There will be 40 fewer minor league baseball teams next season as the minors are agreeing to Major League Baseball’s proposal to cut guaranteed affiliations from 160 to 120. Sadly, one of those 40 teams that are most likely to get cut are the Class A Burlington Bees. The Bees have been affiliated with many different major league franchises since 1889. Rumors were rampant about the demise of the Bees since negotiations between the MLB and Minor League Baseball started in February. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many minor league teams across the country to furlough workers and that alone could cause the final blow to Burlington’s long streak of hosting minor league baseball. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, said he spoke with MLB Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem on Friday about the endangered team. But while Halem reassured Grassley that other historic Iowa minor league teams, like the Quad Cities River Bandits, the Cedar Rapids Kernels and the Iowa Cubs, were safe, he gave no such assurances about the Bees or the Clinton LumberKings. Kim Parker, the Bees’ general manager, said she wasn’t ready to give up hope yet, “I know we are on the list to be cut and it is out of our control, but we hope and pray that we will have affiliated baseball at Burlington for years to come.” The Bees are also an economic engine that supports 180 full-time jobs in Des Moines County and generates, directly and indirectly, $4.7 million in wages, officials there said. If MLB cuts ties with the Bees, they could become an Independent League team and still play with other teams in that league.
