On Friday, Baseball America dropped a bomb of a report about Minor League Baseball: A radical proposal by MLB would eliminate 42 minor league teams and drastically realign and change the way Minor League Baseball and affiliations work.
Now, this is all preliminary and could get changed or dropped, but the ideas behind it are fascinating. Let’s bullet point what MLB wants:
- The point of the proposal is for Minor League Baseball to upgrade facilities. MLB thinks roughly a quarter of minor league parks and facilities are not up to their standards.
- MLB also wants to rework the system so team affiliates are closer geographically, and extend the length of the standard PDC — Player Development Contracts (which link major league teams to minor league affiliates).