Texas Rangers Sell Minor League Affiliates

The Texas Rangers will retain their affiliation with their two Class-A teams, which are based on the east coast.

The Texas Rangers announced the sale of the Hickory Crawdads and Down East Wood Ducks to Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH), an organization that owns and operates select Minor League clubs affiliated with Major League Baseball.

DBH owns more than a dozen minor-league affiliates around the country. 

“We are thrilled to welcome the Crawdads and Wood Ducks to the DBH family,” said Pat Battle and Peter Freund, Executive Chairman and CEO, respectively, of DBH. “Thank you to the Texas Rangers for entrusting us with the continuing success and growth of both of these clubs. We look forward to our partnership with the Rangers organization.”

The Crawdads and Wood Ducks will maintain their current front office staffs, led by Crawdads general manager Douglas Locascio and Wood Ducks general manager Jon Clemmons. The two teams will also remain affiliated with the Rangers. 

The transaction has been reviewed and approved by MLB Professional Development Leagues and is expected to close promptly, subject to the satisfaction of other standard closing conditions.

The Hickory Crawdads have been a Rangers minor league affiliate since 2009 in the South Atlantic League, first in Low-A and since 2021 in High-A. The Rangers purchased the franchise in October 2017. 

The Down East Wood Ducks became a Rangers affiliate in 2017 in the High-A Carolina League after Texas purchased the team in August 2016, when that franchise was transferred from the California League. The Wood Ducks and the Carolina League were reclassified to Low-A in 2021.

The Rangers’ other minor league affiliates are the Triple-A Round Rock Express (Pacific Coast League), Double-A Frisco RoughRiders (Texas League), and rookie teams in the Arizona Complex and Dominican Summer Leagues.

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