Mets to buy Syracuse Chiefs and make them its Triple-A affiliate for 2019 season

The days of having to fly players between New York and Las Vegas during the season will soon be over and done with.

The Mets will be bringing their Triple-A affiliate back to the state of New York starting in 2019. A new report from Mark Weiner of Syracuse.com has the details about a deal that has been struck between the Mets and the Syracuse Chiefs.

According to the report, the Chiefs, who currently play in the International League, will be turned into the Mets top prospect affiliate. The terms of the agreement according to Weiner’s sources puts the Mets as owners of the franchise that is currently operated by the Community Baseball Club of Central New York Inc.

This is different than just striking an agreement to have a team be your affiliate for a certain number of years. This time the Mets are buying the whole team.

The deal won’t take effect for player development until 2019, however, as the Mets still have one year left on their contract with the Las Vegas 51s. 

To make matters a little sweeter, the Mets will displacing the Washington Nationals who currently use the Chiefs as their Triple-A affiliate.

Unlike Las Vegas, Syracuse is obviously a lot closer to the home of the Amazin’s in Flushing, so getting players to and from the major league and minor league ball clubs shouldn’t be an issue going forward.

According to Weiner’s report, the decision to be bought out by the Mets was almost a given based on how the Chiefs’ financial situation has been over the past few seasons. The Mets will now bring in a good amount of money and stability to help out the franchise.

The deal will reportedly be announced on Tuesday at NBT Bank Stadium. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mets Chief Operating Office Jeff Wilpon and Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney will be on hand to make the announcement official.

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This is obviously welcome news to all fans that knew and saw the issues that have popped up over the years with the team having to fly out players to and from Vegas. How many times did we see the team play short-handed because reinforcements were on the way? Thankfully, this deal should take care of that not only for the short-term for in the long run as well.