No contact from Astros since losing affiliation
Houston official says MLB team did post thanks on Facebook
Six days after losing their Major League Baseball affiliation, the Tri-city Valleycats say they still haven’t heard from the Houston Astros, their partner for 18 seasons, to explain why or even to say, “Thanks for the memories.”
“No,” was Valleycats president and part-owner Rick Murphy’s simple answer by text when asked if anyone in the Valleycats organization had been contacted by the Astros since the announcement.
Murphy declined further comment.
Astros senior manager for communications Steve Grande referred a reporter to a Facebook post by the team last Thursday that thanked the Valleycats and the Quad Cities River Bandits, who also saw their affiliation with Houston end.
However, the River Bandits found a new partner with the Kansas City Royals. The Valleycats plan to continue as an independent-league franchise. General manager Matt Callahan said conversations with independent leagues are ongo
ing and the Valleycats hope to know more by the first week of January.
The Valleycats were the longest-tenured affiliate in Houston’s minor-league system, playing in the New York-penn League, which is now defunct.
“The #Astros would like to give a huge thank you to our former Class A affiliates, the Quad Cities River Bandits and the Tri-city Valleycats,” the Facebook post said. “Both organizations proved to be instrumental in our player development system. Over the eight years in Quad Cities and the 19 years in Tri-city, the two clubs combined for five league championships and produced countless Major Leaguers. We appreciate your efforts and we wish you nothing but the best.”
Grande said the Astros couldn’t get into specifics about their change in affiliation.
“All I can say is we had a great relationship with Tri-city over the years,” Grande said. “They were a big part of our organization.”
Grande didn't immediately return an email asking if anyone from the Astros planned on reaching out directly to the Valleycats.
Houston has a new affiliate in the high-class A Asheville (N.C.) Tourists, who are not only much closer than Troy to Houston but also in the same state as Houston’s low-class A affiliate, the Fayetteville Woodpeckers.
Every team is limited to four full-season affiliates under the new minorleague system. The Astros own three of theirs: Triple-a Sugar Land, Double-a Corpus Christi and Fayetteville. The Asheville Tourists are owned by Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine and his family.
Asheville is slated to be in the new Mid-atlantic League, the same one the Valleycats would likely have been in had they remained affiliated.
“We’ve received nothing but high marks from the Astros operationally,” Murphy said last week. “Their people actually loved this facility, so I’m surprised we weren’t able to continue our relationship.”
Callahan said last week the Valleycats were in touch with the Astros before the affiliation announcement. A spokesperson for Sen. Charles E. Schumer said Schumer called Astros principal owner Jim Crane to appeal to him to keep affiliation with the Valleycats.