Branch Rickey, who invented baseball’s farm system nearly 100 years ago, once said “a baseball club in any city in America is a quasi-public institution.”
That belief, and the concept of minor league baseball as fans have long known it, appears near an end. Major League Baseball owners recently proposed a radical restructuring of its farm systems, one that would eliminate the two minor league teams in Colorado in addition to 40 other lower-level affiliates following the 2020 season.
Owners say drastic change is necessary to ensure professional-grade facilities for all minor league players, reduce travel by reorganizing leagues by geography and to improve “compensation, accommodations, and amenities” for minor league players.