Phillies’ affiliate in Williamsport could be eliminated by Major League Baseball’s cuts to minor leagues

A meeting scheduled Wednesday between Major League Baseball and the minor leagues is expected to dramatically alter the structure of baseball’s lower levels and could lead to the elimination of one of the three Phillies affiliates based in Pennsylvania.

A source told the Associated Press that the minor leagues are prepared to agree Wednesday to a proposal by MLB to trim affiliations from 160 teams to 120 teams beginning in 2021. The news was first reported Tuesday by Baseball America. Under the new proposal, MLB clubs would have four full-season minor-league teams along with a rookie-league club that plays at their spring-training complex and a team in the Dominican Summer League.

This proposal would eliminate the Williamsport Crosscutters, the Phillies’ affiliate in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. Along with the 14 New York-Penn League teams, affiliations would also be eliminated for the eight teams in the short-season Northwest League, 10-team rookie-advanced Appalachian League, and eight-team rookie-advanced Pioneer League.

The Crosscutters, who are independently owned, have been a Phillies affiliate since 2007. Their 94-year-old Lycoming County stadium hosts a major-league game each summer to coincide with the Little League World Series, which takes place just five miles away across the Susquehanna River. The Crosscutters season begins in June and is usually the first assignment for a Phillies prospect after leaving rookie league.

The Phillies’ remaining affiliates would be single-A Lakewood, high-A Clearwater, double-A Reading, and triple-A Lehigh Valley. The Phillies own the Clearwater Threshers and Reading Fightins while the Lakewood BlueClaws and Lehigh Valley IronPigs are independently owned.

The Crosscutters are owned by Trinity Sports Holdings, which also owns the Cardinals’ triple-A affiliate in Memphis and the Yankees’ single-A team in Charleston, S.C. Peter Freund, the principal owner of Trinity Sports Holdings, did not respond to an email but said he was confident in January that the Crosscutters were not in danger.

“We aren’t going anywhere and the Williamsport Crosscutters aren’t going anywhere,” Freund told Crosscutters fans at a winter banquet, according to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.

Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball have been negotiating since last year as the their agreement is set to expire after the 2020 season. Several politicians, including Bernie Sanders, threw their support behind MiLB last November after it was reported that Major League Baseball was proposing to eliminate 42 affiliates.

Minor League Baseball, in a statement Tuesday, said “recent articles” on the negotiations between the minor leagues and major leagues were “largely inaccurate.”

“There have been no agreements on contraction or any other issues,” the statement said. “MiLB looks forward to continuing the good faith negotiations with MLB on Wednesday as we work toward an agreement that best ensures the future of professional baseball throughout the United State and Canada.”

According to Baseball America, the new agreement would eliminate as many as 42 current minor-league teams while adding the independent St. Paul Saints and Sugar Land Skeeters. The markets that lose their teams could host teams in a “Dream League” for undrafted players or teams in a summer wood-bat league for college prospects, according to Baseball America.