The Buffalo Bisons have a new long-term agreement with the Toronto Blue Jays and a new league. And it could be an even busier summer downtown as Sahlen Field is still in the running to again serve as a host for Blue Jays games while the parent club remains displaced from Rogers Centre.
Major League Baseball's sweeping realignment of the minor leagues was made official Friday as it announced it has received signed licenses from 120 affiliates that begin in the 2021 season. As part of MLB's new "Professional Development League System," the Bisons have signed a 10-year license to remain the Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate. They have been in that spot since 2013.
The Herd's new league is dubbed "Triple-A East" and it will include 12 other members of the former International League, four teams from the former Pacific Coast League and three new teams to Triple-A.
People are also reading…
Buffalo will be in the Northeast Division with traditional IL North rivals Rochester, Syracuse, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Lehigh Valley. Also in the division will be Worcester, which is entering Triple-A this season in place of Pawtucket.
Coming from the PCL are Memphis, Nashville, Iowa and Omaha – with the latter three former rivals of the Bisons in the American Association from 1985-1997. The St. Paul Saints (Minnesota) enter the league from independent ball and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Florida) have been elevated from Double-A.
The Bisons did not play in 2020 as the minor-league season was canceled due to the pandemic. It was the first time they were idle since baseball returned to Buffalo in 1979. The parent Blue Jays played 26 of their home games in Sahlen Field and advanced to the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Most observers expect the Blue Jays to open their 2021 season at their spring home in Dunedin, Fla., and then transition elsewhere later in the season if they can't return to Toronto because of ongoing border issues. While it seems unlikely at first glance that the Jays could return here for games while the Bisons are playing, it's notable that Blue Jays branding both inside and outside the ballpark remains intact and the sides remain in contact about solutions to share the stadium.
"It doesn't necessarily put that out of contention," Bisons General Manager Anthony Sprague told The News on Friday afternoon when asked if a Herd season makes Blue Jays games unworkable. "We have a schedule more to do with the rest of our new league. That's happening one way or another. If the Jays were to play here, we're the anomaly and we have to figure it out while working with them."
Blue Jays president/CEO Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins have said multiple times during the offseason that the club remains focused on playing in Toronto. But the course of the pandemic continues to make it clear that's a long-term proposition and not something that will happen when the home schedule opens April 8 against the Los Angeles Angels.
Big-name Toronto players such as Marcus Stroman, Kevin Pillar, Aaron Sanchez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Teoscar Hernandez and Cavan Biggio are among those who have played for the Herd since '13. It's unclear if fans will be admitted to Bisons games at the start of the season even though Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced earlier in the week that large venues could offer seating for 10% of capacity.
That would give the Bisons a chance to sell roughly 1,700 tickets per game.
"We are still at a wait-and-see approach here with that," Sprague said. "We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves and make plans for 10 percent when we're hoping that's a minimum we would have. When you put one person in one seat, the ripple effect of that is large (due to social distancing requirements). We want to have the most up-to-date plans when we get closer to our season before we think about putting tickets on sale."
The Bisons are anticipating a mostly regional schedule, perhaps entirely within their division, that will see them open sometime in April. Baseball America reported Friday the schedule should be out next week. It's expected to run through mid-September, later than in the past, and there will probably be no playoffs this year.
Leagues at all levels are simply being called by geography for now, with the International League and Pacific Coast League becoming "Triple-A East" and "Triple-A West." One rung down, the Eastern League is now "Double-A Northeast," the Southern League is "Double-A South" and the Texas League is "Double-A Central." MLB may transition to different names – perhaps even sponsor ones similar to the NBA G League – at a later time.
In addition to the Bisons' division of Triple-A East, the Midwest Division will feature Columbus, Toledo, Indianapolis, Louisville, Iowa, Omaha and St. Paul while the Southeast Division is comprised of Charlotte, Durham, Gwinnett, Jacksonville, Memphis, Nashville and Norfolk.
In Triple-A West, the East Division has Albuquerque, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Round Rock and the Sugar Land (Texas) Skeeters, a former independent league team that's the new affiliate of the Houston Astros. The West will be Las Vegas, Reno, Sacramento, Salt Lake City and Tacoma.
The minors have run on their own for more than 115 years but MLB is streamlining the system, eliminating individual league offices and, in fact, the umbrella minor league office in St. Petersburg, Fla. Several top officials from the minors are likely to act as transition guides for MLB in 2021.
MLB's takeover of the minor leagues has been a difficult process, with 42 cities losing their affiliated franchise and either transitioning to college wood-bat leagues or out of the mix entirely. Among those gone from affiliated ball are most teams in the New York-Penn League, including the Batavia Muckdogs. They are joining the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.
MLB is instituting new standards throughout the minors that all cities and ballparks must move toward in the coming seasons. The Bisons got a head start on that over the summer when a new infield and new lighting were installed in Sahlen Field in advance of the Blue Jays' arrival.
Player salaries at all levels will increase from 38%-72% starting this season. Travel is being reduced at all levels to benefit players and coaches as well. The pandemic likely will keep the Bisons playing only in their division this season but future years could see them playing only some of the other 19 possible opponents each season.
"We are excited to unveil this new model, which not only provides a pipeline to the Majors, but continues the Minor Leagues’ tradition of entertaining millions of families in hundreds of communities,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. “In modernizing our Minor League system, we prioritized the qualities that make the Minor Leagues such an integral part of our game while strengthening how we develop professional athletes on and off the field. We look forward to demonstrating the best of our game throughout local communities, supporting all those who are working hard to grow the sport, and sharing unrivaled technology and resources with Minor League teams and players.”
