baseball in Jackson shouldn’t have ended that way.
Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.