Minor league baseball teams' 2020 season hinges on MLB

Nashville Tennessean

Minor league baseball's 2020 season may be over before it began. At least at the lower levels.

That's what minor league teams across Tennessee are preparing for, although the state's two Triple-A franchises – the Nashville Sounds and Memphis Redbirds – are holding out hope.

David Freeman, co-owner of the Jackson Generals club, which plays at the Double-A level, said last week his group is operating on the assumption there will be no baseball in Class AA.

“We will be forced to make an additional high-six-figure investment due to the Coronavirus and the loss of the 2020 season,” Freeman said in an interview with MinorLeagueBaseball.com that was posted on the Generals' website.

What kind of minor league season there will be, if any, hinges on what Major League Baseball does.

The Sounds, Redbirds, Generals along with the state's other Double-A teams (Chattanooga Lookouts and Tennessee Smokies) and rookie league teams (Elizabethton Twins, Greeneville Reds, Johnson City Cardinals and Kingsport Mets) are in limbo after the baseball season was suspended in March during spring training because of the coronavirus pandemic.

NASCAR returned Sunday, but fans weren’t allowed at the track. The PGA Tour plans to return in June but also without fans. There are rumblings about a shortened MLB season commencing in this summer, but it's unclear where that would leave the minor leagues, which, without lucrative media-rights deals, depend on revenue from fans.

Nashville Sounds employees drive by in a cart in front of the Nashville Sounds guitar sign that suffered damage during a tornado from the early morning hours of March 3 as shown in this image taken at Sounds Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday, March 5, 2020.

Sounds general manager Adam Nuse believes the chance remains that at least Triple-A ball will be played if a proposal made by MLB owners to start the season around July 4 is adopted.

"The promising thing is that (MLB teams) are trying to have the taxi squad as part of that," Nuse said. "So if they can get a plan where they have an extra 20 to 25 players, that gives us some hope that we can play."

Nuse said that plan could result in Triple-A playing a 40-game home season. That would likely include extending the end of the regular season.

"If we could get a 40-game season in, I think we'd all be pretty happy," Nuse said.

Redbirds owner Peter Freund, who also owns the Memphis 901 FC soccer team that also plays at AutoZone Park, released a statement Friday saying that, like the Sounds, he is waiting on MLB to determine its course before making his next move.

“Right now we have more questions than answers as to if and when baseball or soccer will return to AutoZone Park," Freund said. "We are working diligently on a daily basis to look at all possible scenarios but unfortunately cannot share any definitive plans as its an incredibly complicated situation. With that said, we will be back and continue to welcome hundreds of thousands of fans annually to the stadium downtown as soon as possible.”

Memphis Redbirds' pitcher Andy Benes at work in the second inning against Edmonton June 18, 2002.

Hope fades below Triple-A

There is less hope that minor league baseball below the Triple-A level will be played in 2020.

Chris Allen is skeptical of whether minor league baseball will happen this summer for the four affiliates for which he works. He plans to bring baseball to Tennessee ballparks regardless.

Allen is president and chief operating officer for Boyd Sports, which owns the Double-A Smokies of the Southern League based in Sevier County and operates three rookie-class teams in the Appalachian League.

“The folks I talked to with our affiliate teams at the big-league level, they’re trying their best just to get their season off the ground,” Allen said Monday. “Minor league baseball, I think, would be an afterthought to that, which obviously is not something I want to hear, but that’s kind of what I gather.”

A freshly mowed and maintained baseball field is seen at the Smokies Stadium in Kodak, Tenn., on Wednesday, April 22, 2020.

Making other plans

With that in mind, plans are being made for Smokies Stadium in Kodak, TVA Credit Union Ballpark in Johnson City and Joe O’Brien Field in Elizabethton to host the inaugural season of the East Tennessee High School Baseball League.

The league will begin in June and feature 22 to 24 teams. Games are being scheduled for dates that otherwise were earmarked for minor league games.

If a minor league season comes together, the schedule for the East Tennessee High School Baseball League will be adjusted accordingly. While still hopeful minor league baseball will happen in 2020, Allen is not counting on it.

“We can’t sit around and wait to hear news,” he said. “We have to plan accordingly. We can’t sit around on our hands all the time.”

No fans means no revenue

Playing minor league games without fans is not much of an option, Allen said.

“I think the general consensus among minor league operators is that (playing without fans) makes absolutely no sense for us,” Allen said. “We don’t have TV rights. We don’t have any of the TV revenue coming in for our operation. If we have a game without fans, it’s just going to cost us more money.

"Certainly, we’ll do whatever we have to. If we have to start off for a few weeks without fans, we’re open to that. But we certainly have to get our fans back in the ballpark. We’re here for our community, and we’re here to show them a good entertainment venue. And we can’t do that without allowing fans in.”

Mark Giannotto contributed to this story.