After months of fans in minor league baseball communities across the country having to wonder what would happen to their local teams, MLB and its clubs made the contraction down to 120 affiliates official on Wednesday. In Birdland, the result of the changes is that the Frederick Keys are out as an affiliate, while the Aberdeen IronBirds will move up to the High-A level.
As part of the change, Frederick will now become part of a six-team league that MLB is calling the Draft League. As MLB currently envisions it, those six teams - consisting of Frederick and five other former minor league affiliates in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey - will host draft-eligible prospects for a 68-game season that will have an All-Star break centered around the MLB draft, which will be taking place in July from here on.