Opinion Trax: What does the future hold for the Atlantic League

On Friday, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball lost its second team, the Sugar Land Skeeters, who became a Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. This made sense for the Skeeters as their closest opponent was the High Point Rockers, High Point, NC. They will now compete in the Pacific Coast League with teams close by to play. The Skeeters won two Atlantic League championships in their eight-years in the Atlantic League.

The week prior to the Skeeters leaving, the Somerset Patriots became a Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. The Patriots were a member of the Atlantic League since its inception in 1998. The Patriots were a decorative team, winning 13 divisional titles and six league championships. The Patriots will compete in the Eastern League, joining teams like the Hartford Yard Goats and Reading Fightin Phils.

Since the Atlantic League, along with the American Association and Frontier League, became partner leagues for MLB, teams are looking to bring their affiliates closer to home. These independent leagues had teams close to them, and now some MLB teams are already making moves. Now with both Somerset and Sugar Land gone, where does the Atlantic League go from here?

MLB is currently restructuring its minor league system. Many cities have either already lost their teams or about to lose their teams. The Yankees gave a preview when they ended their affiliation agreements with the Trenton Thunder, Staten Island Yankees, and the Charlestown RiverDogs. With these cities losing their affiliate teams, the Atlantic League should take advantage of this and bring these teams to their league.

Since 1998, the Atlantic League has had eight teams. When teams have either folded or relocated to another league, the Atlantic League used a travel-only team called the Road Warriors to step in and play until a new team joined the league. While losing Sugar Land was tough, the league should get back to its roots and bring in teams from only the east coast. After all, they are called the Atlantic League.

By bringing these former teams to their league, if these teams want to join, it would give them more teams than they have ever had in league history. By keeping teams on the east coast, they have a chance to expand to other states like Georgia and Florida. They should not pursue teams in the central region. That should be for both the American Association and Frontier League, who have teams up and down the central region.

I think once the dust settles, the Atlantic League will have new teams from former minor league affiliates to continue to provide quality baseball for their fans. Independent baseball is essential because it allows players who are not on a major or minor league roster to continue to hone their skills. They also help players looking to make a comeback or were injured to get back into baseball shape. The more teams in the Atlantic League, the better the competition will be.

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