MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A recent proposal by Major League Baseball puts over 40 Minor League Baseball teams in jeopardy, including three of the four in West Virginia.
The one lone team not on that list is the West Virginia Black Bears, based in Morgantown. However, Mike Buczkowski, Rich Baseball Operations president, isn’t sure how the proposal could affect the Black Bears in the long term.
Rich Baseball Operations manages three affiliated minor league teams owned by Rich Products Corporation — the Black Bears, the Arkansas Naturals (Royals AA) and the Buffalo Bison (Blue Jays AAA).
“There’s two things people need to know: One, this is still early in this process with the new agreement,” Buczkowski said. “It’s like the second inning of a nine-inning game. This proposal is definitely one that MLB made. There’s still a lot time left. It’s early and we’re hopeful, but it does raise concerns. It’s still a little unclear on how this will all shake out.
“Two, the Professional Baseball Agreement ends at the end of the 2020 season so this proposal is for 2021 and beyond.”
Buczkowski said things will become more clear soon — MLB and MiLB officials are meeting this week in Dallas to continue negotiations, and again at the Winter Meetings the first week of December.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a clearer picture of what’s going to happen.”
MLB’s plan is to contract 42 MiLB teams and overhaul player development, bring more functions in-house while eliminating entry-level circuits. While the Black Bears are not one of the 42, nine other New York-Penn League teams are: Auburn, Batavia, Connecticut, Lowell, Mahoning Valley, Williamsport, State College, Staten Island and Vermont.
That leaves just West Virginia, Aberdeen, Brooklyn and Hudson Valley as the lone NYPL teams left, which is obviously not enough to field a short-season schedule.
“While the Morgantown team is not on the proposal, it does affect the short-season league as a whole, so we really don’t know how things would work out,” Buczkowski said.
Part of the proposal is to reclassify existing teams into higher affiliations or to make short-season into full-season, but it’s far too early in the process to say what could happen to the Black Bears.
However, if they are considered to move to full-season, which begin the first week of April, scheduling conflicts with WVU’s baseball season at Monongalia County Ballpark would arise.
The other West Virginia teams that are on the list are the Power (Charleston), Bluefield and Princeton.
“It’s unfortunate because some of these minor league teams are what a lot of these towns rally behind,” Buczkowski said. “Not everyone has a chance to go to Major League games, so this is how a lot of people fall in love with baseball and get to experience it. Again, this is in the early stages and we’re hopeful this won’t get much further than a proposal, but it’s still disheartening that it was proposed to begin with.”
The 2020 season will go on regardless of what happens, but the main reason behind this is for a player-development standpoint. The MLB draft would move from June to August, which is why short-season teams are the ones on the chopping block. Players would then work in camps rather than immediately being thrown into on-field action. Their in-game careers would then begin at the start of the next season.
Another key element is the draft being shortened from 40 rounds to 20, which would greatly decrease the number of minor league players available.
While nothing has been determined, the future of MiLB could drastically change, including the Black Bears, if MLB’s proposal comes to fruition.
