Hey, Sacramento — while the A’s are in town can Fresno borrow the River Cats? | Opinion

Marek Warszawski
·4 min read

Hey, Sacramento, can you let us borrow a baseball team?

I’m asking on behalf of your less fortunate Central Valley cousin, the city that got the worst of it three years ago when Major League Baseball restructured the minor leagues. The city that can’t help look north with envy following Thursday’s announcement the Oakland A’s will relocate to Sacramento from 2025-27 and share Sutter Health Park with the Triple-A River Cats during their stopover in the state capital.

The A’s hope to move to Las Vegas in time for the 2028 season. Though as anyone who has followed this long, sad saga knows, any stadium plans involving chintzy owner John Fisher are about as sturdy as a tube tent in a storm.

What does any of this have to do with Fresno? In all likelihood, nothing whatsoever.

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Still, it doesn’t seem fair that Sacramento gets both a MLB franchise (the A’s, though barely) and a Triple-A team (the River Cats, who are the San Francisco Giants’ top farm club) while Fresno continues to settle for being the Class-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

I say that not as a slight to the Fresno Grizzlies, who open California League play Friday in San Jose in advance of Tuesday night’s home opener, but to point out the imbalance. Especially when it can be argued that Chukchansi Park is an equal, if not superior, baseball stadium than Sutter Health Park.

Might I humbly suggest — call it an outright beg if you wish — the River Cats relocate to Fresno for as long as the A’s call Sacramento home. If that ends up being more than three years (or forever as some in Sacramento are surely dreaming), so be it.

Though the Fresno Grizzlies’ team colors and overall look have changed over the years, the Triple-A franchise has featured the slashed F logo that was in place since the ballclub’s start back in 1998.
Though the Fresno Grizzlies’ team colors and overall look have changed over the years, the Triple-A franchise has featured the slashed F logo that was in place since the ballclub’s start back in 1998.

Fresno enjoyed Triple-A baseball for 23 seasons, the first 17 of those as a Giants affiliate. Right up until the point when MLB relegated the Grizzlies to Class-A through no fault of their own, or the city’s.

Reinstating Fresno’s Triple-A status, even temporarily, would help atone for that wrong.

There are many reasons why this won’t happen, the largest of which is Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé, a tech mogul who also owns the River Cats as well as Sutter Health Park.

Ranadivé has a reported net worth of $700 million. Meaning he has zero financial incentive to lend his Triple-A baseball team to another city, even if it would mean more ticket sales. (Who among Sacramento baseball fans will attend River Cats games when there’s an MLB option?). Nor is Fresno in position to give him one.

Fresno’s assurance letter

However there is one potential card up Fresno’s sleeve, should city leaders opt to play it. Mayor Jerry Dyer would be the obvious choice.

In December 2020, when MLB reorganized the minor leagues, the Grizzlies were the 120th (and last) franchise to accept the terms of the new 10-year licenses. Why? Because no other minor league team was relegated four levels, from Triple-A all the way to Low Class-A.

As part of its agreement with the city of Fresno, which owns the stadium, MLB crafted a letter guaranteeing there will be affiliated baseball at Chukchansi Park through at least the 2030 season. Other assurances are made through 2036.

The letter signed by Deputy Commissioner Daniel Halem also states MLB would “encourage all Major League Clubs to consider selecting (Fresno) as the future location of a Triple-A or Double-A affiliate to the extent such opportunity arises.”

Huh. “To the extent such opportunity arises.” To my untrained legal mind, that phrase could be stretched to include a situation exactly like this one.

I highly doubt such a course of action would yield results. The wording of the letter is pretty soft while hard to enforce. And even if MLB were to “encourage” the Giants and Ranadivé to let Fresno borrow their Triple-A team, those emails would probably remain unopened or be quickly deleted.

Still, it might be worth a try. If only to remind MLB of how Fresno bore the largest brunt of its minor league revamp — and that the city remains eager to return to the Triple-A level.

Better to swing and miss at even a slight chance for better baseball than to not take the bat off your shoulder.