Yankees Minor League Changes
AA: Trenton Thunder > Somerset NJ Patriots
A: Charleston Riverdogs > Hudson Valley NY Renegades
Charleston used to be Low A but Hudson Valley will now become High A
Tampa used to be High A but now will be Low A
This move makes sense with Tampa’s minor league facility and proximity to the Gulf Coast League and Dominican Summer League
High A, AA, and AAA are now all within a few hours of the Bronx and each other, making for easy logistics on promotions
SWB to Somerset: 2-hour drive
Somerset to Hudson Valley: 1.5-hour drive
Hudson Valley to SWB: 1:40 drive
SWB to Yankee Stadium: 2-hour drive
Somerset to Yankee Stadium: 1-hour drive
Hudson Valley to Yankee Stadium: 1:20 drive
Cuts:
Short Season NY-Penn league has been scrapped by MLB, so the Staten Island Pizza Rats are no more
Rookie level Pulaski VA Yankees have been cut
The Yankees made their re-organization of minor-league affiliates official over the weekend, adding two new teams and moving Tampa from High-A to Low-A while officially dropping four affiliates.
The Somerset Patriots, who had played in the independent Atlantic League through last season, will replace the Trenton Thunder as the new Double-A team
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However, with the Yankees’ realignment – keeping Triple-A in Scranton, moving Double-A to Somerset and High-A to Hudson Valley (just outside Poughkeepsie), and having Tampa now be Low-A, just one step above the complex league – they are now set up as optimally as possible for success, with their top three affiliates not only within about a two-hour range from the Bronx, but also only a couple hours away from each other.
Yeah, from a geographical standpoint, everything is now really in one neat, tidy place for them,” Ashmore said. “Somerset will have to make some upgrades to TD Bank Park to fit the minimum requirements for affiliated Double-A baseball, but they have the space and resources to do it.”
That ideal, or the lack of acting on it, may have been one of the reasons the Yankees decided to end a nearly two-decade long run with the Thunder when the MLB player development agreement ran out.
