In something of a surprise move, the Brewers and San Antonio Missions have announced today that they’ve line up on a two-year player development contract. This will be the first year that the Missions will function as a Triple-A club after the Colorado Springs SkySox decided to move their operations there.
Ultimately, then, the Brewers will have the opportunity to tap into a big new market while continuing to work with the same minor-league outfit that had hosted their highest-level affiliate in Colorado. While the San Antonio organization’s ballpark is still in need of some upgrades, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets that there are plans in place to get the stadium up to full speed.
This news brings the affiliation matching dance down to just two teams on either side. Among major-league clubs, the Rangers will now place their top affiliate outside of Texas, while the Nationals are also still without a mate. Those two organizations will surely prefer Nashville — which lies just under 700 miles between both Arlington, TX and Washington, DC — to far-off Fresno, California.
How’d we get to this point? Nashville, of course, had been the site of the Brewers’ Triple-A club for some time before the minor-league outfit terminated the relationship. With an appealing setup, including a new park, the Sounds ended up lining up with the Athletics. But now the Oakland club is going to Las Vegas, which had been abandoned by the Mets when they bought the Nats’ former Syracuse affiliate. As for Fresno, its relationship with the Astros ended when the Houston club saw a chance to link up with former Rangers’ affiliate Round Rock.
Hard to build fan bases in the these places with all the movement the last few years
Building a fan base for which team? The parent club or the affiliate? If the parent club, building a fan base is low on the list of priorities. If for the affiliate, most MiLB fans accept turnover as part of the game. The only time a fan base could be hurt is if the affiliate lost a long-time parent club that was well-liked by the local fans.
It’ll be nice to watch El Paso smoke them
What’s interesting is the major leagues have a standard contract with all minor league teams. No one big league ball club can offer
so much as an extra fungo bat to a minor league club. It all comes down to relationships and high value prospects. Like if the minor league teams owner works in your front office.
Minor League owners don’t typically work in the parent clubs’s front office. There’s always exceptions, but this one is rare. I can think of Nolan Ryan owning a bunch of minor league teams, but he had to divest from the group when he took over in Texas because he owned a Houston affiliate.
Prospects are overrated to minor league teams. The best ones are in and out in half a season. Parent clubs signing veteran talent hanging on is typically more indicative of winning. Take a guy like Derek Norris. He was an average Mlb catcher, out of organized ball and playing for Sugar Land. If the Cubs signed him and put him in Tennessee, they’d have a better chance of winning because Norris is better than that level. Some teams do this. Others don’t. There are also teams that shut down talent just ahead of the playoffs, moving them up or down a level to keep them from playing in the playoffs. This infuriates minor league owners.
As or parent clubs – they care about facilities and location. Colorado Springs was a perfect location for the Rox, but the Sky Sox had the worst facilities in all Triple A. So they left.
The White Sox stick around Birmingham because it’s centrally located to the league and there’s a major airport nearby. This cuts down travel costs, which are incurred by the parent club.
These are really the only things the two sides care about when discussing affiliations.
justinept-thats not what Rochester used to say to the Twins a few years ago. The lady that owned the team used to scream about the crap players they sent!
The Brewers knew they had to act fast so they didn’t get stuck in Fresno
It is not that much of a surprise, honestly.
The ownership group that owns San Antonio (the Elmore Group) is the same one who owns both Colorado Springs and the Rookie level Helena Brewers. Two of the 3 were Brewers affiliates, so clearly there is a relationship there.
Those three clubs are also the three involved in this set of league moves – with Helena moving to Colorado Springs and that city becoming Rookie club, San Antonio moving up to AAA, and Amarillo being created to full the AA vacancy
Amarillo being recreated. They had baseball there long ago.
Stupid to put anything other than Rockies teams in Colorado Springs
No one wants Colorado Springs. It’s garbage for development, is a poor stadium, and has weather issues for the first half of the season which cause both play and attendance issues. It, like Vegas before now, was a club you got stuck with – not actively chose
I never understood why Vegas wasn’t more highly valued as an affiliate (for a west coast team). Yes, it wildly favors hitters but so does the whole PCL.
It’s a location with easy airport access.
Most importantly, I’d have thought that it would be a recruiting advantage for the parent club. Say you are a fringe major leaguer who can only get minor league offers in a particular offseason. What AAA city would you prefer to Vegas?
The key is look at Vegas as the back end of your roster and injury depth and focus development at the AA level.
The Sky Sox had the worst facilities in Triple A. That’s why the Rox left. Once the Rox left, there was no reason to have Triple A ball in the Springs.
I’m confused… because Colorado Springs was the Brewers affiliate. So why would it be surprising that the Brewers would go to SA when SA replaced their affiliate?
There was a lot of speculation that the Rangers would link up with San Antonio.
As an Astros fan living in San Antonio, I was doom and gloom about the Rangers coming here. Absolutely thrilled that isn’t reality!
And the talk about the stadium is they’re looking for a location closer to downtown for the new stadium. TBD, but good for San Antonio.
Do you think teams that have competitive balance picks are now a little more attractive than they were before. Just a little more advantage than maybe was intended? Just a thought.
So safe to assume Missions AA club will be moving to Amarillo. Hope that new stadium in Amarillo is a nice one because that place is a pit
Fresno makes more sense for Texas than it does for Washington.
They should restrict distance
If im a minor league free agent with a chance to be a taxi player, why would i sign with a team like the Nats who could potentially ship me cross country, 3 hours behind, multiple times a year when I could sign with St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Arizona, Philly etc. like they should keep it at 100-200 miles or something
As a lifelong Fresno native, it’s hard to express how great it feels to be treated like the tiny, asthmatic kid in a schoolyard pick.
I mean, I get it. It just sucks.
Best reply of the thread!!
What happens to Colorado Springs? Are they in a new league now or are they just going to have an empty stadium?
I heard that rookie ball Helina Brewers would move to Colorado Springs. Rookie Ball Pioneer League for CS
Thank god we’re out of Colorado…..over inflated the hitters avgs and hrs and the pitchers got crushed all year long.
San Antonio is great….love the move