It’s been more than 15 months since Minor League Baseball was in action and the wait is still several weeks longer, but the light is at the end of the tunnel. We have schedules for the 2021 season.
We’ve known that Double-A, High-A and Low-A would be starting later than Triple-A. We also knew that the leagues were drastically restructured, even if all the White Sox affiliates stayed in place. Still, there are plenty of surprises and nuances to the schedules.
Start dates
Triple-A Charlotte starts on April 6. The Knights are the only affiliate to start at a normal date and they have a 142-game schedule.
In an effort to minimize the amount of players at spring training, MLB staggered spring trainings for minor leaguers. MLB and Triple-A spring training is normal, while the rest of the minor leagues are getting a later start.
Double-A Birmingham, High-A Winston-Salem and Low-A Kannapolis all start on May 4. Those three teams are scheduled to play 120 games. Kannapolis debuts its new stadium on that day as well.
Across all four levels, the seasons are running into mid-September. Most leagues ended their regular season by the first week of September at the latest before. More off days pushed back the schedule with Sept. 19 as the scheduled end for the regular season. That could affect what we see as far as September call-ups in the majors.
Six-game series
If you looked at the embedded schedule graphics above, you may have noticed that nearly every series in every league is a six-game series. They are all Tuesday-Sunday. Mondays are off days.
This means if teams have a five-man starting pitching rotation, the pitcher who starts the first game would be on schedule to start the last game of the series as well. That could be an interesting dynamic if hitters adjust to the pitcher’s stuff.
No more local trips
Over the years, some White Sox fans enjoyed making the relatively short trip to Indianapolis to see the Knights play the Indians. Those days are gone.
The Knights remain in the same league as Indianapolis, but are in a different division and aren’t on the Knights’ schedule. Nashville might be the closest trip for any White Sox affiliate from Chicago this year.
Schedule quirks
The leagues were restructured with geographical efficiency in mind. That may not play out perfectly in every league, but for the most part teams are staying within their divisions.
Birmingham is the only White Sox affiliate to have every other team from its league on its 2021 schedule. The old Southern League was a geographically tight eight-team league to begin with and only swapped one team in the restructuring.
Winston-Salem is in a 12-team league, but will only see two teams from the opposite division. The Dash are one of two teams from the old Carolina League to remain in High-A. The other, Wilmington, is in the opposite division and won’t play the Dash this year.
The weirdest schedule of them all is easily Charlotte’s. Not only do the Knights not leave their seven-team division, they don’t even play every team in their division. Division foe Memphis never plays Charlotte. The Knights play Jacksonville a whopping 42 times. Durham and Norfolk are on the schedule 36 times each. There are 16 games against Gwinnett and 12 against Nashville.
Evaluation has to go beyond numbers when it comes to prospects, but what if Jacksonville are world beaters or bottom-feeders? The Knights play almost 30% of their schedule against Jacksonville. That team will have a significant weight to Charlotte’s season.
Regardless of how weird the 2021 schedule looks, it will be nice to have Minor League Baseball back. It’s reasonable to think further tweaks will come in 2022 after seeing this schedule play out. Next year also figures to be more normal than 2021 in terms of the pandemic.
Photo: Atrium Health Ballpark (credit Kannapolis Cannon Ballers)
Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box on the right-side bar (or at the bottom on a mobile device) and click create subscription. Our list is completely spam free and you can opt out at any time. Also, consider supporting FutureSox on Patreon! You can get early access to special articles and Patreon-only posts, in addition to more benefits.
Shop our exclusive merchandise! Show your support with FutureSox apparel.
Pingback: Start of Triple-A season pushed back a month - Futuresox