motorboats minor league

Bismarck, ND Baseball Team Announces Missouri River Motorboaters Rebrand

The bismarck larks will change their name for one game on july 27, 2023.

(Bismarck, ND) – In honor of summertime, pontoons and the mighty Missouri River, the Bismarck Larks baseball team of the Northwoods League will change their name to the Missouri River Motorboaters for one game on July 27.

The players and coaches will wear special-designed hats and jerseys for the game against the Rochester Honkers at Bismarck Municipal Ballpark Home of Dakota Community Bank & Trust Field.

Jerseys will be auctioned off during the game with all net proceeds benefiting a local charity. The team also has a variety of summer themed t-shirts, tank tops, hats, and other merchandise for sale now at mrmotorboaters.com.

“The Missouri River holds a special place in Bismarck’s heart as well as every other city the 2,341 miles of water passes through,” said Bismarck Larks Owner and CEO John Bollinger. “We wanted to create a brand that connected with our boat loving fans, but also fans from all over the country that love their summertimes on the water.”

The Motorboaters gives a nod to boat captains as the logo is designed with the motorboat engine as the character wearing sunglasses, a boat captain’s hat, and motoring a pontoon. Additionally, the pontoon boat’s paddle features a baseball bat knob and the colors are designed to give off a fun, summer vibe.

The Missouri River is the longest river in the United States beginning in Three Forks, Montana and stopping in Missouri where it connects to the Mississippi River. It passes through the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, as well as receives river water from the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Learn and shop exclusive Missouri River Motorboaters gear at mrmotorboaters.com .

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Bismarck Larks

201 W Front Ave

Bismarck, ND 58504

(701) 557-7600

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Bismarck Larks to play as Missouri River Motorboaters

The collegiate summer level Bismarck Larks will rebrand as the Missouri River Motorboaters for one game this season. The temporary change is an homage to summertime, pontoons, and the longest river in the United States, the Missouri, per the team.

“The Missouri River holds a special place in Bismarck’s heart as well as every other city the 2,341 miles of water passes through,” said Bismarck Larks Owner and CEO John Bollinger. “We wanted to create a brand that connected with our boat loving fans, but also fans from all over the country that love their summertimes on the water.”

The suite of logos, created by John Worthen of Worthen Design, features colors “designed to give off a fun, summer vibe,” as well as a motorboat engine character wearing sunglasses and a captain’s hat while motoring a pontoon. A boat paddle that underscores the logo includes a baseball bat knob.

Bismarck’s home state of North Dakota is one seven US states that the Missouri River passes through, in addition to two Canadian provinces.

Jerseys will be auctioned off during the July 27 game with all net proceeds benefiting a local charity.

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Bismarck, ND Baseball Team Announces Missouri River Motorboaters Rebrand

June 14, 2023 - Northwoods League (Northwoods) - Bismarck Larks News Release

(Bismarck, ND) - In honor of summertime, pontoons and the mighty Missouri River, the Bismarck Larks baseball team of the Northwoods League will change their name to the Missouri River Motorboaters for one game on July 27.

The players and coaches will wear special-designed hats and jerseys for the game against the Rochester Honkers at Bismarck Municipal Ballpark Home of Dakota Community Bank & Trust Field.

Jerseys will be auctioned off during the game with all net proceeds benefiting a local charity. The team also has a variety of summer themed t-shirts, tank tops, hats, and other merchandise for sale now at mrmotorboaters.com.

"The Missouri River holds a special place in Bismarck's heart as well as every other city the 2,341 miles of water passes through," said Bismarck Larks Owner and CEO John Bollinger. "We wanted to create a brand that connected with our boat loving fans, but also fans from all over the country that love their summertimes on the water."

The Motorboaters gives a nod to boat captains as the logo is designed with the motorboat engine as the character wearing sunglasses, a boat captain's hat, and motoring a pontoon. Additionally, the pontoon boat's paddle features a baseball bat knob and the colors are designed to give off a fun, summer vibe.

The Missouri River is the longest river in the United States beginning in Three Forks, Montana and stopping in Missouri where it connects to the Mississippi River. It passes through the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, as well as receives river water from the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Learn and shop exclusive Missouri River Motorboaters gear at mrmotorboaters.com.

