Nats Extend PDCs for Hagerstown, Potomac Through 2020
The Nats have locked down all four affiliates below AAA through the 2020 season.
Despite years (decades) of stadium woes, the Hagerstown Suns and Potomac Nationals will remain Nationals affiliates for another two years, both teams announced today.
The extension will reduce the tension that both teams face in securing a sale of the team (Hagerstown) and the relocation of the team (Potomac). Both franchises have a letter of intent for their respective wishes, which are roughly the equivalent of promise ring as it relates to a marriage. The Suns have been reportedly on the market for nearly two years while the P-Nats have been seeking a new stadium for more than two decades.
The two franchises join Auburn and Harrisburg, which announced similar PDC extensions this past June and February. All four eligible affiliates have been extended through the 2020 season.
The fifth, Syracuse, will end its ten-season run with the Nationals by virtue of the New York Mets’ purchase of the franchise last October. The Nationals will return to the Pacific Coast League for the first time since 2007, as the last available I.L. team (Rochester) renewed with Minnesota last month and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders—majority-owned by the New York Yankees—renewed yesterday with… wait for it… the New York Yankees.
Where the Nationals will play at AAA in 2019 is not clear. While Occam’s Razor suggests they will replace the Mets as the affiliate with the Las Vegas 51s, as of this writing there are six PCL franchises that have not renewed beyond 2018. Nashville is the only unsigned-beyond-2018 affiliate east of the Mississippi, and some have suggested here and elsewhere that Oakland may prefer to switch to Las Vegas from Nashville to reduce the amount of time required for a player to travel to the West Coast.
Kyle McGowin is indeed being called up, per multiple reports.
Bittersweet to end the affiliation with Syracuse as it officially becomes Mets territory. But the Nats’ Triple-A folks really haven’t ever seemed to prosper up there. Here’s hoping they can get Nashville. I guess if they end up with no good options and the Lerners are feeling like spending some money, they could buy the Fresno or Round Rock team and move it somewhere closer that already has a suitable ballpark (Ottawa? Montreal?), but that’d be a pretty dramatic resolution to this issue on relatively short notice, and the PCL could potentially throw up roadblocks.
The major problem with Syracuse, and Ottawa, is the weather is horrific and unplayable the first 6 weeks of the season.
I remember when Ottawa was a AAA franchise and you would have a week of games where the temperature was 34-35 degrees.
How are you going to evaluate anybody in that?
The best and most realistic solution is to outbid Milwaukee for the Nashville affiliation. Milwaukee and Oakland can fight over Fresno and Las Vegas. Houston probably takes Round Rock with Texas affiliating with the new San Antonio team.
Getting saddled with a minor league affiliate in California or Nevada would stink. I’m sure the Brewers don’t want to be in that situation either. The Nats need to make sure their offer is better.
Eh, even though Nashville is the closest, it’s not like it’s driving distance (about 11 hours drive from Nashville to DC) so it doesn’t really make any difference which PCL affiliate we get, except that we get one with regular direct flights to DC. That would be Nashville, Las Vegas, Round Rock (a suburb of Austin) or even San Antonio. Basically anywhere but Fresno.
Forget Montreal, it’s a MLB market and we want nothing to do with AAA. Even worst, to be the AAA team of the Nats, weelllllll, you know where they come from those Nats…. It’s an insult for Montreal baseball fans to even consider it…. Ottawa fans don’t even know if their Champions(Independent league) will be back next year. Attendance under 2000… BTW, Bill Lee was DH for the Champions last sunday at….71 years old….. There’s only one Spaceman!
It will be Nashville. Hopefully it’s a spring board for getting into the Appalachia League too. There have been rumors for years that Rizzo wanted us to get another rookie league team.