The Mississippi Braves, Atlanta’s Double-A affiliate, introduced Tuesday that they are going to relocate to Columbus, Ga., following the 2024 season.
The Southern League franchise, generally known as the M-Braves, have performed at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss., since 2005. Beforehand owned by the Atlanta Braves, the M-Braves had been bought by Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH) previous to the 2022 season. DBH, a subsidiary of sports activities leisure firm Endeavor, at the moment owns 29 Minor League Baseball groups (together with each staff within the Atlanta Braves’ farm system).
The M-Braves’ announcement of their impending transfer got here after a pair of serious votes by the Columbus Metropolis Council. Final month, the Council authorised a funding plan for an enormous renovation of Golden Park; on Tuesday, a Golden Park lease settlement with DBH was authorised.
Golden Park’s impending renovation will deliver it in step with MLB’s facility necessities for Minor League ballparks. Golden Park will even have the excellence of being one of many Minors’ oldest ballparks, because it opened in 1926. For almost six a long time, starting in 1951, Golden Park often hosted a Minor League Baseball staff. The newest professional staff to to play there, the Columbus Catfish, relocated to Bowling Inexperienced, Ky., following the 2008 season.
The M-Braves’ departure from Pearl — positioned simply outdoors of Jackson — will go away the state of Mississippi with only one Minor League staff, the Biloxi Shuckers. The Braves’ system, in the meantime, will turn into extra consolidated with the addition of Columbus. Excessive-A Rome and Triple-A Gwinnett are additionally primarily based in Georgia, whereas the Single-A Augusta GreenJackets are positioned simply throughout the Savannah River in North Augusta, S.C.
In an open letter posted on the M-Braves’ web site, the staff expressed gratitude to “Pearl, the encompassing Jackson group, and the state of Mississippi for the unimaginable assist for the franchise over the previous 19 years. …We’re hopeful that isn’t the top {of professional} baseball in Pearl, and our group will assist any efforts to deliver a staff to Trustmark Park sooner or later.”
The M-Braves’ 2024 house opener is scheduled for April 9, with the staff taking up the Shuckers.
