Wichita’s baseball team will drop to Double-A, source says; no MLB announcement yet
Wichita’s affiliation with a Triple-A minor-league baseball team may end before the Wind Surge has even played a game.
After the coronavirus pandemic prompted cancellation of the 2020 minor-league season, Major League Baseball took control of Minor League Baseball and is soon to announce a massive reorganization. MLB teams want to reduce travel costs for their affiliates, meaning several minor-league teams will switch affiliations and classifications.
According to a source with direct knowledge of the situation, the reshuffling will leave the Wichita Wind Surge, who were the Triple-A affiliate for the Miami Marlins in the Pacific Coast League, as the new Double-A farm team for the Minnesota Twins in the Texas League.
The move would be a disappointing end to a four-year saga to bring Triple-A baseball back to Wichita for the first time in nearly four decades. Wichita’s City Council approved tax hikes to help pay for the $75 million, 6,000-seat Riverfront Stadium, a campaign led by former Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell under the assumption that the Wind Surge would be a Triple-A franchise.
Wind Surge general manager Jared Forma could not confirm the team is dropping to Double-A. Wichita Vice Mayor Cindy Claycomb declined to comment. According to a Baseball America report, Wichita should find out from MLB this week and as soon as Tuesday. The Wind Surge’s player development contract with the Miami Marlins expires at the end of this year.
“What I can tell you is that we are like the other 160+ MiLB teams in that we are all waiting to hear from MLB on what the future landscape will be,” Forma wrote in an email. “Currently we are still a member of the AAA Pacific Coast League.
“Until Major League Baseball makes a formal announcement, everything is speculation,” Claycomb wrote in an email.
Since it has become clear MLB is aiming for a more regionalized structure to its minor-league system, predictions that Wichita would join the Minnesota Twins’ farm system were rampant in November.
While Wichita’s move to becoming a Double-A affiliate for the Twins has yet to be announced, reporting by national baseball publications have made Wichita’s final destination seem inevitable.
Ballpark Digest reported on Nov. 2 that Wichita was one of three Triple-A franchises being demoted to make way for teams in Jacksonville, Florida; Sugar Land, Texas; and St. Paul, Minnesota. The same report said the Marlins will claim Jacksonville as their new Triple-A affiliate and add Pensacola, Florida — the current Double-A team for the Twins — as their new Double-A affiliate.
Combined with news earlier this month that the Twins are severing ties with Triple-A affiliate Rochester in New York, it’s clear Minnesota will be looking for new farm teams. In theory, Wichita could maintain its Triple-A status if it joins the Twins’ organization, but it’s difficult to imagine Minnesota picking Wichita, a 9-hour drive, over St. Paul, a 15-minute drive from its stadium.
While Wichita could be demoted in the reshuffling of the minor-league system, a positive is that it would bring stability as an affiliated franchise. Under the prior arrangement, the affiliated status for a minor-league team came up for renewal every two or four years. Under the new agreement with MLB, Wichita would be given a 10-year professional development license to sign, securing its place as an affiliated franchise for the next decade.
Another positive is that Double-A teams host the organization’s top prospects more frequently than Triple-A teams, meaning Wichita could be the home for more future MLB players.
If Wichita does move down to Double-A, it would re-join the Texas League, where the Wichita Pilots and Wichita Wranglers played from 1987 to 2007. Wichita hasn’t seen Triple-A baseball since 1984, when the Wichita Aeros wrapped up a 14-year run as a Triple-A franchise.
The Wind Surge were scheduled to play their home opener at the new ballpark in downtown Wichita on April 14 before the coronavirus pandemic led to cancellation of all 2020 minor-league seasons in March.
This offseason has also been marked by the death of Wind Surge owner Lou Schwechheimer at age 62 because of COVID-19 complications before he ever saw his franchise play a game in Wichita. Schwechheimer was responsible for bringing affiliated baseball back to Wichita when he agreed to move his franchise, the New Orleans Baby Cakes, to Wichita in 2018.
This story was originally published November 30, 2020 at 5:14 AM.
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