Toronto Blue Jays: Could the Jays Triple-a Affiliate Be on the Move in 2013?

In a recent National Post article, reporter John Lott broke the news that the Toronto Blue Jays have announced that they will keep their Double-A affiliate team in New Hampshire for at least two more seasons.

The Fisher Cats have been Toronto's Double-A affiliate since 2004, and their contract was set to expire in 2012, before the announcement was made that they would continue to develop Blue Jays talent.

At the end of the article, however, Lott also makes a reference to the Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate, with the Las Vegas 51s' contract also expiring at the conclusion of the 2012 season, alluding to the potential for a move to Buffalo.

There is no doubt the Jays as an organization would love to make this move.

First off, there is the proximity issue. Right now, the Jays have their Triple-A affiliate out in Las Vegas, which is a hop and a jump from being in California, making the travel both costly and time consuming for players that are being moved to and from Toronto and Las Vegas (just look at the flurry of moves made by the Blue Jays in the past few days with Yan Gomes, Chad Beck, Aaron Laffey, among others).

Bringing the team to Buffalo would also give the Blue Jays a chance to allow their fans to see the team's top prospects up-close, with Buffalo only being about an hour's drive from Toronto (great for a potential family trip).

While this may pose a problem for the Jays in terms of potentially losing some ticket sales at their own home games on weekends, the impact wouldn't be noticeable and they'd establish a great relationship with the Buffalo Bisons.

Another reason that the Blue Jays would favor a move to Buffalo after the 2012 season draws to an end, would be the changing of leagues.

Their current Triple-A affiliate plays in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League (and the 51s home park of Cashman Field is known to be one of the more hitter-friendly parks around as well), whereas the Bisons play in the more balanced International League.

That would allow the Jays to bring up their young pitchers to the Triple-A level before making the jump to the big leagues (something they've been hesitant at doing of late, see Henderson Alvarez and Drew Hutchison).

In the end, this move would make sense from a business perspective, as well as a player development perspective. With the proximity to Toronto, the Bisons may also see a jump in support and could benefit from signing on with Toronto.

The only thing that may stand in the way at this point would be the New York Mets' desire to keep Buffalo as their own Triple-A affiliate squad.

Only time will tell, so stay tuned.

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