Major League Baseball is expected to delay the start of the Triple-A season by a month, and will utilize alternate training sites again in 2021, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Triple-A games were originally scheduled to begin on April 6th. Those games are now expected to be pushed back to the first week of May, when the Double-A, High-A, and Low-A teams are scheduled to start their seasons.
Teams will use the alternate training sites for at least a month, in place of the lost games from Triple-A. Passan notes that some executives believe the alternate sites could last longer into the season.
Passan says the expectation is that the sites will hold about two dozen players, which is the equivalent of a Triple-A roster. He also speculates that this incarnation of the alternate site is likely to skew older, with MLB veterans and prospects ready for the majors.
Lower level minor league players will report to Spring Training toward the end of March, after MLB teams have vacated the facilities in Florida and Arizona, to prepare for their seasons.