• Discuss this story on the Northwoods League message board ...

Northwoods League Stories from June 14, 2023

• Bismarck, ND Baseball Team Announces Missouri River Motorboaters Rebrand - Bismarck Larks
• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Cedar Valley Awarded Softball Equipment Through Share the Glove Initiative - Waterloo Bucks
• Express Score Early and Often to Split the Series - Eau Claire Express
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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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The first Spring Breakout showcased stellar performances across the game by prospects. Thirty players from 18 organizations were named First and Second Team All-Stars.

Like Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson before him, Samuel Basallo is an elite young talent in the O's system who can realistically challenge for the No. 1 overall prospect spot.

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Four action-packed days later, Spring Breakout has proven to be a huge hit ... on and off the field. The game's youngest stars put on great shows in Arizona and Florida.

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Breaking News

Dodgers’ minor league team unwittingly rebrands with a NSFW name

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Chaqueta is the Spanish word for jacket.

But it also has another meaning that is, let’s just say, NSFW. The word can also be slang for masturbation.

The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes were unaware of the word’s second meaning when they chose the nickname Chaquetas for Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión series this season.

The Dodgers ’ single-A minor league affiliate has decided to stick with Chaquetas as their name during their three Copa events this season — but only after a few tense hours following their announcement of the moniker Thursday morning.

Introducing... the Chaquetas! pic.twitter.com/Wbe2nzdw1T — Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (@RCQuakes) March 14, 2024

“We went live at 10 o’clock and we’re so excited,” Grant Riddle, Quakes executive vice president and general manager, told The Times in a phone interview Friday. “You know, we’ve been working for this for two years, gone through this extensive process, all of that. And then we started to get some comments that we didn’t understand.”

According to the MiLB website, the Copa de la Diversión — or the Fun Cup — is a series of events spread throughout the season that celebrates the culture and values of the team’s local Latino communities. One part of that celebration is for the participating teams to take on fun, new identities that reflect that portion of their fan bases.

In the past, the Quakes have taken part in the series as the Temblores, which translates to Quakes.

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“We had fun with that but kind of wanted to reengage and reenergize our fan base,” Riddle said. “We’ve been looking for something, maybe a bit more unique to activate our local Latino fan base. And we’ve been working on it for a couple of years honestly.”

The idea of a mariachi theme came up, inspired part by the popularity of mariachi performances at Dodgers games and part by fond memories of Dodgers relief pitcher and Rancho Cucamonga resident Joe Kelly wearing a mariachi jacket to the White House following L.A.’s 2020 World Series win .

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“We’ve been fortunate enough to have him pitch for a couple of rehab appearances with us,” Riddle said of Kelly, “and the fan reaction clearly exhibited that Joe is a fan favorite in this area. And just a really, really nice man.”

Mariachi was already taken as another team’s name, so the Quakes started pondering other options

“And so that’s when we came up with — what did Kelly wear at the White House? He wore a mariachi jacket. All right, what if we just go with the literal translation of jacket? Chaquetas! We knew there were a couple of options there, but we were drawn to Chaquetas because of the Q, you know? Everything in Quakes-land — our jersey, our cap — it’s all Q. We have a lot of fun with the letter Q. We’re like, that’s it, that’s gotta be the one.

“So that gets vetted through Major League Baseball, we engaged our local Hispanic-Latin community in regard to the concept. We mailed a mariachi group. Our staff, families, we have lots of cultural involvement. And everybody was like, ‘This is gonna be incredible!’ ”

Riddle added that the Kelly family also approved of the name choice and the use of Kelly’s likeness as part of the logo.

And through all of that, Riddle said, the team never heard anything about the slang definition of chaquetas.

But folks on social media were quick to point it out Thursday morning, causing the Quakes to remove all of its announcements regarding the name from social media for a few hours while they went through an expedited version of the vetting process all over again.

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“We were immediately concerned: Have we made an irreversible mistake here?” Riddle said. “And so we immediately kind of reengaged those groups ... and determined rather quickly that none of them were aware of it either. So that was not their immediate, first thought. And just the idea that obviously [the slang definition] exists, but that our intention in no form was anything other than the literal translation. We’re not trying to have any fun with this.

