Like It Or Not, Minor League Baseball’s 6-Game Series Could Be Here To Stay

 

This year, every full-season affiliated team will play a six-game series followed by an off-day. Every league but Triple-A West chose to have their off-day on Monday, which means that—weather-permitting—everyone but that one 10-team league will play Tuesday through Sunday, have an off-day on Monday and then begin another Tuesday through Sunday series. Triple-A West will have its off day on Wednesday.

The six days on, one day off schedule was instituted for 2021 to reduce travel during the pandemic. With teams playing fewer but longer series, Triple-A teams will be on commercial flights less often. Teams at lower levels will spend less time on buses.

The reduced travel also provides financial savings to minor league teams. Cutting one round-trip flight can save a Triple-A team $10,000 or more. The savings on bus travel are a little less consistent, but the reduced travel should save all teams money in 2021.

“I like it in principle. It’s reduced travel dramatically, which is good for both players and travel costs,” a Double-A general manager said. “We hope it stays. The new travel requirements would drive up costs dramatically without a standardized off-day each week.”

Another GM said the six-game schedule will nearly halve the miles his team travels in 2021.

As a one-year experiment, there’s a general acceptance of this year’s altered schedules. Looking ahead, there are reasons why major league player development staffs and minor league operators could opt to keep the six-game series in place.

Considering that MLB governs the minor leagues now, the biggest push to stick with this schedule format could come from big league teams. This schedule, combined with reorganized leagues, cuts travel, which big league teams have long desired.

There are a few concerns for what it will mean on the field. Familiarity can breed contempt in baseball, and a six-game series means teams will have a whole lot of time to get tired of each other. Similarly, with the same umpire crew working all six games, nerves could be rubbed raw by Sunday games.

Six-game series allow teams to adapt and adjust player development. Starting pitchers used to pitching once a week in high school or college could easily remain on that schedule early in their professional careers. Such a switch would also allow for an adjustment around how pitchers can maintain their strength and work on their pitches early in their pro careers.

Teams often have their starting pitchers in Class A sit out a few starts a season to limit their innings.

One of the reasons some teams adopted a six-man rotation for some affiliates over the past decade was because the extra day gave pitchers a chance to have a more intense, more productive bullpen session between starts.

On a seven-day schedule, young pitchers would have more recovery time between starts, providing a chance to maintain throwing and lifting programs during the season that aren’t as feasible in a five-starter rotation.

There are potential advantages for scouts and coaches as well. A scout is effectively guaranteed to see every healthy pitcher a team has during one series. Roving coaches can spend a week with a team at one site.

The adjusted travel also will improve players’ quality of life during the season. As teams have become more aware of the value of sleep and rest and recovery for athletic performance, they have pushed to improve minor league travel.

Just a few years ago, minor leaguers were guaranteed only one off-day a month. Under the new Professional Development License system, players and staff are guaranteed one off-day every 15 days. Under the current six days on, one day off schedule, they’ll receive four off days every 28 days.

If the old scheduling format returns, the new PDL requirements also mandate how late a game may start on the last day of a series with a game scheduled for the next day.

Getaway day games scheduled on any day other than Friday or Saturday must start no later than 7:05 p.m. local time. In addition, any getaway day game when one of the teams has to travel farther than 150 miles will have the start time made earlier based on the distance. If one team travels 210 miles for its next day’s game, the start time can be no later than 6:05 p.m. local time.

So if a team has a 200-mile trek ahead of it after a game, that game will have to start significantly earlier than most minor league teams prefer to play. There’s also a provision that ensures if the average temperature for that city is 90 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter during that half-month, the game cannot be made to start before 6:05 p.m.

This was a contentious rule for many minor league teams, especially because of how it relates to Thursday night games. Largely because of two-for-one drink specials known as “thirsty Thursdays” at many parks, some teams have seen Thursdays become as popular as Fridays or Saturdays.

Teams worry that attendance would be affected if those Thursday night games started a half hour or hour earlier.

With the 2021 schedules, that’s not a problem. There are no getaway days since every series ends with an off-day.

In addition, there are also strict rules in the PDL about requirements for travel distance. Any trip of 350 miles or more without an off-day requires a flight. Airline travel has been a regular part of Triple-A travel, but these requirements would push some Class A and Double-A teams onto planes as well. Minor league teams generally say the cost of airline travel is often three times as expensive as bus trips.

The 2021 scheduling format means that there is always an off-day when a team is traveling, so the 350-mile flight requirement does not apply for the coming season.

Teams could also find other advantages within this new schedule. Few teams will miss games on Monday, which is generally considered one of the worst attendance days of the week. Some operators believe the more consistent schedule could modestly help ticket sales because fans can get used to a routine.

“I like the consistency that comes along with it from a messaging standpoint to our fans,” said one High-A general manager.

The six-game series also means that every team is guaranteed the same number of weekend dates. With the team consistently gone for a week at a time, teams looking to use their ballpark for other purposes—in some cases for a summer wood-bat college team—have a more consistent schedule to build around.

“We like the (weeklong) gaps because it makes it easier to activate the ballpark beyond baseball,” another High-A GM said.

Not everyone is a fan. Six games at home followed by six games on the road is useful for ticket sales. Six games at home is roughly the perfect amount of games to sell, while the team hitting the road creates the kind of scarcity useful for advance ticket sales.

The equation falls apart if a team is at home two weeks in a row. Trying to sell 12 games in a 13-day span is difficult. And being gone for back-to-back weeks isn’t ideal either.

“I don’t mind the six-game series, but I do mind the back-to-back series. (Having) 12 games in 13 days is not good for our business,” a Triple-A GM said. “It is bad for ticket sales. Your chances of going 12 days without bad weather is slim. It is bad for full-time and seasonal staffs.”

For now, the new schedule is a one-year experiment, but Baseball America’s survey of minor league front office officials found plenty of support for turning this pandemic adaptation into a long-term fixture.