The Rangers have agreed to a four-year player development contract with the Nashville Sounds, per a club announcement. Their top affiliate had been with Round Rock for the past eight years.
This news also comes with implications for the Nationals, who were among the teams looking for new affiliate agreements. All that’s left for the Nats, in terms of established Triple-A outfits, is Fresno — a location sited about as far away from D.C. as possible.
It’s been apparent for awhile that the Rangers would be in for an affiliate change, as their previous affiliate, has long been said to be a target of the cross-state Houston Astros. Over the weekend, it was reported that the Rangers’ new affiliate could land in San Antonio, though Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram indicated yesterday that Nashville was actually the Rangers’ top preference among the remaining available affiliates.
The Colorado Springs team is available if I’m not mistaken…
I think Colorado Springs is available as a city site, but the actual team/organization/ownership group moved to San Antonio?
Colorado Springs is moving to San Antonio, and inked a PDC with Milwaukee this morning.
Yeah, and Milwaukee is moving their Rookie-League team there – so I think any team wanting to use Colorado Springs as a AAA station would need Milwaukee’s permission.
BTW, as a Mets fan… seeing the Nats have to move all the way across country… heh heh heh heh….
I mean the Mets have been in Las Vegas. Not like that’s a stones throw away
Have you seen the stadium they play in (Mets)? It’s awful, I’m glad they’re getting a new one. Well I guess the Mets won’t play there anymore, but.
I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that a short season ball teamwas going there.
They could move to Charlotte for a couple of years. The old Knight’s stadium in Ft. Mill is still around.
No they couldn’t. The Knights own that territory.
I’m thinking trade.
Tough luck for the Nats. This could actually have some implications regarding the timeframe for roster decisions in order to be ready for games in the event of injuries or trades.
Jeff, could you do this for the handful of AA franchises and MLB teams that are still in limbo? This is good information! Thanks!
This is easily Mike Rizzo’s biggest failure as Nats GM. Unless the plan is to buy Fresno and relocate the team east, this is pretty unacceptable.
They’re going to have to do something. There’s no way they can have their AAA team in Fresno.
The Mets had their AAA in Vegas for several years, so it is far from impossible. It’s a 3-4 hour flight, so it’s not like it is really that bad.
Except Vegas has direct flights to just about every Major League city. Fresno only has flights to San Diego, Seattle, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, San Fran and Denver. Are there any other AAA affiliates that don’t have a direct flight to their parent club’s city?
Except you are forgetting that these are Major League baseball teams and they have access to private jets. The Nats have enough money that they can park a jet at Fresno airport while keeping apilot on retainer and only use it to fly prospects back and forth. They don’t exactly need to wait for a spot in business class on Delta.
That sounds like an expensive solution that I’m sure would be added to the luxury tax cap.
Minor league teams fly commercial. If the Nats bought their Triple-A team a jet, that’d be the only team that is doing that.
I’m not talking about regular team flights. There is no way they would do that. I am talking about flying prospects to and from the majors. If you need to get a reliever up for the game that night for example.
Gee, I would think flopping this year would be far worse a failure. Or never winning a playoff series. Or possibly losing the face of the franchise for nothing but a 2nd round draft pick.
But I guess having a AAA team far away is worse in your mind.
The Nationals have one of the best records in baseball going back to 2012. They are pretty much a model franchise. This is a major fail.
The Nats get a pick after the 4th round if a QO player leaves, not a 2nd round pick since the Nats are still over the luxury tax for 2018.
mlb.com/news/mlb-qualifying-offer-rules-explained/…
espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24657436/new-york-yankees-…
I’m not sure the National’s numbers included their trades to cut salary. They will be closer to the tax cap by the end of the season because of their August Trade Deadline deals.
“The Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals remain the only teams on track to pay the tax this year, according to Aug. 31 figures compiled by the commissioner’s office for clubs and obtained by The Associated Press.”
Would they consider starting a new AAA team and just leaving Fresno without a team?
Wouldn’t work. They could probably move a couple of states eastward, but any more and it would really impact travel for the rest of the PCL.
Fresno is guaranteed a MLB affiliation at the AAA level under the Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and the minors.
Have they considered Baltimore as a Triple-A team?
Zinger.
If the Nats do wind up in Fresno. I’d strongly expect them to try and do everything they could to get the team in Norfolk in 2020. With the ugly relationship rizzo and Angelos already have it wouldn’t surprise me to see that happen. Hopefully they find something closer because the last thing the orioles will need is to be shuttling guys across the globe.
I’m pretty sure the person that owns the Norfolk franchise owns s handful of other minor league teams that are affiliated with the orioles. Not that that would keep them with Baltimore, but it helps.
Same owner I think owns Norfolk, Bowie and Frederick. Maybe Delmarva too, not sure.
The Giants have a double A team with a 12,000 seat stadium in Richmond, VA. Until recently, they had minor league teams in Fresno for many years. Washington needs to deal with Fresno, then pull a swap and get into Richmond (or however league-level changes work among MiLB teams).
Like the idea in theory.
Problem is that there are absolutely no other AA teams within 1500 miles of Fresno. They’re all in the East and South.
You can’t move an Eastern League club to Fresno, CA.
2796 miles from Chukchansi Park in Fresno to Nationals Park. Fun flight.
The flight from Fresno to Washington would not be bad at all because you are going to the majors and who cares if you have a few hours on a plane. Now the reverse flight from Washington to Fresno would definitely not be as good.
The Nats need to take control of their own destiny and buy Fresno and move them east. Or buy an Eastern AAA club and force the current club out, using Fresno for the short term (like the Mets did to them).
Maybe somewhere new like Reston where they can be really close
Nationals are quickly turning into a dumpster fire.
Love comments like these
Will the Sounds still be in the Pacific Coast League?
Please no its kinda stupid they’re so far away.
correction, the Rangers AAA team currently plays in Arlington
With your mom.
Pretty much…