3 sinister takeaways from MiLB expanding the Triple-A baseball season

Minor League Baseball announced on Thursday that the Triple-A baseball season will be expanding in 2022 as they will add on six more games (three home and three away) for each team, which will boost the number of games from 144 to 150 games.

In a way, it is a good thing because more games means more baseball but there are three more sinister takeaways from the Triple-A season being expanded to 150 games in 2022.

1. MLB/MiLB expanded the Triple-A baseball season because the MLB season will be delayed due to the lockout

With Minor League Baseball now being under the umbrella of Major League Baseball, MLB is calling the shots and with this news coming out about Triple-A less than 24 hours after the MLBPA and MLB made little progress and had very pointed conversations is very telling.

MLB knows that the start of the regular season is in serious jeopardy … so why not try to make more money off of and market their next best league more?

And that ties in with our second takeaway.

2. More Triple-A baseball games means more games can be broadcast on MLB Network, ESPN, and on local RSNs.

In 1981 when the MLBPA was on strike in the middle of the season, local TV stations and radio stations decided to broadcast minor league games since there were no MLB games happening.

Fast forward more than 40 years and there are hundreds of more channels to watch programming and there’s internet streaming. Many Triple-A teams are in fairly close proximity to their MLB market.

For example, Triple-A Gwinnett is just 36 miles from the Atlanta Braves, Triple-A Iowa (Des Moines) is in the same TV market for the Chicago Cubs, Triple-A Toledo is 60 miles from the Detroit Tigers, and Triple-A Tacoma is just 37 miles away from the Seattle Mariners.

It makes it very easy for MLB teams’ local regional sports network (RSN) to broadcast more (or all) games on TV until the MLB season is underway.

In addition, cable channels like MLB Network, ESPN, and TBS can, instead, broadcast Triple-A games and now, they will have more games to broadcast.

3. MLB wants more games and less pay … so that’s perfect for Triple-A baseball, where there’s cheap labor.

If MLB had their way, all of the Low-A games would be televised because costs would be lower. Players are making less and they are 18, 19, or 20 years old so they aren’t going to be as wise on what’s happening as the grizzled 15-year MLB veteran on things.

But Triple-A games will get better ratings than a Low-A game since they are closer to the Majors so MLB is fine with the trade-off of “Triple-A players get played slightly more” for “much better TV ratings.”

Still, Triple-A players will be making peanuts in comparison to MLB players. There’s a reason why there has been much more awareness for what minor leaguers go through.

If the Triple-A season starts and MLB is still in a lockout, players on a 40-man roster cannot play … which makes labor even cheaper for Triple-A. Add in that players likely won’t be making more for playing in six more games means that they get cheaper labor.

It will be more of an opportunity for Triple-A players to showcase their skillset in 2022 after a non-playoff 2021 season and a canceled 2020 season. But make no mistake about it: it’s a sign that things are not going well for the lockout and now, MLB is turning to their next best option.