“And I think where we came out after some quick reflection is that this is too important a story to pivot on, and we went through the steps and feel good about that. You know, language is dynamic and there could be words out there that could mean two different things. ... And the slang is not what it means to us or is it ever what it’s going to mean to us here in this community and in the ballpark.”

The team will wear its Chaquetas uniforms on April 13 (replica jersey giveaway night), May 16 (food and drink night) and July 19 (Joe Kelly bobblehead giveaway night).

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'I was wrong': Why MLB's restructuring of the minors turned out mostly better than expected

In November 2020, Peter Davis, proud proprietor of the Missoula PaddleHeads, was two years into life as a minor league baseball owner when disaster struck.

The PaddleHeads, who had been a farm team for the Arizona Diamondbacks , were now "de-affiliated," one of 43 teams jettisoned into life as an independent club. The Diamondbacks had been responsible for paying PaddleHeads players and coaches, and that money was now gone. As was the financial value that came with owning an affiliated team.

"We'd lost all the equity. Disappeared overnight," Davis says. "We had no clue what we were going to do at that point."

But the PaddleHeads learned they could swim. They stayed in the Pioneer League, newly independent for the 2021 season, and won the championship.

"We had a great season, and we had a blast doing it," Davis says. "You really were hamstrung as an affiliated team ... yes, we loved being an independent team."

In 2020, before realignment, ESPN spoke to dozens of minor league officials , many of whom predicted disaster as MLB moved to reduce the number of affiliated teams from 160 to 120, four for each major league club. Recently, we reached out to more than 50 teams to see how they fared -- especially those teams that lost affiliation.

For some clubs, the reconfiguration was indeed a disaster. Eight teams that lost affiliation either folded altogether or did not play in 2021 (one because of an unfinished stadium), and some of those teams are suing MLB for breach of contract and tortious interference. Officials from teams that remained affiliated expressed general satisfaction, although some said they wouldn't air gripes publicly for fear of angering Major League Baseball.

But for the owners who lost affiliation -- those who felt they had the most to lose -- a number were like Davis. While they lament their team's loss of value and worry about MLB's long-term commitment to their new leagues, they say the reorganization worked out better than they expected.

"I was wrong," says Jeff Katofsky, the owner of the now-independent Northern Colorado Owlz and a vocal critic last year. "I thought fans cared more about affiliation than they actually do. ... I'm encouraged. I would've told you it was going to be a s--- show, and it wasn't."

The Owlz were one of the eight that didn't play because their stadium was incomplete, but they plan to resume this year.

Come spring, if major league owners and players have not resolved their labor impasse, both affiliated and unaffiliated minor league baseball will be the only professional game in town. The lockout only affects players on MLB teams' 40-man rosters, and the minor league seasons will begin on schedule, pandemic permitting. Minor league owners see the potential for a banner 2022 season.

"The first initial reaction was 'change is bad, change is bad, I want status quo,'" says Andy Shea, the CEO of two teams that lost affiliation. "Now that I've realized it, the quality of baseball is better, the name recognition is better, and there's still that autonomy that we have."

The de-affiliated teams that survived joined either independent professional leagues or MLB's new amateur Draft and Prospect leagues, which use college players swinging wooden bats.

MLB officials say they're mostly pleased with how their plan to restructure the game has gone.

"None of us would have chosen to have Year 1 be in a global pandemic," says Morgan Sword, MLB's executive vice president for baseball operations. "That obviously muted the impact and obviously prevented us from progressing as quickly as we wanted." But all in all, he says, "we were really happy about how things went."

One thing is clear: Major League Baseball is now in complete control of the minors, all part of commissioner Rob Manfred's vision for "One Baseball," with his office in New York the center of all levels of the sport.

"What I've learned is that Major League Baseball is really powerful at getting what it wants," says one minor league owner on the condition of anonymity. "Before, MLB had to ask, and now they can tell. They'll ultimately get what they want."

What MLB wanted was stability and control that officials felt had been lacking under the old minor league system, which was a patchwork of leagues that worked through the mostly autonomous Minor League Baseball offices in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Before, major league clubs had to renew agreements with affiliates every two to four years, sometimes ending up with geographical nightmares like the one the New York Mets had for six seasons when their Triple-A team was 2,500 miles away in Las Vegas. The new system allows clubs to choose affiliates without negotiating.

