Changes coming to minor leagues in 2021: How Atlanta Braves will be impacted?
By Clint Manry
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…