Triple-A (officially Class AAA) has been the highest level of play in

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

since 1946. Currently, two leagues operate at the Triple-A level, the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major ...

(IL) and the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

(PCL). There are 30 teams, one per

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) franchise, with 20 in the IL and 10 in the PCL. Triple-A teams are generally located in smaller to mid-size cities which do not have sports teams of the “ Big Four” leagues, such as Syracuse, Toledo,

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

and

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, as well as larger metropolitan areas without MLB teams that also have a team in another major professional league, such as

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, Columbus, Buffalo, and

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

. Four Triple-A teams play in the same metro areas as their parent clubs.The

Gwinnett Stripers The Gwinnett Stripers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They play their home games at Coolray Field in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia ...

, St. Paul Saints, Sugar Land Space Cowboys and

Tacoma Rainiers The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Tacoma, Washington, and play their home games at Cheney Stadium, ...

All current Triple-A teams are located in the United States; before 2008, some Triple-A leagues also fielded teams in Canada, and from 1967 to 2020 the

Mexican League The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country. The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...

was classified as Triple-A. Reasons for the relocation of these teams were solely because of costs and attendance. Other than the current two Triple-A leagues, only three other leagues have ever held the classification.

History

Prior to 1946, the top level of

was Double-A, which had been established in 1912. The Triple-A classification was created before the 1946 season, and began with all three leagues then in Double-A moving up to the new level: * American Association (AA) *

(IL) *

(PCL) This structure persisted for the next 75 years with only a few changes: * 1952–1957: The PCL was classified as "Open" for these six seasons, in anticipation of it potentially becoming a third major league; once the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brook ...

and

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

relocated from New York City to California, the PCL returned to Triple-A for the 1958 season. * 1963–1968: The AA did not operate during these six seasons. * 1967: The

received Triple-A classification; it had previously been Double-A since 1955 * 1979: The Inter-American League debuted with a Triple-A classification; the league disbanded in June * 1998: Teams from the AA, which disbanded after the 1997 season, were added to the PCL and IL The IL, PCL, and Mexican League continued as Triple-A leagues until Major League Baseball reorganized the minor leagues prior to the 2021 season. At that time, the IL and PCL were temporarily renamed Triple-A East and Triple-A West, respectively. The Mexican League continues to operate, independently. Following MLB's acquisition of the rights to the names of the historical minor leagues, they announced on March 16, 2022, that the leagues would once again be called the International League and the Pacific Coast League, effective with the 2022 season.

Countries

While all current and the majority of past Triple-A teams have been located in the United States, Triple-A teams have also been based in: *

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

: teams including the

Montreal Royals The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team in Montreal, Quebec, during 1897–1917 and 1928–1960. A member of the International League, the Royals were the top farm club ( Class AAA) of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939; pi ...

and Ottawa Lynx of the IL and the Calgary Cannons, Edmonton Trappers, and Vancouver Mounties of the PCL *

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

: the Havana Sugar Kings were members of the IL from 1954 to 1960 *

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

: the short-lived Inter-American League had a team based here in 1979 *

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

: all Mexican League teams *

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

: one Inter-American League team in 1979 *

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

: two Inter-American League teams in 1979

Purpose

The main purpose of Triple-A teams is to prepare players for the major leagues. In 2010,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

wrote: Both young players and veterans play for Triple-A teams: Most, if not all, of the players on an MLB team's ''expanded roster'' who are not currently on the team's ''active roster'' are assigned to the team's Triple-A club. Expanded rosters consist of 40 players, while active rosters generally consist of 26 players as of the 2021 season. Most Triple-A teams are located geographically close to their MLB parent club, as activating a Triple-A player as an injury replacement is a common occurrence. The term " AAAA player," pronounced "four-A" or "quadruple-A," refers to a player who is consistently successful when playing for Triple-A teams, but is not successful at the major league level. The term is usually used derisively and has itself been criticized as flawed. Major league team executives and managers disagree whether AAAA players exist.

Leagues

Teams at this level are divided into two leagues: the International League and the Pacific Coast League. The International League fields teams primarily in the Eastern United States, while the Pacific Coast League fields teams mostly in the Western United States. Each of the 30 major league teams has an affiliation with one Triple-A team in the United States.

Current teams

International League

Pacific Coast League

Triple-A All-Star Game

The Triple-A All-Star Game was a single game held between the two affiliated Triple-A leagues—the International League and the Pacific Coast League. Each league fielded a team composed of the top players in their respective leagues as voted on by fans, the media, and each club's field manager and

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

. The event took place every year since 1988 when the first Triple-A All-Star Game was played in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

. Prior to 1998, a team of

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

-affiliated Triple-A All-Stars faced off against a team of

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

-affiliated Triple-A All-Stars. Traditionally, the game was held on the day after the mid-summer

Major League Baseball All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...

