The Nationals will have a new Triple-A affiliate in 2021, as they’ve reached an agreement with the Rochester Red Wings, Justin Murphy and Sean Lahman of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle report. The move to partner with the Nationals will end an 18-year affiliation between the Red Wings and the Twins. The length of the new player development contract between the Nats and Red Wings hasn’t been announced, although such agreements are generally for two years or for four years.
The appeal for the Nationals in this deal is quite apparent. The Nats just wrapped up a two-year PDC with the Fresno Grizzlies after an awkward game of musical chairs between several teams and the few available Triple-A affiliates two years ago left them as the last two potential partners standing. Fresno is nearly 2800 miles and more than a six-hour flight from Nationals Park. It was never an ideal fit. Rochester is a mere 382 miles, with a flight to D.C. checking in at about 90 minutes.
Shuttling players between Triple-A and the big leagues will be vastly easier for the Nats in 2021 and beyond. They’ll also surely be pleased to move their young pitchers from the hitters’ paradise that is the Pacific Coast League to a friendlier setting in the International League.
As for the Twins, they’re now without a Triple-A affiliate, although they’ve long been reported to be working on an affiliation deal with the St. Paul Saints. While the Saints have been an independent team since their inception in 1993 — first in the Northern League and, since 2005, in the American Association — the Twins’ hope is that they can work out a deal to move their Triple-A club just miles from their current home park. Target Field and the Saints’ CHS Field are separated by all of 11 miles.
La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported recently that the Twins and Saints are continuing to progress toward a deal and may even have the framework of an agreement in place. Triple-A stadiums are required to have a capacity of at least 10,000, but Neal writes that said requirement would be waived for the recently constructed CHS Field, which opened in 2015 and has a 7210-person capacity. The Saints would need to pay a significant sum to Minor League Baseball — $20MM — in order to be granted affiliation, which is the biggest remaining hurdle in the agreement.
Really good fit, hopefully for the long run.
This site needs to start a page showing MLB teams and their affiliates. Only list new affiliations, not former ones. Also mark which affiliates are team owned (e,g., Fayetteville for the Astros).
Ballpark Digest is a good resource for that
milb.com/about/affiliations
Which is out of date.
ballparkdigest.com/200905261902/minor-league-baseb…
(Ignore the “2012” in the URL. Kevin Reichard updates it regularly.)
I agree. I know there are other sites you can visit, but everyone comes to MLBTR. That would be a good resource to have and then have it link to the team’s individual rosters.
I wish I could pay my bills and do other tasks on MLBTR as well. Other websites scare me!
This is what u think about
Really?
Dang. stupid City of Richmond (Va) politics can’t get anything right.
I can see wanting the AAA team closer to DC. But Rochester is a good minor league market -since 1899!
I was born in Rochester, lived there til I was 15… Grew up watching the Red Wings when they were AAA for the Orioles during some very good years for Baltimore! Paul Blair, Mark Bellinger, Tom Phoebus, Merv Rettenmund, so may others on their way to the show… and of course the annual exhibition game between the Orioles and Red Wings… TONS of great memories of falling in love with baseball at Silver Stadium!!
Mets are moving their AAA team to Mar A Lago…..
I don’t think they’ll go to Mar A Lago. Mets colors are Orange and Blue, not just Orange.
And he will be inaugurated again on January 20.
Yeah, no.
A $20MM affiliation fee with only a two or four year agreement? Seems a lot considering how MLB treats its minor league affiliates as fungible assets that can be replaced at the drop of a hat. 40 affiliates have just been kicked out entirely.
Fresno to Oakland and RR to Texas and then you open up LV and Nashville for expansion
Glad to see Rochester got another team. Good on the Nats
Seems like there’s 31 cities for 30 spots unitl expansion. So if the Twins get St. Paul, is Fresno left out in the cold? Pretty sure the A’s prefer Vegas, Fresno has been a little of a problem child.
Ballpark Digest’s chart lists Fresno as reportedly moving to the High-A California League.. It also mentioned in an article on the minor league reorganization the possibility of a new AAA team in the Midwest. There seem to be a lot of moving parts. BD has Wichita going to the Twins as a AA team, with Miami upgrading Jacksonville back to AAA. Round Rock is unknown after the Astros picked up Sugar Land.. San Antonio is reported to be dropping down to AA Texas League. Its stadium is small for AAA (6.300 plus 3000 on the berm). The Brewers could get Round Rock and MLB could call it a day in shuffling AAA, but I think a new Midwest AAA team would be for the Brewers, to ease travel issues, with Round Rock dropping down, going independent, or losing its team,
Dangerous, having your AAA affiliate only 12 miles away. People might catch on that AAA baseball is really fun, good baseball, at a must cheaper cost. If you are ever in Reno, don’t miss the Reno Aces. Outstanding park, good seats always available, and cold beer. See all the baby Giants, Padres, Dodgers, etc. come through.
Except for Reno sucks
The Angels have a Single-A team in San Bernardino, and they really stink. But minor league baseball is about the experience first and foremost.
I’d rather go there than to the overpriced Anaheim experience.
The Mike Trout experience is never overrated. And ticket prices at Anaheim really aren’t bad.
