MLB Draft League

MLB Draft League
ClassificationCollegiate summer (partial)
Independent (partial)
SportBaseball
Founded2021
DirectorSean Campbell[1]
No. of teams6
CountryUnited States
Most recent
champion		West Virginia Black Bears (2025)
Most titlesWest Virginia Black Bears (3)
Streaming partnerAWRE Sports[2]
Official websitemlbdraftleague.com

The MLB Draft League is a baseball league that began play in 2021.[3] Created by Major League Baseball (MLB) and Prep Baseball Report (PBR), the league operates a split-season format of 80 games with a hybrid amateur–professional structure: for the first half of the season, the league operates as an amateur collegiate summer baseball league to serve as a showcase for top draft-eligible prospects leading up to each July's MLB draft;[3] after a break for the draft, play resumes for the season's remaining games with paid professional players who have exhausted their amateur eligibility.[4]

History

The league's founding six teams were formerly members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League, Eastern League, and Carolina League before MLB's reorganization of the minors for 2021.[5][6] In 2021, each team in the league played a 68-game regular season, with an All-Star Break taking place around the MLB draft.[7] The season was expanded to 80 games per team beginning in 2022.[8]

In 2024, MLB announced that the league would be expanded by two teams in the near future and that it would extend its support for the league through 2030.[9]

In August 2025, it was announced that Attain Sports and Entertainment, the owners of the Frederick Keys and numerous Baltimore Orioles minor league affiliates, would move the current Keys team to High-A, while the Aberdeen Ironbirds, the then-current High-A affiliate of the Orioles would move to the MLB Draft League in 2026.[10]

Teams

Team City Stadium Capacity Tenure
Aberdeen IronBirds Aberdeen, Maryland Ripken Stadium 6,300 2026–present
Mahoning Valley Scrappers Niles, Ohio 7 17 Credit Union Field at Eastwood 6,000 2021–present
State College Spikes University Park, Pennsylvania Lubrano Park 5,570 2021–present
Trenton Thunder Trenton, New Jersey Trenton Thunder Ballpark 6,440 2021–present
West Virginia Black Bears Granville, West Virginia Kendrick Family Ballpark 3,500 2021–present
Williamsport Crosscutters Williamsport, Pennsylvania Journey Bank Ballpark 2,366 2021–present
110km
68miles
Crosscutters
Black Bears
Thunder
Spikes
Scrappers
IronBirds
  • Current team locations

Champions

Team # of Championships Year(s)
West Virginia Black Bears 3 2022, 2023, 2025
Williamsport Crosscutters 1 2024
Trenton Thunder 1 2021[a]

Championship games

Year Champion Runner-up Score Ref
2025 West Virginia Black Bears State College Spikes 12–5 [12]
2024 Williamsport Crosscutters Trenton Thunder 5–4 [13]
2023 West Virginia Black Bears Trenton Thunder 9–4 [14]
2022 West Virginia Black Bears Williamsport Crosscutters 10–6 [15]
2021 Not held[a]
  1. ^ a b Trenton was awarded the 2021 title for having the best regular season record.[11]

Owners

Team Owner(s) Principal Year acquired
Aberdeen IronBirds Attain Sports and Entertainment (majority), Ripken family (minority)[16] Greg Baroni (CEO) (majority); Cal Ripken Jr. and Billy Ripken (minority) 2024
Mahoning Valley Scrappers HWS Group[17] Michael Savit
State College Spikes State College Professional Baseball LP[18] Chuck Greenberg 2006[19]
Trenton Thunder Garden State Baseball, LP[20] Joe Plumeri, Joseph Finley, Joseph Caruso 1999[21]
West Virginia Black Bears Rich Baseball Operations[22] Bob Rich, Jr. 2014
Williamsport Crosscutters Trinity Sports Holdings[23] Peter B. Freund 2014

References

  1. ^ "Sean Campbell taking over as MLB Draft League Executive Director". MLBDraftLeague.com. MLB Draft League. May 29, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  2. ^ "AWRE Sports announces multi-year agreement with MLB Draft League and Appalachian League as official camera and streaming provider" (Press release). MLB Draft League. April 22, 2025.
  3. ^ a b Reichard, Kevin (November 30, 2020). "Kerrick Jackson is New MLB Draft League President". Ballpark Digest. August Publications. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  4. ^ "What is the MLB Draft League". MLBDraftLeague.com. MLB Draft League. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  5. ^ "Mahoning Valley Scrappers Retain Affiliation With Major League Baseball in New MLB Draft League". Mahoning Valley Scrappers. Minor League Baseball. November 30, 2020. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  6. ^ Cooper, J.J. (December 9, 2020). "Frederick Becomes Sixth Team To Join MLB Draft League". Baseball America. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  7. ^ "MLB to Launch League for Draft Prospects". Major League Baseball. November 30, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  8. ^ "Crosscutters 2022 Schedule to Feature More Games and New Start Times". OurSports Central (Press release). November 8, 2021.
  9. ^ "MLB Extends Commitment to Draft League Through 2030 Season" (Press release). Major League Baseball. May 2, 2024.
  10. ^ "Attain Sports Announces Reorganization of Baseball Teams, Bringing High-A Affiliate Baseball Back to Frederick and MLB Draft League to Aberdeen Beginning in 2026" (Press release). Frederick Keys. August 1, 2025.
  11. ^ "MLB Draft League Champions". MLB Draft League. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  12. ^ Linderman, Lexie (September 5, 2025). "State College Spikes host MLB Draft League championship for first time, but come up short". Centre Daily Times. Retrieved September 5, 2025.
  13. ^ "Cutters Capture Draft League Title | Williamsport Crosscutters". MLB Draft League. September 5, 2024. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
  14. ^ "West Virginia Black Bears Win 2023 MLB Draft League Championship | West Virginia Black Bears". MLB Draft League. September 3, 2023. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
  15. ^ "2022 MLB Draft League Champions: The West Virginia Black Bears Defeat the Williamsport Crosscutters 10–6 in Championship Game at Monongalia County Ballpark | MLB Draft League". MLB Draft League. September 7, 2022. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
  16. ^ "Ripkens sell majority stake in Aberdeen IronBirds". Sports Business Journal. February 9, 2026. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  17. ^ "Current Teams | HWS Group | Wellesley, MA". HWS Group. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  18. ^ "Greenberg Sports Group | State College Spikes". www.mlbdraftleague.com. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  19. ^ Caputo, Paul (May 16, 2015). "Deer-ly Beloved: The Story Behind the State College Spikes". Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  20. ^ Bergeron, Tom (November 8, 2020). "Trenton Thunder owner rips Yankees after move, says actions 'are nothing short of despicable'". ROI-NJ. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  21. ^ "METRO NEWS BRIEFS: NEW JERSEY; 7th Minor-League Team Coming to the State". The New York Times. November 9, 1999. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  22. ^ "New NYPL club to be called the Black Bears". MiLB.com. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  23. ^ "Williamsport Crosscutters Sold to New Ownership Group". MiLB.com. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.