MLB teams wanted improvements to many minor league facilities, some of which are publicly owned. Owners were told they would lose their affiliation if those upgrades weren't made.

For some ballparks, that tab can run several million dollars. MLB officials also said that reducing the number of teams would allow major league clubs to improve the infamously poor pay for their minor leaguers.

The affiliated minor league owner, who didn't like MLB's "take it or leave it" approach, says now that the goals were worthwhile.

"A lot of that was needed," he says.

Owners who lost affiliation say a positive turning point was an agreement a year ago that established four independent leagues, including the Pioneer, as "partner leagues" with MLB. The arrangement means MLB covers initial administrative costs of up to $500,000 per league for the first three years, and it provides scouting technology for MLB teams to keep tabs on players.

To Davis, the biggest thing the agreement provided his PaddleHeads was a sense of security. "As long as I knew the Pioneer League was going to stick together, I knew we were going to be good," he says.

MLB says it is also trying to make good on its promise that no town would lose baseball because of de-affiliation; Sword says that by 2023 there should some form of minor league ball in five of the cities where teams didn't play last year.

"I'm probably in the minority from some of the operators, [but] I've got to at least appreciate the fact that MLB has done everything they said they were going to do in bringing summer league ball to these markets," says Chris Allen, the president of Boyd Sports, which owns the Double-A South's Tennessee Smokies and four teams in the Appalachian League that lost affiliation. "We were at their mercy when we lost our team. It was either try this, see how it goes, or we're out of a business. It's worked out OK for us. I know other leagues and teams have had more of a challenge than we have."

For some teams that moved to independent ball, freedom is just another word for having way more in expenses. The PaddleHeads' Davis had to come up with money for things the major league teams used to provide -- $300,000 for players "and trainers and all the baseball expenses, baseballs and bats and all that other [stuff]. This year we had to do it all ourselves, which is actually fun. It was expensive, but it was really fun," he says.

Teams like his no longer have to pay fees to MiLB or the major league clubs, although some owners say their total expenses are higher.

Among the clubs that converted to independent professional teams, owners say their biggest issue is that even if their franchises were successful for a season, they lost significant value when they lost affiliation. It's like having a beautiful house that is worthless on the market; it's fine as long as you don't intend to sell.

"The equity difference is massive," Davis says. "I mean millions of dollars. So that's everyone's huge concern and that's why the rest of the league wants to be affiliated, so they can get their money back."

The Binghamton (New York) Rumble Ponies, who remain as the Mets' Double-A affiliate, were sold last year for $10 million, which several sources say is consistent with the market before contraction. The Vermont Lake Monsters, on the other hand, lost affiliation and sold for about $1 million, far short of the $8 million that other teams in their league had sold for previously.

"Well, it hurt," says former Lake Monsters owner Ray Pecor Jr. "It hurt in a lot of ways. I was there for 26 years or more. I was hopeful for something special in the community, and all of a sudden they took all of that away from us."

Pecor says he only sold once he knew the buyer would keep the team in Vermont.

Of the 43 teams that lost affiliation, three are suing MLB for claims including breach of contract and tortious interference, essentially saying that MLB bullied them out of business. Some of the eight owners who didn't operate last year couldn't sue: They also own teams that kept affiliation, and when they signed agreements with MLB they waived that right.

Another MLB official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, denies that the clubs or MLB violated any contracts.

"We had a contract with a group that expired," the official says, referring to the Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and MiLB that expired Sept. 30, 2020. "I think that's a tough road for them to argue. If you take it to a logical extreme, what they're saying is, once you're here, you're here forever."

The plaintiffs also filed a federal lawsuit in December challenging MLB's antitrust exemption. A separate class action lawsuit filed this month on behalf of minor league players also challenges MLB's antitrust status by claiming MLB and its teams conspired to keep pay low. MLB has long argued that without its antitrust exemption, which allows it to control team territories, minor league teams would constantly move and create a state of chaos.

One of the plaintiffs is Nostalgic Partners, LLC, which owned the Staten Island Yankees. They're suing for $20 million.

