History
The American Association (AA) was founded in October 2005 when the St. Paul Saints, Lincoln Saltdogs, Sioux City Explorers, and Sioux Falls Canaries announced they were leaving the Northern League. Around the same time, the Central Baseball League announced it was disbanding after four seasons; the league's Fort Worth Cats, Shreveport-Bossier Sports, Pensacola Pelicans, Coastal Bend Aviators, and El Paso Diablos joined the four former Northern League teams and the expansion St. Joe Blacksnakes to form the AA as a ten-team league. The new league began play in 2006, with a 96-game schedule, since expanded to 100 games.
2008 saw the AA lose the Blacksnakes and Aviators, with the Grand Prairie AirHogs and Wichita Wingnuts joining in their place. Following the 2010 season, four more Northern League franchises (the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, Gary SouthShore RailCats, Kansas City T-Bones, and Winnipeg Goldeyes) left the Northern League as its stability came into question and joined the AA. In 2011 and 2012 the league went through a significant shift. Fort Worth had its membership revoked and moved to the North American League, while Shreveport and Pensacola both relocated. The Pelicans moved to Amarillo, Texas, and became the Amarillo Sox (later the Amarillo Thunderheads) while Shreveport, who had changed their name to the Shreveport-Bossier Captains, moved to Laredo, Texas and became the Laredo Lemurs. The AA also reorganized into North, Central, and South Divisions; Fargo-Moorhead, Sioux Falls, St. Paul, and Winnipeg comprised the North, Gary SouthShore, Kansas City, Lincoln, Sioux City, and Wichita the Central, and Amarillo, El Paso, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and Shreveport the South Division. The top finishers in each of the three divisions earned automatic playoff berths, with the team with the next-best record that was not a division winner receiving a wild card spot.
For the 2012 season, the AA began interleague play with the Can-Am League. The two leagues were both headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, and both had Miles Wolff as their commissioner. This was similar to interleague play in MLB, but the AA and Can-Am League were separate legal entities and had separate playoffs and championships.
At the end of the 2013 season, due to the Tucson Padres relocating to El Paso, the Diablos suspended operations. The team was eventually revived and relocated, operating as the Joplin Blasters in the South Division. The Blasters ceased operations after the conclusion of the 2016 season.
On November 19, 2015, Miles Wolff announced that there would no longer be interleague play. It also was announced that the AA would become a 12-team league, with the Amarillo Thunderheads and Grand Prairie AirHogs operating as a joint team called the Texas AirHogs, playing 25 games in Amarillo and 25 games in Grand Prairie Shortly before the 2017 season, the Laredo Lemurs withdrew from the league. They were temporarily replaced by the Salina Stockade from the Pecos League for the season. The AirHogs played in Grand Prairie full-time in 2017, and the Cleburne Railroaders joined the league the same season.
The Chicago Dogs joined the league in 2018 The league, now composed of twelve teams, again realigned, with Chicago, Fargo-Moorhead, Gary SouthShore, Sioux Falls, St. Paul, and Winnipeg in the North Division, and Cleburne, Kansas City, Lincoln, Sioux City, Texas, and Wichita in the South Division. The Milwaukee Milkmen joined for 2019, replacing the Wichita Wingnuts, which folded in large part due to the demolition of Lawrence-Dumont Stadium and their eventual replacement by the affiliated Wichita Wind Surge.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced that 6 of its 12 clubs would play an abbreviated 60-game season beginning on July 3, 2020. Five stadiums were used for gameplay: Sioux Falls Stadium (hosting the Sioux Falls Canaries and St. Paul Saints during July), Newman Outdoor Field (hosting the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks and Winnipeg Goldeyes), Franklin Field (hosting the Milwaukee Milkmen), Impact Field (hosting the Chicago Dogs), and CHS Field (hosting the St. Paul Saints beginning in August). Players from non-participating teams had the opportunity to be drafted by one of the six active clubs. A limited number of fans were allowed to attend games, in accordance with local government guidelines and restrictions.
The 2021 season saw the league lose both the AirHogs, who dropped out of the league, and the Saints, who moved to affiliated ball as the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. Joining the league in 2021 were the Kane County Cougars, who were dropped from affiliated ball during the 2021 minor league reorganization, as well as the Houston Apollos, who were a traveling team for the 2021 campaign.
In May 2021, the league announced the approval of Lake Country Baseball, based in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, as a new member of the league starting in 2022. Construction commenced later that summer on a new stadium and multi-use indoor sports facility, which opened for play on May 20, 2022, as Wisconsin Brewing Company Park. The team selected the name Lake Country DockHounds, after hosting an online name the team contest.
With the DockHounds joining the league for the 2022 season, the AA again realigned its divisions. Going away from the prior North/South divisions, the league decided to go with East/West divisions. The league placed Chicago, Cleburne, Gary SouthShore, Kane County, Lake Country, and Milwaukee in the East Division; and Fargo-Moorhead, Kansas City, Lincoln, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, and Winnipeg in the West Division. The league also changed the playoff format. The top four teams in each division make the playoffs, and the team in each division with the best record is allowed to choose their first-round opponent from the remaining three division teams.
On August 13, 2026, the league announced a return to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area beginning in the 2028 season with a team based in Blaine, Minnesota, a northern suburb of Minneapolis. The as-yet unnamed team is set to play at a 5,000-seat stadium situated within a 70-acre, $750 million development. On September 30, it was announced that the Cleburne Railroaders and Kane County Cougars would be leaving the AA to join the National Association of Professional Baseball (formerly the Frontier League); the parent company which owns the Railroaders and Cougars, REV Entertainment (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Texas Rangers organization), also owns the league's Schaumburg Boomers as well as the Atlantic League's Long Island Ducks.
Business model
The AA typically recruits college and former major and minor league players. Some former college players who join the AA chose not to enter or were not picked in the MLB draft, but want to continue to play professionally, be seen by major league scouts, and possibly get signed by MLB organizations. Former affiliated-league players that played at all levels of organized baseball sometimes join the AA after being released, injured, or having other circumstances as a way to be seen by scouts from MLB organizations and potentially be re-signed. For example, David Peralta was signed in 2004 as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, but suffered injuries and was released in 2009. He resurrected his career as an outfielder with teams such as the AA's Wichita Wingnuts and Amarillo Sox in 2012 and 2013, then became a starting outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Other former MLB players join the AA to stay involved in baseball after their MLB career, often as coaches and managers.
Players
Team rosters are limited to between 20 and 25 players, with up to an additional two on the injured list. The league counts a "year of service" as 75 or more at-bats or 30 or more innings pitched in any MLB-sponsored or independent league during the prior season, except that a player's first two years of service in an independent or short-season league counts as one year of service for AA purposes. The league's deputy commissioner is empowered to set the classifications and salary levels of foreign players. A maximum of six players on each team may be veterans, and a minimum of five must be rookies or LS-1. Of the remaining players, a maximum of six may be LS-4, and up to two of the LS-4 players may have LS-5 status. Teams with 22 players must have a minimum of four rookies or LS-1, while teams with 21 or fewer players must have a minimum of three rookies or LS-1.
Rookie: A player with less than one year of service.
LS-1: A player with less than two years of service.
LS-2: A player with less than three years of service.
LS-3: A player with less than four years of service.
LS-4: A player with less than five years of service.
LS-5: A player with less than six years of service.
Veteran: A player with six or more years of service. If a player has six or more years of service but has not reached the age of 27 by September 1 of that season, he will be considered an LS-4, while if he has not reached the age of 25 by September 1 of that season, he will be considered an LS-3.
2026 American Association season
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