Report: Start of Minor League Season of Double-A and Class-A To Be Delayed

Double-A and Class A players will report to spring training after MLB and Triple-A players leave camp.

Richard Wachtel

Jan 06, 2021 - 1 min read

According to a J.J. Cooper of Baseball America report, Major League Baseball sent a memo to all Minor League teams telling them that players at the Double-A and Class A baseball levels that their spring training will be delayed.

Spring Training for both Double-A and Class-A teams will not report to spring training until after both Major League Baseball teams and Triple-A players depart from their own Spring Training Camp. From the report: "Additionally, the memo told minor league teams to expect their schedules to run until as late as Oct. 3, a full month after regular season games normally end in early Septe8mber. It is also expected there will be no minor league playoffs in 2021. With a delayed start, those playoff dates will be exchanged for more dates for all teams."

Also, according to the report, the memo states that Major League Baseball is looking to adopt "a six-days on and one-day off schedule for 2021, under which leagues would have a set off-day once a week." If this change is adopted, it would limit the travel for the teams and, therefore, cut trip and airline coasts in half, which would need help with teams' budgets after the 2020 Minor League Baseball season was canceled.

However, the 120 teams MLB has invited to be part of its new minor league system have not received their Professional Development Licenses yet. Once Major League Baseball gets the professional development licenses from the Minor League Baseball teams, MLB will release the 2021 schedule, which means that the schedules will not be released until February.

Back in November, Major League Baseball and Prep Baseball Report and five other members announce the formation of an MLB Draft league that will showcase and focus on top prospects eligible to be drafted by Major League baseball clubs that summer.

In the announcement made by Major League Baseball Draft, league teams will be creating “teams,” named the Mahoniny Scrappers, the State College Spikes, the Trenton Thunder, the West Virginia Black Bears, and the Williamsport Crosscutters, with a six-team being announced in a couple of weeks.