"We were totally wronged by MLB and the New York Yankees and we're going to win this suit," says Glenn Reicin, a partner with the firm.

Randy Levine, president of the Yankees, says Nostalgic turned down MLB's offer for an independent-league team. "It was clear that Nostalgic was incapable of operating a minor-league team at the minimum standards," he says. Reicin says a formal offer was never made and that the team had a contractual right to be a New York Yankees affiliate.

The owners of the Salem-Keizer (Oregon) Volcanoes, formerly a San Francisco Giants affiliate, and the Tri-City (New York) ValleyCats, formerly with the Houston Astros , are the other two plaintiffs. The owner of the Norwich (Connecticut) Sea Unicorns joined the three plaintiffs on the federal lawsuit.

One formerly affiliated owner says the $500,000 MLB is giving his new league isn't enough to cover what was lost, and he doesn't have faith that it will continue to support baseball in that league's communities.

"They did the absolute rock-bottom minimum that they could. I expect them to participate for three years and then they'll be gone," he says. "There's no negotiation. How do you negotiate when there's nothing to negotiate with?"

That owner also said he didn't want any of that attributed to him, because he's hoping that someday MLB will restore his affiliation.

Even Boyd Sports' Allen, who says MLB came through on "95%" of what was promised, says he has concerns for the long run.

"You can't expect them to pay for this 20 years down the road. You do wonder what the sustainability of the [Appalachian] league is," he says. "Yeah, I am concerned. I know our community is concerned. What is the plan if they do pull the financing? If they pull the financing, some of these teams won't be able to make it. I think ours would survive. But some of them would not."

Teams that learned in 2020 they were keeping affiliation were relieved, but even they had concerns about what life would be like under direct MLB rule.

"At the very beginning, when this all took place, there was a lot of cynicism. Eventually -- I'm not going to say it's all gone away yet -- the cynicism tended to dissipate a little bit," says Ken Young, who is a part-owner of four affiliated teams. "It doesn't mean it was good. I mean, obviously, we had attendance restrictions. We had all kinds of various problems that were more COVID-19 than anything else."

Overall, according to Baseball America magazine, attendance for affiliated clubs was down 1,000 fans per game. Some of that is attributable to pandemic restrictions at some parks, fan fears of the virus and games canceled because of team outbreaks. All clubs say they had a significant drop in revenue from corporate sales, but are optimistic companies will buy bulk tickets in 2022.

Outside of COVID-19, Young says, affiliated teams' biggest concern was that MLB would take over teams' marketing and financial plans, robbing them of their autonomy.

"At least for the first season, I would say that it was satisfactory in that we were permitted for the most part to operate normally," he says.

Another change was MLB's decision to sign 10-year agreements with affiliates, rather than the two-to-four-year deals that left major league clubs playing "musical chairs" as they negotiated for minor league clubs. And with that new stability among affiliated teams has come a new kind of minor league owner: a number of firms and private equity funds are seeking ownership of affiliated teams.

Endeavor, which has grown from its original business as a talent agency, recently announced it was creating a subsidiary called Diamond Baseball Holdings and buying 10 affiliated minor league clubs, with more acquisitions to come.

"I think the attraction to it now versus prior is the stability of the system," says Peter Freund, the CEO of Diamond and a veteran minor league owner himself. "Minor league baseball is sort of in the most secure possible place it could be. Now we can grow the brand from a national standpoint. [The opportunity] wasn't there before."

(The MLB Players' Association told Endeavor agents they would have to divest from the company if they want to represent baseball players, The Athletic reported this month.)

Seeing Endeavor get into the market "was sort of shocking," an MLB official says on the condition of anonymity. "The general thesis is there's a lot of untapped potential. I take it as a compliment that large companies are suddenly interested in being part of the minor leagues."

The opportunity is there now, Freund says, because MLB's minor league office can coordinate national marketing and merchandising efforts in a way the old MiLB office in Florida and the disparate league offices couldn't.

Endeavor and other affiliated owners will try to expand the minor league game's national appeal with marketing and improved broadcasting. Freund says he would like to see, for example, major league broadcasts cut away to minor league games to show the organization's best prospects at work.

