Minor League Baseball announced this morning that the Triple-A schedule will be expanding from 144 to 150 games in 2022 (h/t to J.J. Cooper of Baseball America). According to the press release, the move is designed to “help Triple-A baseball better align with the Major League season” by delaying “the end date of the Minor League campaign to September 28.”
MiLB notes that the development puts into place the longest Triple-A season since at least 1964. In 2019, the most recent minor league season to begin on time, the Triple-A regular season schedule wrapped up by September 2. Ending the regular season within the first week of September was the typical process, leading to particular challenges for MLB teams that had injured players attempting to make late-season returns to the big leagues. Getting recovering players into minor league game action on rehab assignments during September became impossible unless one or more of the club’s farm teams had qualified for the postseason.
Last year’s Triple-A season carried into the first week of October, although that hadn’t been by design. Rather, the start of the season was delayed a month over COVID-19 concerns. This year, the Triple-A campaign is slated to begin on its more customary time, with first games scheduled for April 5. Expanding the docket a few games will allow it to more closely overlap with the MLB schedule, which is currently ticketed for March 31 through October 3.
The MLB schedule, of course, is contingent on the hammering out of a new collective bargaining agreement. Given the huge gaps still present in CBA talks, the possibility of a delayed start to the season (and possible compression of the schedule) looms larger day by day. The Triple-A schedule won’t be affected by the lockout, however.
Only players on an MLB 40-man roster are members of the MLB Players Association. That encompasses a handful of minor leaguers, mostly those added to the 40-man last November to keep them from selection in the Rule 5 draft. Yet the vast majority of minor league players are not on a 40-man roster. Those players can remain in contact with club personnel throughout the lockout and will report as scheduled for the start of the minor league campaign.
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February 04, 2022 at 01:33AM
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Triple-A Baseball Season Expanded To 150 Games - MLB Trade Rumors
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