Seattle Mariners Announce Sale of Minor League Affiliate
The Seattle Mariners announced on Thursday that they have sold their Low-A affiliate, the Modesto Nuts. Even with the sale, the M's say that the relationship between the two organizations won't change, at least for now.
Today the @Mariners came to an agreement to sell the @ModestoNuts, our affiliate in the Cal League, to Diamond Baseball Holdings. The Nuts will remain our Cal League affiliate in 2025, and the Modesto front office will remain in place.
— Mariners Player Development (@MsPlayerDev) December 12, 2024
Read more: https://t.co/vsGs9Ruice pic.twitter.com/vHnFVTI5Cc
From the press release:
Today the Mariners came to an agreement to sell the Modesto Nuts, our affiliate in the Cal League, to Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH).
While Modesto will now be owned by DBH, the sale will not change our relationship with the Nuts. They will remain our Cal League affiliate; we will play in Modesto in 2025, and the Modesto front office will remain in place.
When we purchased the Nuts our goal was to guarantee a spot in the Cal League. That was important to us for competitive reasons in developing our players to assist us in winning at the Big League level. Our success in Modesto has been demonstrated both by our back-to-back Cal League Championships and the quality of players that have matriculated from Modesto to the rest of our system, and to the Major League Club.
Following the changes in the minor league system in recent years, it is no longer necessary for us to own a team to be confident in our ability to remain in the Cal League, so we are transferring the team to DBH.
Diamond has built their business model around owning minor league teams, while our baseball operations focus is on assuring the best on-field development of our young players. Exiting as owners of the Nuts allows both the Mariners and Diamond to focus on their strengths.
The Nuts have won back-to-back Cal League titles and some of the M's best players have come through the Modesto system including Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh. It's unclear what this will mean for the Nuts and their future, but there's already been an announcement that the M's will link up with the Inland Empire 66ers in 2026.
We are excited to announce the forthcoming affiliation with the Seattle Mariners come the 2026 season.
— Inland Empire 66ers (@66ersBaseball) December 12, 2024
To read more about our new affiliation check out the full press release. https://t.co/oOhkOTyG9G pic.twitter.com/hWNafNsDlA
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