While MLB officials say they're pleased with Endeavor's entry into ownership, they also expressed concerns about letting one owner become too powerful. MLB recently adopted a rule that no one may own more than 24 minor league teams or more than nine within the same minor league level. That rule is to be reevaluated in the years to come.

"The model here, what we like to see, is wealthy people who made money elsewhere and want to own a team where they live," the MLB official says. "That's our ideal minor league owner."

Freund agrees that the local connection is important, and that despite Endeavor's efforts to nationalize minor league marketing, he has been preaching local control.

"We'll still operate in ways fans have become accustomed to with local leadership, whether it's presidents and GMs, relationships with local foundations and businesses," he says.

The teams Endeavor has pursued underscore a point that newly unaffiliated owners have made: Affiliation is crucial to the value of a club.

"The strength of minor league baseball is based on the strength of Major League Baseball and its affiliations," Freund says. The clubs Endeavor pursued, he notes, are affiliates of teams with national followings: They'll have one each from the Cubs, Cardinals , Giants and Dodgers , two of the Yankees' four teams and all four of the Braves ' affiliates.

"To affiliate as closely as possible with Major League Baseball is the gold standard. It's just disingenuous for anybody to say the relationship with MLB is not better than any alternative," says David Freeman, lead owner of the Jackson (Tennessee) Generals, who did not play in 2021 and face an uncertain future. "The 120 weren't necessarily thrilled with every aspect, but the acceptance rate was 120-for-120; that speaks for itself."

Even newly independent teams that are succeeding say they want back in if an opportunity presents itself.

"Make no bones about it, we'd prefer to be an affiliated part of Major League Baseball. It's the goal, eventually," says Curtis Haug, the vice president and general manager of the Kane County (Illinois) Cougars. "It's a different world. So far, so good. The fans have embraced it. The beer's still cold, the hot dogs still good."

MLBPA executive board adds 34 minor leaguers

The arrival of 5,400 minor league players in the Major League Baseball Players Association ’s membership has created significant changes to the union’s governance.

The MLBPA has moved to a 72-person executive board, with 34 minor league positions joining the 38 positions already in place on the big-league side, MLBPA officials confirmed to The Athletic . All but four of those 34 minor league positions have been elected so far, with the final four spots to be selected in the offseason.

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Minor leaguers will not vote on matters that primarily affect major leaguers, and vice versa, but the full board would make large organizational decisions, such as votes on executive director and constitution changes, the union officials confirmed.

Other routes the MLBPA could have taken with its structure were not immediately clear. But no matter the set-up the MLBPA newly settled on, the outcome was going to reflect a tricky balancing act. As one would expect, major leaguers wanted to retain ultimate control of the union — which they founded in the 1960s and are still the primary funders through dues and licensing. At the same time, minor leaguers now sit close to them in terms of control.

Minor leaguers now make up a majority of the MLBPA, by thousands, and do not have a voting majority. But the minor leaguers also might not have had a union at all were it not for the big leaguers’ willingness to take them in .

The old 38-person board voted to modify the constitution for the expansion in late March. Elections for 30 minor league player reps, one per franchise, then wrapped in June. Those reps serve two-year terms, just like the major league reps do, assuming the player remains in a given organization.

The four other positions on the minor league side — two association reps, they’ll be called, as well as two association alternates — are to be filled when the MLBPA has its annual meetings in November. Those same four positions exist on the major league side, as well as four other positions that minor leaguers do not have: two pension reps, and two pension alternates. (In their new CBA , minor leaguers have a 401K, but not a pension.)

— The Athletic ’s Ken Rosenthal contributed to this story.

(Top photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

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Evan Drellich is a senior writer for The Athletic, covering baseball. He’s the author of the book Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess. Follow Evan on Twitter @ EvanDrellich

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MLB Trade Rumors

Blue Jays Sign Mike Mayers To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | March 19, 2024 at 4:55pm CDT

The Blue Jays announced that they have signed Mike Mayers to a minor league deal. The right-hander has also received an invite to major league Spring Training.

