Changes coming to minor leagues in 2021: How Atlanta Braves will be impacted?

Starting in 2021, the minor leagues will be different. Let’s look at what ‘different’ could mean for the Atlanta Braves and the rest of baseball.

MLB has created a proposal that would substantially reduce the amount of affiliated minor league teams, a restructuring that could affect not just the Atlanta Braves, but totally change the way Minor League Baseball is composed.

On Friday, ESPN and Baseball America released reports detailing the story, giving us an initial overview of the potential changes that will take place for the 2021 season, if in fact this proposal were to become reality.

Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball currently have an agreement — The Professional Baseball Agreement — that is set to expire in 2020. The timing of this expiring agreement is important, as people in the industry have been calling for changes in the minor leagues for years.

Well, it’s about to happen.

MLB, and many people in the industry, have been increasingly interested in making drastic changes to the minors, as the growing frustration over player compensation as well as many other well-known deficiencies inside the league has become a recurring problem for baseball.

It’s been bad and it has been bad for a long time.

Like any proposal, changes require an agreement… and an agreement requires negotiations, which is where the two sides seem to be at the moment; that is MLB and minor league teams.

Before I offer up my observations of this new proposal, as well as how I believe the Atlanta Braves will be impacted, first we should probably go over exactly what the proposal entails.

Remember, nothing is absolutely official nor are any of the details 100% worked out. The two sides are far apart in some areas of the agreement, while much closer in others.

But let’s dive in…

What does this mean for the Braves?

Is it OK if I say I’m not exactly sure? This is uncharted territory, so a lot of this will have to play out.

But, the Atlanta Braves have a little something going for them; something that will perhaps allow them to essentially go through this without its minor league system being completely reshuffled, at least relative to numerous other organizations,

The Braves own six of its minor league affiliated teams, with only the High-A Florida Fire Frogs independently owned. That’s super important, because as I stated on the previous slide, only wholly MLB-owned teams are excluded from this reconfiguration.

That doesn’t mean that nothing will change for the Atlanta Braves, but I would presume that it gives the organization a heckuva lot more power than organizations who don’t own their affiliates.

In terms of good or bad, this all, of course, depends on your feelings toward a minor league shakeup.

For me, there are plenty of things that could be improved regarding Minor League Baseball, but it’s at least a good sign that a bunch of Braves’ minor leaguers will maybe not lose their jobs, or be moved as a result of these changes.

Well… some may lose their jobs.

If the ‘New Minor Leagues’ does, in fact, require teams to only have 120 PDC’s than there must be cuts somewhere.

So under the proposal, we’re looking at over 25 percent of ALL minor league teams being eliminated

In order for this to happen (while also leaving out the exempt teams), much of the eliminating will be done at the short-season level.

So players currently rostered by the Danville Braves (Rookie-Advanced), Gulf Coast Braves (Rookie), and Dominican Braves (Rookie) may be in serious danger, not to mention the independently owned Fire Frogs, who will be fully at the mercy of the changes of this proposed plan.

There was a piece I found over on CubsHQ that mentioned that each organization would be allowed one Rookie ball team. Unless I missed it — I didn’t see that specifically stated in BA’s report — but that could very well be true.

If it is true, then the impact would be a bit less, as instead of dropping three teams the Braves would have to eliminate two.

But fortunately for the Atlanta Braves, the organization has a much smaller pool of players that are rostered on short-season or instruct level clubs, compared to several other organizations.

In fact, as you know, the Braves don’t even have a Low-A team, where a lot of organizations do. Plus, there are several organizations that have multiple GCL and DSL teams, while the Braves just have one per league.

However, if those three short-season Braves minor league clubs had to be eliminated than obviously the players on those teams would either be able to join teams at a higher level (creating more shuffling) or simply be out of a job. People losing jobs never makes me too happy (without getting political here!).

Should we be happy or mad?

I obviously do not work for the Atlanta Braves and unfortunately have zero connections within the organization, so my opinion is absolutely based on simply my interpretations of the reports released thus far.

I’m sure there will be changes to several of these points, as both MLB and MiLB will continue negotiations. From now to 2021, there’s a lot that can change. I wouldn’t get too excited (either happy or mad) until we get farther down the line.

The bad

If you think all of this is a bit drastic, I’d have to agree with you. A lot of issues that the minor leagues are dealing with are long overdue in terms of finding logical solutions. Just look at the salaries of the minor league players… it’s pretty sad.

But this much change seems a bit too much.

I agree that there are too many minor league teams. I’m not sure I agree with slashing 40 of them, but a reduction is necessary, in my opinion.

There’s no need to have two GCL teams, two DSL teams, two rookie clubs, AND a low-A team. That’s seven teams right there, and we haven’t even gotten to the four full-season clubs.

The problem is that teams like the Yankees and Dodgers (and several more) will have to either find a spot for all of those teamless players… or basically let them go — that’s not good.

Another issue I have — though it’s more of a concern — is that this proposal will undoubtedly funnel more power to MLB.

If the restructure works well and everyone is happy, then that won’t be a problem; but if these changes aren’t great, then there’s not much that can be done since MLB is looking to ensure these agreements are long term arrangements.

The good

Despite this feeling like a drastic move, something must be done.

I’m not naive to think that this is all about MLB trying to improve the conditions of its minor league players. Sure, MLB may do that, but only if it benefits them as much or more in the process.

Sure MLB owners and officials may want to ensure its prospects are given better playing conditions and facilities to play and develop in, and maybe even better compensation, but with and only with them in complete control of the operation.

But at the end of the day, there are too many problems with the minors these days, and if MLB can execute a restructure that fixes a lot of them… then I’m all for it.

I mean if MLB will really pay the players more, upgrade the teams’ stadiums, transportation, and hotel accommodations, then perhaps we should be pleased — regardless of their underlying intentions.

Sure these are HUGE adjustments that will impact a lot of people, both in positive and negative ways; but for so long now people have complained and griped (including me) about how something needs to change in the minor leagues, but nothing has really been done.

Well… it appears that no longer is the case. Let’s just hope it all works out.

What do you think about the restructuring of the minor leagues? Will it work?