The Batavia Muckdogs announced Tuesday that they will join the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League for the 2021 season (h/t Sam Dykstra, MiLB.com).
As the name would suggest, the PGCBL operates using players who still have college eligibility remaining. This transition marks the end of long tradition of professional baseball in Batavia which dated back to the founding of the New York-Penn League (NY-P League) in 1939.
For the seven most recent Minor League Baseball seasons (2013-2019), Marlins prospects played for the Muckdogs at the Short Season A level. The lower rungs of the Fish farm system were bereft of talent for most of that span, and especially after ownership change, the franchise was reluctant to assign early-round draft picks to play there.