It is certainly not the vacation spot of the west coast! My wife and I are only 2 1/2 hours from Reno and can get a VERY nice room for about 60.00, 5 minutes walk to the ballpark. Buy seats, literally, behind the first base dug out (22.00 each) and watch our baby giants play baseball. It’s an annual trip now. Our trips to SF to see the Giants include 60.00 to park the car and 300.00 (room and hotel parking). We love (what ever it is being called now) park, but it is expensive.
I grew up in a AAA town and would rather go to AAA games !!! Easier parking, closer to field and players, shorter lines,……
….to each their own
Being a Minnesotan, i can confidently say that, we already know that MiLB is fun, hell the Saints invented fun in Baseball.
Most Twins fans go to Saints games because its a smaller park and easier to follow the game. But we are also hyper excited to see all of our AAA stars come here, over staying in NY, the draw back is, the StPS have a really good team, and its going to be a shame that we’ll have to release some good talent.
yeah, but does Reno have a pool?
Reno has a pool!!!!!!! It is called Lake Tahoe
CHS Field is an awesome park, too. Co owned by Mike Veeck and Bill Murray (who rocks a Saints hat in Space Jam).
Not really a much cheaper cost. Every year the San Francisco Giants sell some of their tickets cheaper than the cheapest grass-only Sacramento River Cats ticket. Only reason I go to River Cats games is so I don’t have to drive an extra 90 minutes.
Fortunately for the Twins, baseball fans in this market already know that minor league baseball is cheaper and tons of fun, and they have still managed to draw fans to Target Field.
Dumb question alert
Do the players currently on the Redwings convey or do they move elsewhere within the Twins organization and then the Nats repopulate the roster with players currently in theirnorganization?
the player arent under contract with the affiliate, they are under contract with thr parent club.
Only since you brought it up yourself will I point out that it was a dumb question 🙂
Can you imagine if a major league team lost all of it’s AAA talent just because a minor league affiliation changed?
I thought that as part of the MiLB consolidation that MLB was going to have/require 10 year deals with the affiliates to provide some sort of financial stability/consistency for the MiLB clubs.
As someone native to Rochester this is badass the twins haven’t had the greatest of prospects in Rochester recently so hopefully the Nats can bring some exciting young prospects. But as a Jays fan I have a tendincey to cheer for the Bisons when they play each other. But other than that let’s go wings!
the Nats system is better then the Twins? most of WSH’s better prospects are already up or just graduated
I said hopefully, not knowing what the nats system looks like, there was no need to criticize me, I was just expressing my excitement to the situation that’s all.
They have some decent pitching prospects in the very low levels, but other than that, very barren, at the moment.
The twins have had one of the better farms in recent years…
The Twins best prospects that have been coming through the last few years haven’t been spending a ton of time in AAA.
There are good reasons teams tend to make Fresno their last choice for Triple-A affiliation, including the extreme heat and the general Fresno-y reputation.
But I hope the Grizzlies attract a good team soon, and not just because my kid operates the manual scoreboard and he needs the money.
The Grizzlies are a well-run organization and there is a loyal fanbase here. The park is beautiful and kept up very well. And then there’s this: The Grizzlies were originally the affiliate for the SF Giants and stayed that way through three championship seasons. When they lost the Giants, they went to the Astros during their *World Series win*. The Astros left and on came the Nationals. Boom. World Series champs.
Teams would be crazy not to want that kind of karma.
Well, that’s going to seem weird. I get down to the Rochester (MN – lol) area sometime during March every year for spring goose hunting.
It is definitely Twins territory, man. We’re seeing were some of these relocations make a lot of geographic sense. This one doesn’t. I guess it has to be viewed in light of the pending agreement between The Twins and the Saints.
When the dust settles I think – all in all – this is going to reduce the already tenuous popularity of the Twins in MN.
It’s Rochester, NY.
I can kinda get the wrong Rochester thing but where on earth does one get the idea that the Twins have “tenuous popularity”?
All those times I drove past Mayo Field & had an erroneous idea.
Man.
So, Minneapolis is not a baseball (or hoops for that matter) town. The Vikings & hockey (any level) are the big draws out here.
I’m not from MN but live here now.
The Twins & the Timberwolves really only draw well at the gate & have high TV ratings when they are winning. Whereas the Vikings, Wild, college hockey, State H.S. Hockey tournament will always all draw really well & be widely viewed.
In the end, I’d guess that basketball is more popular than baseball out here.
From what I see, the Twins are clearly 4th in popularity. Perhaps third in a good year.
(That’s also without counting other levels of hockey, too.)
I guess that’s why I termed it “tenuous”.
I’m both from and live a half an hour away from the stadium and sincerely haven’t the foggiest idea how you arrived at the conclusion that they have a popularity problem.
Yeah, I’m both from and live here and don’t have the foggiest idea how you arrived at the conclusion that the Twins have a popularity problem. Especially vs. the Timberwolves. I’m not sure then the Twins didn’t draw, and apparently should have.
Lol
I just looked it up, man.
So…yeah… hoping we can all just ignore my take.
I’m not sure why I was convinced otherwise? But definitely changes my erstwhile “point”.
Ay caramba.
You’re not the only one. I used to think the Portland Sea Dogs were in Oregon. And I was super confused as to why they’d be so far away…
Where are the Brewers going to go?
Fresno is ~2300 miles from DC, not 2800 miles
According to Google Maps, its 2,796.
Whew, good news for the Nationals. Getting stuck with Fresno as their AAA team was not one the organization’s finest moments. Glad to see them correct this. Too bad something with Richmond, VA couldn’t be worked out.