This year the independent leagues will have a calendar similar to that of MLB, but every league’s calendar will vary.
American Association of the Independent Leagues will commence its season on the 3rd of July with the stands at 25% capacity. Each team will play 60 games, 30 of them being at home and training camp will begin in the coming days for each team.
Six teams will not operate this season they are Cleburne Railroaders, Gary SouthShore RailCats, Kansas City T-Bones, Lincoln Saltdogs, Sioux City Explorers, and Texas AirHogs.
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The season will come to a close on September 10 with a best of five-game series between the two best teams in the circuit. A known Cuban who will return to the league with the Sioux Falls Canaries is ex-Braves prospect Alay Lago. The infielder won the batting title last year hitting .339 with the birds.
Although it isn’t official, the Atlantic League has proposed a 70 game season and could start the season in July and will also end its season in September with a five-game playoff. As of right now, there are no Cubans on any Atlantic League roster. Ex-Cards prospect Pedro Echemendia was offered a contract by the Lancaster Barnstormers, but that never came to fruition.
The Can-Am and Frontier Leagues have merged and were looking forward to having a spectacular season with 14 teams on the docket, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it looks more like the season has been put on hold and all but canceled. League management is talking like they are looking forward to an exciting 2021 season.
This will keep players like Yordan Manduley of the Quebec Capitales on the island. The shortstop from Holguin, Cuba won the league batting title in 2018 and hit .350 last year. Manduley will be relegated to playing Serie Nacional this season.
Santiago prospect Yoelkis Guibert who was on the verge of signing with Quebec will also stay in Cuba for at least this season.
In a year where the world has been turned on its axis hopefully, we can see some memorable baseball played.