The 2021 minor league schedules have been released and there are a lot of adjustments with travel and dates due to safety restrictions put in place that are hopefully just for this one season. The Triple-A season will begin on April 6th, while the three lower level full-season teams open four weeks later. The delay is due to the amount of players allowed at the Spring Training facility, which will limit the amount of minor league players at Pirate City (and other places) until the big league camp breaks for the regular season.
Indianapolis will have numerous series that are 5-6 days long, so the team isn’t traveling as often. They will also only be playing teams from Louisville, Iowa, Toledo, St Paul, Columbus, Nashville, Memphis and Omaha, with 24 games each against four of those teams.
The other teams are playing shorter seasons instead of what we heard prior, with the possibility that they continue into October. The Altoona Curve have 120 games, starting on May 4th. They will also have longer series to cut back on travel.
Greensboro also opens on May 4th and closes on September 19th. The Bradenton schedule isn’t posted yet, but it should be the same dates, playing 120 games over 4 1/2 months.
UPDATE: Marauders announced their schedule and it’s the same, though they had one interesting new note I didn’t know about, along with a reminder of something else. Their league will have off every Monday, so they are basically playing one team for six day, off Monday, then a new team comes in. Also, there are no playoffs this year in the minors, in case that was missed by anyone.
