Report: Lexington Legends among minor league teams facing extinction

Lexington’s minor league baseball team is facing extinction, according to a report by The New York Times this weekend.

The Legends, who have called Lexington home since 2001, are one of 42 minor league baseball teams that could lose their major league affiliations under a plan proposed by Major League Baseball, the report said.

The Class A Legends, who are coming off back-to-back South Atlantic League championships and are viewed as one of minor league baseball’s success stories, are affiliated with the Kansas City Royals.

Losing its MLB parent club would force the Legends and other teams on the list to attempt to make their way as independents or fold altogether, the report said. Two other South Atlantic League teams, the Hagerstown Suns and the West Virginia Power, were also on the list reported by the Times.

The proposal, which would reportedly take effect after the 2020 season unless changes can be negotiated, is intended to increase efficiencies and improve conditions for players at the minor league levels, The New York Times reported.

“I didn’t have any inkling, let alone any reason, to think we’d be in this position,” Legends President Andy Shea told the Times.

Read the full New York Times story here.

Bill Madden of the New York Daily News wrote that “the repercussions from this contraction plan are going to be enormous. Not just for the minor league communities, most of which are the grass roots of baseball, but for MLB itself which, conceivably will be hit with an avalanche of lawsuits from communities that have built new ballparks on taxpayers’ money, all of which would figure to threaten their long-cherished anti-trust exemption.”

Bill Baer of NBC Sports reported that MLB’s proposal is short-sighted.

“They’ll get their P.R. win by increasing pay for minor leaguers while drastically reducing its minor league workforce. They may even save money overall. But the ripple effect of slashing 42 minor league teams across the country will stunt the sport’s growth in the long-term. And that’s bad for everyone.”