. Such games mark a symbolic halfway-point in the season, despite occurring later than the actual halfway-point of most seasons. Both Triple-A leagues shared a common All-Star break, with no regular-season games scheduled for two days before the All-Star Game itself. Some additional events, such as the All-Star Fan Fest and Triple-A Home Run Derby, were held each year during this break in the regular season. While the 2021 schedule originally included a three-day All-Star break of July 12–14, this was removed after

Opening Day Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball (MLB) and most of the American minor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent year ...

was pushed back one month. Team schedules for the 2021 season were subsequently issued without an All-Star break.

Triple-A Championship

Beginning in 2006, the annual Triple-A National Championship Game was held to serve as a single championship game between the champions of the International League and Pacific Coast League to determine an overall champion of Triple-A baseball. It was originally held annually at

Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark opened in 1998 in downtown Oklahoma City's Bricktown Entertainment District, replacing All Sports Stadium. It is the home of the Oklahoma City Comets, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League B ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

, and known as the Bricktown Showdown. Starting in 2011, the game was held in a different Triple-A city each year. Previous postseason interleague championships include the Junior World Series (1932–34, 1936–62, 1970–71, 1973–74), Triple-A World Series (1983, 1998–2000), and Triple-A Classic (1988–91). For the 2021 season, in place of the National Championship Game, Minor League Baseball extended the Triple-A regular season to October 3, with league champions determined based on regular-season records through the original end date of the season (September 19 for Triple-A East, and September 21 for Triple-A West). The final 10 games of the season, played after those dates, were deemed the "Final Stretch", with the team posting the best winning percentage during that period (the Durham Bulls, who went 9–1) winning a cash prize. Since the 2022 season, the Triple-A National Championship Game has been played between the champions of the International League and the Pacific Coast League. In 2023, the Triple-A Championship game was played at the Las Vegas Ballpark. The winner of this game were the Norfolk Tides.

Pace-of-play initiatives

As a part of professional baseball's pace of play initiatives implemented in 2015, 20-second

pitch clock A pitch clock (also known as a pitch timer) is used in various baseball leagues to limit the amount of time a pitcher takes before throwing the ball to the Batting (baseball), hitter and/or limit the amount of time the hitter uses before he is s ...

s entered use at Triple-A stadiums in 2015. In 2018, the time was shortened to 15 seconds when no runners are on base. Other significant changes implemented in 2018 included beginning extra innings with a runner on second base and limiting teams to six mound visits during a nine-inning game. For the 2019 season, the number of mound visits was reduced to five, and pitchers were required to face a minimum of three consecutive batters unless the side is retired or the pitcher becomes injured and is unable to continue playing.

Timeline of AAA baseball leagues

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1600 height:auto barincrement:35 Period = from:1900 till:2023 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = left:50 right:50 bottom:20 top:20 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:lineColor value:gray(0.6) id:bg value:white id:different_class value:gray(0.9) id:majorGridColor value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.9) id:navy value:rgb(0 ,0 ,0.30) id:darkred value:rgb(0.50,0 ,0 ) PlotData = width:20 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:IL from:1908 till:1909 color:different_class text:"(D)" textcolor:navy bar:IL from:1912 till:1946 color:different_class text:"(AA)" textcolor:navy bar:IL from:1946 till:2020 color:skyblue text:"International League" bar:IL from:2022 till:2023 color:skyblue bar:AA color:different_class from:1902 till:1903 text:"(Ind.)" textcolor:navy bar:AA color:different_class from:1903 till:1912 text:"(A)" textcolor:darkred bar:AA color:different_class from:1912 till:1946 text:"(AA)" textcolor:navy bar:AA color:skyblue from:1946 till:1963 text:"American Association" bar:AA color:skyblue from:1969 till:1998 bar:PCL color:different_class from:1903 till:1904 text:"(Ind.)" textcolor:navy bar:PCL color:different_class from:1904 till:1912 text:"(A)" textcolor:darkred bar:PCL color:different_class from:1912 till:1946 text:"(AA)" textcolor:navy bar:PCL color:skyblue from:1946 till:1952 text:"Pacific Coast League" bar:PCL color:different_class from: 1952 till:1958 text:" (Open)" textcolor:navy bar:PCL color:skyblue from:1958 till:2020 bar:PCL color:skyblue from:2022 till:2023 bar:ML color:different_class from:1925 till:1955 text:"(Ind.)" textcolor:navy bar:ML color:different_class from:1955 till:1967 text:"(AA)" textcolor:navy bar:ML color:skyblue from:1967 till:2020 text:"Mexican League" bar:ML color:different_class from:2021 till:2023 text:"(Ind.)" textcolor:navy bar:IAL color:skyblue from:1979 till:1980 text:"Inter-American League" bar:AAAE color:skyblue from:2021 till:2022 text:"Triple-A East" bar:AAAW color:skyblue from:2021 till:2022 text:"Triple-A West ScaleMajor = gridcolor:majorGridColor unit:year increment:5 start:1900

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Triple-A (Baseball) International League Minor league baseball Pacific Coast League