Mayers, 32, is coming off a rough couple of seasons. He signed a minor league deal with the Royals last year and was added to their big league roster to serve in a swing role, but posted an earned run average of 6.15 in 26 1/3 innings over six appearances. His 8.4% walk rate was fine but his 14.3% strikeout rate was well below average. He was outrighted off the roster in June and later traded to the White Sox, putting up poor numbers for the Triple-A affiliates of both clubs, finishing with a combined 6.12 ERA at that level.

With the Angels the year before, he tossed 50 2/3 innings with a 5.68 ERA. His 20.2% strikeout rate was better in that season but 20.8% of his fly balls allowed went over the fence, almost double his 12.1% rate from 2023.

The Jays will undoubtedly be hoping for Mayers to return to his 2020-21 form. Over those two seasons, he made 101 appearances for the Halos and logged 105 innings. He posted a 3.34 ERA in that time, striking out 30.5% of opponents while walking just 8%. He moved up the bullpen chart for the Angels in that time, earning four saves and 22 holds.

Per the data at Statcast , his velocity ticked down as his results went south. His fastball velo was above 94 miles per hour in 2020 and 2021 but dropped to 93.5 mph in 2022 and 92.9 mph last year. His slider, cutter and changeup also lost a tick or two over the past two seasons, while his curveball went up slightly in 2022 before dropping in 2023.

Mayers has recently been getting some work in with Driveline Baseball, as they tweeted out some footage of him throwing, as relayed by Keegan Matheson of MLB.com . It seems the Jays were intrigued enough by his recent form to bring him into camp.

That may have been at least partially motivated by some recent developments to players on their roster. Per Matheson , righties Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson are dealing with arm issues, right elbow inflammation for the former and forearm tightness for the latter. Each player underwent an MRI without finding any structural issues, but the club may be precautious with them in the meantime.

If either or both of those guys miss time, the club will have to rely on its depth. Mayers will now jump into that mix and try to earn his way onto the roster. If he does so, he is out of options but he has just under five years of service time. That means the Jays could retain him for 2025 via arbitration if he earns a roster spot and things go especially well this year.

16 Comments

10 hours ago

Spooky signing

“Get in my belly!” “I want my baby back, baby back, baby back ribs…”

I openly rooted for Christopher Walken in Wayne’s World 2 because I am an agent of chaos

9 hours ago

Loved Walken’s “bai bai bai” commercials.

I was thinking along the Austin Powers lines too. Beat me to it.

Meh. Maybe depth, maybe org filler. No harm, no foul on a MiLB deal.

An invitation to a week of spring training

7 hours ago

That’s cute. Come in an shmooze and help yourself to either the ham and cheese or the egg salad.

All the best to him – many a player will be joining a new team this week with cuts and go into extended spring training in the minors.

May have had the worst ML debut ever. 1.1 innings, 8 hits, 2 walks, 9 ER.

And I thought Joe Nuxhall’s debut was bad. 0.2 innings, 2 hits, 5 walks, 5 ER.

By my count that would be 14 batters faced with 9 of them scoring. YIKES!!!

Wow Atkins is really pulling out all stops here at the end of Spring Training , with these stellar under the radar acquisitions.

6 hours ago

You are aware that all 30 teams in the majors pick up players like this and 99 percent of them never see the majors. Go back to sleep or grab a book and read how teams operate in the Majors, not just Toronto, but the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Rays, Giants, plus every other team. Attacking Atkins shows your ignorance of the sport.

Oh thank you so much for the enlightening lesson. I took copious notes. I won’t screw it up next time, I promise. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, and where should I send my Apology Video to Chairman Atkins?

8 hours ago

Time will never mend, the careless curve ball of a good friend.(George Michael Mayers)

Lauri and Dr. Loomis are not happy with this news.

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'Like replacing Lionel Messi with a minor league player' - MLS blasted for 'gambling reputation' as referee lockout continues with start of 2024 season overshadowed by glaring mistakes from 'underqualified' officials

• MLS enduring referee lockout
• Season about to enter second month
• Officials branded "overwhelmed and underqualified"

WHAT HAPPENED?

MLS has been without its elite-level referees since February 18 , when the Professional Referee Organization (PRO) locked out their pool of officials, the Professional Soccer Referee Association (PSRA), over a lack of agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). As a result, MLS drafted in a host of 'replacement referees' to officiate the start of the 2024 season. With an agreement over a new CBA still far away, those officials remain entering into the second month of the campaign. That's despite them coming under fire for numerous abysmal decisions , with LA Times writer Kevin Baxter the latest to make a scathing assessment of the situation.

