SURVEY SAYS
At long last, after a nearly 600-day absence caused by the pandemic, minor league baseball is back. Full-season teams across the country are opening their gates on May 4, marking the first official action since the 2019 Triple-A Championship Game between Memphis and Sacramento.
Even though the games are back, Opening Day will be far from a return to normalcy. Between 2019 and 2021, Major League Baseball moved forward with its One Baseball plan, which rearranged the minor leagues.
The Rookie-advanced Pioneer League is now a professional partner league with ties to MLB but unaffiliated players. The short-season New York-Penn League has dissolved. Three of its teams jumped up to full-season ball. Other former NYPL teams joined summer wood bat amateur leagues. The Rookie-advanced Appalachian League retained its league identity but now operates as a summer wood bat amateur league. Six of the eight teams from the old short-season Northwest League are now High-A affiliates.
Beyond the restructuring, rule changes will be sprinkled throughout the minors. Included among those rules are the implementation of the automatic ball-strike system, larger bases, new regulations on pickoffs and plenty more.
The biggest differences between this year and 2019, however, revolve around the effects of the pandemic. A year with little to no revenue has wrought immense havoc on teams and their front offices, and the continued threat of Covid-19 will mean teams have to shake up the way they do business both in and out
