New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the Syracuse Chiefs will rebrand as the Syracuse Mets when they switch affiliations in 2019. The news, relayed by Syracuse.com, was made public at Cuomo’s State of the State address, which was attended by Jeff Wilpon, Sandy Alderson, Brandon Nimmo, and T.J. Rivera.
Syracuse general manager Jeff Smorol was noncommittal about the new name, saying, ” We’ll have more to say about it later,” Smorol said. “I don’t think right now is the time to delve into that. When we’re ready to make the official announcement, we’ll make the official announcement.”
The Mets officially purchased the Chiefs in October for a reported $18 million price tag, although the organization’s Triple-A operations will continue in Las Vegas through the 2018 season. The team hosted a Hot Stove dinner in December and notable Mets luminaries such as Tim Teufel and Edgardo Alfonzo were on hand to usher the city of Syracuse into a new era.
It’s too bad that the move couldn’t begin this season as the Vegas to NY trip for players being called up has been absurd. Would love to know who was responsible for not being able to keep the AAA club when it was in Tidewater? Wasn’t there any place closer than Vegas or was it a financial necessity? Regardless, moving AAA operations to Syracuse will be very good for the Mets and their fans who live in the Upstate N.Y.
A lot of blanks to fill in so let’s get you caught up. The name “Tidewater” hasn’t existed for over 25 years now. Its called Norfolk now. And the Mets have had two other affiliations between Norfolk and Vegas. After the Wilpons took over full ownership from Doubleday in 2002, they developed an acrimonious relationship with Tides owner who ended the relationship the Mets after 2006. The Mets landed in New Orleans for two years, then to Buffalo who kind of screwed the Mets over. In July 2012, Buffalo ownership announced that they would renew with the Mets. But in late August, suddenly decided to sign with Toronto instead – a deal that made perfect sense for both Buf and Tor. Unfortunately for the Mets, all other teams had signed deals already and the only team left was the one that Toronto had just left – Vegas. So the Mets really had no choice. The harsh reality is that most of the International League teams are already affiliated with their perfect geographical partners, or are on long-term deals with their existing affiliates. So buying a team was almost the only way for the Mets to shoe-horn their way back into the IL.
Thank you for the info in concern with the Buffalo/Toronto/ Vegas triangle. I was aware that something had happened to force the Mets to go to Las Vegas but did not remember the details. In so far as the middle stop in New Orleans that also was too far from New York. I would have to contend that Fred Wilpon tried to push around the owners of the farm teams like he pushed Nelson Doubleday out the door. It was a shame that Nelson didn’t get rid of Fred instead. I have been “screaming” for the longest time that I too hate the Wilpon’s but that Fred will never sell the team no matter what we think….I’ll stick with that idea
With the Syracuse deal, location is a moot point now, and the Mets got as good a site as could be gotten geographically speaking.
That said, if a 3.5 hour flight to New Orleans is l too far for you, then a lot of teams have bad agreements and some of them have been renewing those agreements since the 90’s.
A 3.5 hour flight to New York from New Orleans is still too long when a player is needed. Seems to me that when a player gets hurt at Citi Field in a night game and the 25 man roster has little to no depth at his position that the AAA player being called up will end up spending the better part of 8 hours or more traveling. I know it was mentioned at least a few times that the arriving player was exhausted and not available on that day. Upstate New York is a much better answer for all concerned. When living in N.Y I often flew the shuttles between Buffalo and Syracuse to LaGuardia. Forty five minutes top!
There’s no doubt that upstate NY is vastly superior to to New Orleans. But its also the ideal, not the norm.
But in the real world, not everyone can have the ideal. About 60% of the teams do, and 40% don’t. And the ones that don’t often have trips that exceed 3.5 hours.
As for your concerns about players being tired, its highly overstated. New Orleans is not Las Vegas. If a player gets on a plane in NO at 11 PM and arrives in NY at 2:30 (or his hotel at 3:30), he can still get 8 hours sleep and be at the ballpark by 1. Most of the players say that they don’t get any sleep that night anyway. Most of the players are bench players who likely would not get used that 1st night anyway. So the number of times it has an effect is few. And they don’t have the jet lag that they would when flying from Vegas.
This is just great they can have AA-AAA not a 3 hour flight away from the major league roster. Also feel this would be helpful for pitching in AAA not having to worry about the Las Vegas air as much since i feel it messed with their confidence on top of just bad performance.