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SALT LAKE CITY — The Angels are sticking with the Bees.
On Wednesday, all major league baseball teams were tasked with officially naming their minor league affiliates for the future. All 30 MLB teams can have four minor league affiliates across four levels of minor league baseball.
The Los Angeles Angels, which have carried an affiliation with the Salt Lake Bees since the 2001 season, announced Wednesday morning that they will keep Salt Lake as its Triple-A affiliate. It also extended affiliate invitations to the Rocket City Trash Pandas (a Double-A team in Madison, Alabama), the Tri-City Dust Devils (a High-A team in Pasco, Washington) and the Inland Empire 66ers (a Low-A team in San Bernardino, California).
"The Salt Lake Bees are excited to be invited by the Los Angeles Angels to continue as their Triple-A affiliate," said Bees general manager Marc Amicone, in a statement. "We are hopeful to have a finalized agreement with Major League Baseball soon so we can continue to bring professional baseball to Smith's Ballpark and Salt Lake City in 2021."
In all, 120 minor league teams were expected to be extended invites Wednesday, and there were some changes to Triple-A baseball. For instance, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Miami Marlins), Sugar Land Skeeters (Houston Astros) and St. Paul Saints (Minnesota Twins) are newcomers to the highest level of the minor leagues. Jacksonville was promoted from Double-A, while Sugar Land and St. Paul moved in from independent leagues.
Previous Triple-A mainstays New Orleans, Fresno and San Antonio appear to have dropped out. New Orleans previously moved to Wichita and will participate next season as the Twins' Double-A affiliate.
Big changes were expected to come to minor league baseball following the end of its agreement with MLB in September. MLB absorbed all minor league operations after MiLB and MLB failed to come to a new agreement.
The announcement from the Angels Wednesday also puts an official end to its rookie league partnership with the Orem Owlz, which announced on Nov. 30 it had moved to Colorado. MLB officials revealed the fate of the Owlz, Ogden Raptors and the rest of the Pioneer League that same day. The league will run independent of the minor league system but have a partnership with MLB.
The World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers had an affiliation with the Raptors prior to all of the minor league changes. It announced Wednesday that it extended affiliation invitations to Oklahoma CIty, Tulsa, Great Lakes and Rancho Cucamonga instead.
There were no minor league baseball games played in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The MLB season was shortened to 60 regular-season games with an extended 60-man total roster pool. The 2021 regular season is expected to return to a normal 162-game schedule with a minor league system attached.
