Major League Baseball starts process of taking over minors’ governance
A player walks past the empty bleachers at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, RI, on Aug. 26, 2020. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball will eliminate the separate ruling body of minor league baseball and move governance of the farm teams to the commissioner’s office in New York as it moves forward with plans to shrink affiliations from 160 to 120.
The Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues expired Sept. 30 without a successor deal following a year of acrimonious negotiations.
The National Association was founded in 1901. The National Association office has been in St. Petersburg, Florida.
MLB retained Peter B. Freund and Trinity Sports Consultants to work on the transition.