Rolison, Nevin facing uncertainty if minor leagues take the year off
Limbo is not a comfortable place for athletes to reside, but that’s where minor league baseball players find themselves as spring eases toward summer.
Left-hander Ryan Rolison was likely going to begin the 2020 season pitching for the Hartford Yard Goats, the Rockies’ Double-a affiliate. First baseman Tyler Nevin hoped to climb the ladder to Triple-a Albuquerque and, perhaps, crack Colorado’s big-league roster.
Now, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and minor league baseball’s unsettled future, the two prospects wait for news, direction and a chance to play ball.
“It’s been an adjustment, for sure, being down this time of year and not being able to pitch,” Rolison said. “It’s kind of weird.”
He’s been living at his parents’ house in his native Jackson, Tenn., playing catch in the backyard with his father, Gary, and working out at his high school gym. All the while, the Rockies’ first-round pick out of the University of Mississippi in 2018 does his best to stay level-headed.
“I’m trying to take it day by day,” he said. “I’ve been in contact with my agent (Andrew Nacario) to find out what he’s hearing. I’m trying to stay ready. Whenever the time does come that we’re able to step back on the field, I have to be ready.
“I know that. But it’s really about controlling what I can control, and that’s keeping my body in the best shape possible and getting my arm going.”
Negotiations about the longterm future of the minor leagues remain largely on hold until the fate of the 2020 major league season is resolved, but it’s all but certain that this year’s minor league season will be canceled. Empty stadiums, Tv-only games and a lucrative postseason TV deal might work for the majors, but those are not viable options for the minors. There’s not enough money to be made without fans, and therefore no point to assemble teams and have them travel to visiting cities.
“Many MILB operators anticipate that their season will officially be canceled at some point after the 2020 MLB season plan is finalized,” said J.J. Cooper, the executive editor of Baseball America, considered the bible of minorleague baseball coverage. “If they can’t play games with fans in the stands, they lose almost all of their revenue. It’s hard to see how those teams can play. Some MLB teams, like the Angels, have already begun furloughing minor league coaches. Many MILB teams have laid off or furloughed staff as well.”
Minor league baseball already was facing major changes before the pandemic struck. The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, the governing body, is reportedly prepared to agree in September to MLB’S proposal to cut the number of affiliations from 162 to 120 for the 2021 season. MLB remains firm on its demand for a more controllable 120-team farm system, which would do away with rookie or short-season A leagues.
Rolison and Nevin, however, have more immediate concerns.
“Obviously we want to get back on the field, but the health of everybody is paramount and that should always come first,” said Nevin, who was added to Colorado’s 40-man roster in November but was slowed by an abdominal injury during his first big-league camp this spring.
Nevin has participated in Zoom meetings with fellow Rockies position players every week and stays in touch with the club’s coaches, but he has not been told what the summer of 2020 might hold for him.
“It’s not that we don’t talk about it, but until the decisions are made about the big league team, you really can’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I could drive myself crazy trying to do that, so I try not to speculate.”
There are multiple reports that if the major league season begins in July, rosters would be expanded to 50 players, almost twice the normal size. Thirty players would be on the active roster while 20 players would be on a so-called “taxi” squad; a group of high-end prospects who could be shuttled onto the active roster in case of injuries or ineffectiveness of players. It’s possible that Nevin could be part of the “taxi squad.”
Many details would have to be worked out, but players on the taxi squad would likely have to attempt to stay sharp by practicing and possibly playing in modified intrasquad games.
There is also speculation that rather than face losing a full season of development, minor league players would gather at teams’ spring training sites for expanded development camps at some point this summer or in the fall.
Cooper has proposed that the traditional Arizona Fall League be expanded so that every major league team has its own club competing.
Currently, the AFL fields six teams, with multiple franchises filling out each roster. Last year, for example, the Salt River Rafters were made up of top prospects from the Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami Marlins, Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays.
Zach Wilson, the Rockies’ farm director, said he could not comment on how the Rockies would develop their players if there is no minor league season.
“I’m not ready to talk about any of this stuff yet as there is still way too much unknown,” Wilson said. “Until things become clearer, I don’t want to speculate.”
Rolison is approaching a major stepping stone in his career. He dominated at low-a Asheville last season, yielding only one earned run in 14M innings. He was promoted to High-a Lancaster after just three starts. Though he struggled some at Lancaster — 4.87 ERA and 22 homers in 116L innings — he made progress in a place considered a hitter’s paradise.
A season at Double-a Hartford was going to be a major test for the lefty. “Hearing about all of the prospects that are in Double-a, it could have been a big stepping stone in my career,” he said. “Getting off to a good start there, who knows what could have happened? I was hoping to show everybody that I was ready for the next level. I was excited to get to Double-a and have that competition against those good hitters.”
Now there’s a chance he won’t compete at all, though he hopes he would be considered in the Rockies’ plans as part of their taxi squad.
“That’s something I’ve questioned my agent about during these unprecedented times,” Rolison said. “Just looking at it, and having a feel for where I am at within the organization, I feel like there is a chance I could be on (the taxi squad).”
If that doesn’t happen, and if there are no minor league games, Rolison believes the Rockies will come up with a plan that allows him to face competition.
“If it turns out there is no season, at some point, we’ll have to be in a situation where pitchers are competing against hitters,” he said. “You can’t take a full year off. You can’t have a wasted year of development. I think they’ll figure something out.”