Major League Baseball's giant, economically punishing game of musical chairs is over, and the White Sox might be the biggest winners.
The White Sox announced that they invited their four previous full-season affiliates to remain in their player development system, and in the same order. According to the Céspedes Family BBQ guys, the White Sox are the only team to enjoy that privilege.
to get a sense for how much MiLB is about to change...
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) December 9, 2020
based on the reporting and announcements thus far (and assuming these invites are agreed to, etc.), only ONE team -- the White Sox -- will have the exact same full-season affiliate alignment in 2021 as they did in 2019
They noted that 13 other teams will maintain all their current affiliates, but not in the same hierarchy due to league shifts.
It's probably safe to assume that the partnerships with the Charlotte Knights, Birmingham Barons, Winston-Salem Dash and Kannapolis Cannon Ballers will hold. Baseball America has the full chart of 119 teams, which will be 120 pending the result of the situation with the Fresno Grizzlies. From here, the affiliates have to accept the invitations, after which MLB will finalize the new structure. The White Sox's press release gave the timetable of "early 2021."
With the White Sox enjoying the geographical proximity of their four full-season affiliates, and with Kannapolis' new ballpark making it 4-for-4 in modern facilities, it seemed like a given that the White Sox would press to hold their ground.
The only question was whether realignment of East Coast A-ball teams would shuffle Winston-Salem and Kannapolis into the same league. The Dash and Cannon Ballers maintained their High-A and Low-A designations, so they'll just have to learn the name of their respective leagues.
With the White Sox announcing one complex team in the Arizona League, the elimination of the Pioneer League and the Great Falls Voyagers from the affiliated system looks like the only change going forward.
In other affiliates I personally care about:
*The Nashville Sounds are now the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. I'm more concerned about whether the Pacific Coast League's easternmost team will get to shift to the International League, because I wouldn't mind seeing the Knights play 15 minutes from my house a few times a year.
*The Tri-City ValleyCats, the local New York-Penn League team up in Albany, wasn't invited to the dance despite tremendous local support as an affiliate of the Houston Astros. They averaged more than 4,000 fans for 11 consecutive seasons.
