The Yankees made their re-organization of minor-league affiliates official over the weekend, adding two new teams and moving Tampa from High-A to Low-A while officially dropping four affiliates.
The Somerset Patriots, who had played in the independent Atlantic League through last season, will replace the Trenton Thunder as the new Double-A team, and Mike Ashmore – who covers Somerset for mycentraljersey.com and formerly covered the Thunder for various outlets – gave the new affiliate (who will remain the Patriots, for now) some love in an appearance with Danielle McCartan early Sunday morning on WFAN.
“Somerset and their front office did a great job putting on the Somerset Series this season (in lieu of an Atlantic League season) to try to stay relevant and in the public eye, and it’s all going to blow up for them this season,” Ashmore said.
That said, the MLB/MiLB contraction plan is “not necessarily super positive” for the teams being cut or the players who lose jobs.
“Taking affiliated ball out of some of these markets is taking away opportunities for some guys who may not normally get them, but independent ball is there for a reason,” Ashmore said. “I know Trenton has been offered Somerset’s spot in the Atlantic League, but they have been publicly anti-indy ball in the past, and either way, all the players who were set to be in Somerset on the independent side will have to find other jobs.”
However, with the Yankees’ realignment – keeping Triple-A in Scranton, moving Double-A to Somerset and High-A to Hudson Valley (just outside Poughkeepsie), and having Tampa now be Low-A, just one step above the complex league – they are now set up as optimally as possible for success, with their top three affiliates not only within about a two-hour range from the Bronx, but also only a couple hours away from each other.
“Yeah, from a geographical standpoint, everything is now really in one neat, tidy place for them,” Ashmore said. “Somerset will have to make some upgrades to TD Bank Park to fit the minimum requirements for affiliated Double-A baseball, but they have the space and resources to do it.”
That ideal, or the lack of acting on it, may have been one of the reasons the Yankees decided to end a nearly two-decade long run with the Thunder when the MLB player development agreement ran out.
“Some of the field conditions weren’t so great at Arm & Hammer Park, and that may have played into it,” Ashmore said. “I know they were reluctant to have some big-leaguers rehab there for various reasons.”
Ashmore was unable to go in-depth as to what will happen to the staffs in both Trenton and Somerset – that is for the Yankees to decide – and after Thunder co-owner Joseph Plumeri released a statement that was very critical of the Yankees on Saturday, suffice to say that bridge may be burned.
MLB reportedly has designs on making top affiliates as local as possible, so one potential switch for Trenton could be to become a new destination for a Phillies affiliate. The Phillies' current Double-A team is in Reading, Penn., but Thunder co-owner Joseph Finley has a stake in the Triple-A Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, and, until 2017, was an owner of the Lakewood (now Jersey Shore) Blue Claws of the Low-A (for now) South Atlantic League.
No matter what happens, though, one thing is for sure: Sparky Lyle, the Patriots’ manager emeritus and a mainstay in Somerset, isn’t going anywhere.
“Sparky actually becomes more valuable there with his Yankees ties,” Ashmore said. “They just unveiled a statue of him there, and it will be great to see him there still.”
Ashmore also spoke about Rutgers football and a little on the Jets – both of whom he covers now for The Trentonian – and you can hear it all in the full interview below.
Follow Danielle McCartan on Twitter: @CoachMcCartan
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