The end of the nomadic journey for an Atlanta Braves affiliate?

MLB-driven changes to the minor leagues may at least bring some stability for one Atlanta Braves level.

If you were playing a baseball edition of “Where’s Waldo?”, you might have been able to make a decent game of it around the High-A minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves in recent years.

Since this team ended a 12-year run in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the A+ Braves (who have  never ever been called the ‘Braves’ since a High-A team came into being as the Durham Bulls in 1990), the club has wandered around the Southland like a rural country traveling preacher:

• 2011-14:  Lynchburg Hillcats / Carolina League
• 2015-16:  Carolina Mudcats / Carolina League
• 2017-19:  Florida Fire Frogs / Florida State League
• 2020:  This was supposed to happen at the Spring Training site in North Port, Florida, but… y’all know how that worked out.

But during the contraction of the minor leagues and elimination of 40-odd clubs around the country, other elements of the minor league structure were shuffled as well.

• Gone are the Gulf Coast League teams and the Danville rookie-league short-season teams.
• The folks in Rome, Georgia will effectively get a “promotion” for 2021 … we hope … as the High A team is moving there.  Hopefully, this will make for a more stable arrangement for some time, while also giving the loyal fans in Rome a notch better brand of baseball.
• The (Low A) team that Rome had been hosting faithfully since 2003 is moving across the state to Augusta (eh, just inside South Carolina, actually) — a new city for Braves baseball.  However, this team doesn’t appear to be taking the Braves’ name with them:  instead, it’s the GreenJackets.

The new league arrangements appear to be breaking down as follows:

• AAA Gwinnett Stripers:  remaining in the Eastern US-based International League (14 teams)
• AA Mississippi Braves:  remaining in the (reduced) 8-team Southern League
• High-A Rome Braves:  moving to a new version of the Carolina league to be formed with just 6 clubs – mostly in North Carolina.
• Low-A Augusta GreenJackets:  joining a new Sally (South Atlantic) League as the Westernmost (and almost Southernmost) team.  12 teams are set to be in this league.

All this said… we just hope there’s some form of minor league baseball in 2021 — the virus killed the entire season for everyone, and this re-organization of the entire farm system hasn’t exactly been a popular and welcomed move imposed by Major League Baseball.  It’s changed a lot of things in a lot of small towns.

Let’s at least hope that this brings some better stability and sustainability overall… at least for a few years.