MINORS- SURVEY SAYS

Our annual survey of minor league operators highlights the ways in which things will never be the same

- JOSH NORRIS AND J.J. COOPER

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 of the public view.

With that, Baseball America asked minor league front office executives around the country a series of questions about the issues facing the sport now and in the future.