Toronto Blue Jays: Implications from the Delayed Minor League Start

The start of Double-A and Single-A Minor league baseball appears to have been delayed by MLB. What are the implications for the Toronto Blue Jays organization?

According to J.J. Cooper of Baseball America, the start of minor league baseball has been delayed.

"Major League Baseball sent a memo to minor league teams on Monday informing them that the 2021 minor league season at Double-A and the Class A levels will be delayed."

The concern is for the health and safety of the minor leaguers, so Double-A and Class A players will not begin until MLB and Triple-A players have departed their spring training facilities.

The delay is expected to allow for more social distancing given MiLB teams don’t have the same resources to stay distanced, i.e. bus travel between cities.

According to Cooper, “even if MLB spring training begins on time, many minor leaguers would not report to spring training until late March or early April.”

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A big positive here is that the slow roll-out is an opportunity to ease in to MLB’s new 120-team minors’ development system. There will be no MiLB playoffs this year,  so organizations can be incremental and focus more on providing a space for competitive, developmental play for their lower lever prospects.

Cooper also notes,

"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 September. 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."

Two other key positives: safe venues for minor leaguers to get back to baseball related activities; and, more time for the vaccines to be distributed, which potentially could allow for more fan attendance at MiLB facilities?

The negatives from a fan perspective?  Could this delay prospect development timelines, and make it harder to assess talent in those pipelines?

For a team like the Jays who’ve entered a competitive window, could this make it harder for potential trade partners to evaluate minor league talent and prospects they’d want in return for established MLB talent?

Obviously, a key Blue Jays specific concern will now be what to do if the major league team stays at their spring training facility in Dunedin? Where will minor league players report to after the Jays and Bisons finish spring training?

Given the team won’t be playing home games in Toronto at least to begin the season and is still based out of Dunedin, then what for the AA- and A-ball prospects?

With reduced minor league affiliates in Buffalo, New Hampshire, Vancouver and Dunedin, perhaps only the Low-A players at Dunedin would be impacted? As Jays Journal co-editor Clayton Richer noted recently,

"Dunedin will become their Low-A affiliate as the team cuts their farm down from six to four teams as part of the MLB revamping."

Presumably the Jays Triple-A players can move to Buffalo for a regular start to the Bisons’ season, so would that preclude Sahlen Field as a potential home park for the Blue Jays?

And what does this mean for top prospects like Austin Martin, Jordan Groshans, Simeon Woods Richardson, Alek Manoah, Orelvis Martinez and Gabriel Moreno?

I’m assuming Nate Pearson, Thomas Hatch, Julian Merryweather and Alejandro Kirk will be sticking with the big club anyways, but does the next rung of top prospects get assigned to Triple-A so they can get developmental time and coaching if the big Jays remain in Dunedin?

Presumably there won’t be a development or taxi squad at an alternate site like last year, so what can the one MLB team without a home do to resolve this dilemma?