Baseball America has reported that at the behest of Minor League Baseball it has removed prospect videos from its YouTube channel. In their released statement, Baseball America said:

So Baseball America has taken down all videos from official MiLB games both on our site and on YouTube. We still have batting practice videos from before MiLB games, as well as action from the Arizona Fall League and spring training, but due to MiLB’s demands, we have stopped posting videos of action from MiLB games.

This news comes on the heels of news that Minor League teams are setting forth new guidelines on how teams can post highlights on their social media accounts. In another Baseball America report, the explanation for these changes is a result of the new agreement between Minor League Baseball and MLBAM. When it comes to minor league teams, they are apparently permitted to continue to post videos on social media, but there are going to be unspecified limits on the frequency in which teams can do it.

It should be noted Minor League Baseball does not see this as a restriction on content. In fact, Katie Davison, MiLB’s senior vice president for digital strategy and business development, said, “Our goal in this is we want the most reach for our content to the most fans possible.”

However, fans are not going to see it that way, especially with Minor League Baseball going out of their way to have Baseball America take down their prospect videos. By having videos available in fewer places, Minor League Baseball is in fact, not having their content reach as many fans as possible.

From a purely Mets perspective, this is a problematic development. Much of the hype and excitement surrounding Pete Alonso came from these videos on social media and those posted by Baseball America. Fans were able to see Alonso hit prodigious homers, and it likely created more buzz than it would have otherwise, as ultimately seeing is believing.

This season, the Mets have a number of top prospects fans will want to watch. Unfortunately, unless fans are going to pay for MiLB TV and watch minor instead of Major League games, it is going to be difficult for them to find ways to see top Mets prospects like Andres Gimenez, Anthony Kay, Mark Vientos, and others in action.