BREAKING: GreenJackets Switch to Affiliation with Atlanta Braves
The Augusta GreenJackets are going to get a lot more local, as the Low Class A baseball team will now be affiliated with the Atlanta Braves, the team announced Wednesday. The deal is pending official licensing agreements, but was announced as part of a major Minor League Baseball realignment.
“With this invitation, the GreenJackets are officially on the path to being affiliated with the Atlanta Braves. This has been a long process, and we gratefully await the official Professional Development License Agreement so we can finalize this partnership and complete what is a truly historic event for sports in the CSRA,” Jeff Eiseman, President & Partner of the GreenJackets said in a release. “Never before has this market had ties directly to our truest home team, the Atlanta Braves. We couldn’t dream of a team we would want to affiliate with more. Thanks to the vision and leadership of North Augusta, SRP Park should soon be home to the Braves’ top prospects, and fans can see the future of the Braves right here on the river for years to come.”
The Braves affiliations will now be the Gwinnett Stripers (Triple A), the Mississippi Braves (Double A), the Rome Braves (Class A Advanced) and Augusta (Low Class A). The GreenJackets had been affiliated with the San Francisco Giants.
Augusta GreenJackets Invited to become @Braves Affiliate
— Augusta GreenJackets (@GreenJackets) December 9, 2020
Under this move @SRPPark will be the Low-A home to Braves top prospects
Read Official Release HERE: https://t.co/NlQbZKQyBm pic.twitter.com/kA03aLXfYY
The circumstances leading up to the affiliation switches has been long and complicated, and Baseball America does a great job of breaking it all down here. But the summary version is that Major League Baseball felt it needed more control of the way its player development happened and used the end of its last contract with Minor League Baseball as a starting point to change the structure.
As part of the massive restructuring, 11 teams around the country have been contracted from affiliated baseball. Major League Baseball has committed to having baseball of some type in all of those markets, however, mostly with summer league and other similar developmental league connections.
