A new era for St. Paul Saints baseball officially kicked off Wednesday with a long-awaited, much-anticipated announcement: The independent-league club is becoming the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins
As part of a wide-scale reorganization of the minor leagues with an eye on geographic alignment, the Twins have extended affiliate invitations to the Saints, moving their top affiliate from Rochester, New York; the Wichita Wind Surge (Double-A), the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Kernels (High-A) and the Fort Myers, Fla., Mighty Mussels (Low-A).
The Twins also will continue with a short-season, rookie-level team based in Fort Myers and one in the Dominican Republic.
While the Saints are leaving independent ball behind to affiliate with the Twins, both clubs were quick to point out that the Saints’ brand wasn’t going anywhere — and might just rub off on the Twins.
“The Twins admire and respect the Saints operations and the way they approach the gameday experience at CHS Field,” Twins team president Dave St. Peter said. “The last thing the Minnesota Twins want to do is to change that. And over time, I predict that we will see more Saints’ influence on the Target Field experience than we will Twins’ influence on the CHS Field experience.
“We are thrilled with today’s announcement. We’re absolutely ecstatic to call the Saints a partner.”
The Twins have been singing the Saints’ praises since this summer, when they used CHS Field in Lowertown as their alternate training site during the pandemic-shortened season. That gave them a peek into the future as talks between the organizations gained traction.
For the Twins, having their Triple-A group so close by affords them flexibility with roster-making decisions, cuts down on travel costs and will allow a closer relationship between the major league and Triple-A staff, among other benefits. Players will easily be able to see team doctors and won’t have to live out of hotels during a call-up to the majors.
With the partnership, the Twins will be the closest MLB team to their Triple-A affiliate, at just 10.6 miles away. Both St. Peter and president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said they saw the short distance as a competitive advantage.
The Twins now have a minority stake in the Saints, though the majority ownership still sits with Marv Goldklang, Mike Veeck and actor Bill Murray. While there was a fee to leave independent ball to become an affiliate, Goldklang said he was bound by a strict confidentiality agreement with Major League Baseball as to what it was.
“A part of our heart and our legacy is wrapped up in independent baseball,” he said. “But when the opportunity presents itself to combine the two iconic brands, two great organizations in the same market, it was something that we absolutely could not say no to.”
For the Saints, the new arrangement will provide them with better ballplayers and expand the fanbase to Twins fans eager to watch future stars at CHS Field while allowing them to remain committed to their quirky, fan-friendly in-game experience at an affordable cost.
Saints leadership was unequivocal in saying that ticket prices will not be rising at CHS Field as the Saints now look to build out their fanbase.
“I want to thank the fans of Minnesota,” Veeck said. “I think without them on both sides of the river, and constantly crossing back and forth, neither one of us have, in the end, the product that we do. Minnesota fans have just amazed me for all these years. And of course, going back 25 years, as soon as we were kind of having some success, their question was, ‘Why don’t you get together with the Twins?’ And I can tell you that our fans will love this change, will embrace this change.”
In Wichita, the Twins would be the beneficiaries of a brand-new, $75 million park. Riverfront Stadium was built to lure a Triple-A team beginning in 2020 before the Minor League Baseball season was wiped out by COVID-19. The Wind Surge were the Miami Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate last year but never played a game at the new ballpark.
The Twins have been partnered with the Cedar Rapids Kernels since 2013, though next year will see the Kernels moving up a class to High-A. The Mighty Mussels, with whom the Twins have been affiliated with since 1993, will shift to Low-A.
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December 10, 2020 at 01:33AM
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Twins and Saints make it official: Triple-A baseball coming to St. Paul - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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