WHAT BAXTER SAID

In Tuesday's column for the Times , Baxter wrote: "At a time when Lionel Messi’s presence means more of the world will be sampling MLS than ever before, the league has put its games in the hands of referees who are clearly overwhelmed and underqualified. The results have been embarrassing, yet the league continues to gamble its reputation — not to mention millions of dollars in potential sponsorships and global recognition — to save the $95,000 per team it would take to bring the regular referees back this season.

"PRO brought in replacement officials to start the MLS season, but there really is no replacing the regular ones. The top-tier officials who work for PRO have recently proved to be among the best in the world, with center referee Tori Penso leading a four-person U.S. officiating crew in the 2023 Women’s World Cup final in Australia, one which included assistant referee Kathryn Nesbitt, one of two Americans to work the last men’s World Cup final in Qatar.

"Imagine the league replacing a top MLS player such as [Lionel] Messi with a minor league player and trying to pass them off as equals. Yet that’s exactly what is happening with the officials. And as the contract negotiations remain stalemated and the frustration among coaches and players grows, MLS commissioner Don Garber has made it clear that getting things right isn’t nearly as important as winning the showdown with the referees’ union, even if the integrity of the league suffers — which is already happening."

THE BIGGER PICTURE

As MLS enters it's second month of the campaign, the first four weeks have already been marred by countless officiating mistakes that have gone on to be costly. Standout examples include replacement referee Rafael Bonilla giving a throw-in to the wrong team in week 2, which allowed the Philadelphia Union to equalise against Sporting Kansas City in stoppage time. That same weekend the official for Inter Miami's south Florida derby with Orlando City was removed after pictures emerged of him wearing a Herons shirt.

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID

Drama continued into last weekend's action, when Montreal boss Laurent Courtois was incredulous after his side's agonising 4-3 loss to Chicago. He claimed that two of the opposition goals shouldn't have counted, and that Fire keeper Chris Brady should have been sent off in the second half. “Twenty-two added minutes, red card on the [Chicago] keeper that isn’t given… their third goal came from a corner that shouldn’t have been, their first goal was offside,” Courtois said after the match, per The Athletic. “Something was taken away from my guys.”

In the error-strewn 3-3 draw between the LA Galaxy and St. Louis City that same weekend, Galaxy defender Maya Yoshida weighed in on the situation, telling reporters: "I’m going to get fined. I hope [PSRA] makes a deal with the league as soon as possible. That’s [a] shame. That’s it."

WHAT NEXT FOR MLS?

MLS seem to be no closer to reaching an agreement with the PRSA. Commissioner Don Garber, with PRO on his side, appears to hold all the cards at this stage. His comments to The Athletic last week suggest a solution is not forthcoming. "PRO is going to continue to sit down and negotiate with the PSRA to hopefully reach a resolution - but if there’s no resolution to be reached, we are more than prepared to see this all the way through," he said. "We have officials that we think are doing a really good job, our players think they’re doing a good job, our coaches think they’re doing a good job.”

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Reds' Tony Kemp: Sent to minor-league camp

The Reds reassigned Kemp to minor-league camp Monday, Charlie Goldsmith of The Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

With a lifetime .238/.325/.352 slash line (94 wRC+) over 2,237 career big-league plate appearances, Kemp was one of the more accomplished non-roster invitees who joined the Reds for camp, but he never had much of a chance at winning a spot on Cincinnati's Opening Day roster in light of the team's ample infield and outfield depth. If Kemp isn't willing to report to Triple-A Louisville to begin the season, the Reds could grant him his release and allow him to join an organization that can present him with a clearer path to a big-league roster spot.

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League of Women Voters ® of Moscow

Empowering voters. defending democracy., you are here, 2023 candidate forum - city council.

The League of Women Voters of Moscow will host a candidate forum for Moscow City Council candidates on Wed., Oct. 4, 7-8:30 p.m. in the Great Room at the 1912 Center in Moscow. Send questions in advance to: moscow.league.questions2 [at] gmail.com .