Wednesday, March 22, 2017

The conference room at Saucers Ballpark was a big room, and it needed to be. Gathered together were all the personnel and players of two of London’s minor league affiliate clubs. Members of the Worcester Saucers and Montréal Les Échassiers noisily mingled together as they waited for the arrival of London GM Nigel Laverick.

The room fell silent as Laverick, flanked by the senior staff of the two clubs, entered and seated himself at the top table. “Good morning” he started off. “Welcome to the very start of your new beginnings.

“Over the winter months, a group of senior London personnel developed a plan to take the franchise forward. One of the tasks they were given was to unify the affiliates with a common identity and purpose. Today sees the start of that process. From the 2017 season onwards, our top two affiliates will be known as the Worcester T’s and the Montréal Métros.

“The Underground are named after London’s transit system. Now our affiliates are named after their local transit systems. Triple-A Worcester is linked to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, commonly known as the ‘T.’ Double-A Montréal is associated with the Montréal transport system. Both clubs will have new logos, which are on the wall behind me. Worcester manager Trent Harmon and Montréal manager Juan García are modeling the new uniforms.

“There will be very close links between the three management teams, with the potential for movement between affiliates. This already happened this off-season when Emílio Flores moved from Worcester to London as hitting coach and Patrick Richardson was promoted from Montréal to join the team here at Worcester. With so many Worcester players either being promoted to London or on the cusp, there will be a lot of rebuilding and a lot of new faces going forward. The ethos of the affiliates will be to produce players that are capable of playing in the PEBA. There will be regular assessments to assure that we are on track. At Worcester, you will find there will be a lot more player turnover. If you are not capable of playing in the PEBA, you will no longer be hanging around. We will quickly move on from players that don’t meet our criteria so we can promote new players that we can develop.

“Montréal had a bad season last year but with the influx of new players, including several of our 2016 draft picks, we are confident that we can improve. Going forward, we will have a much more robust club in Canada that will become an important link between our lower affiliates in Maui and Dover and our final step in Worcester. From now on, we want our players to feel that if they reach Montréal, they are on the way to a PEBA career, and if they reach Worcester, they are on the verge of fulfilling their dreams. The vision of the London franchise is that all players on Worcester’s 25-man roster will be capable of stepping up to the PEBA at a moment’s notice. We might not achieve that straight away but we will strive to move towards realizing our vision as soon as possible.”

As the assembled crowd broke out into applause, Laverick held up his hand to quiet them so he could continue. “The rest of this weekend, you will partake in a series of one-to-ones with various staff members from London and your club. You will be briefed on where we see your role in the new structure and how we can help you to move forward in our vision. The final session will be back here, where you will collect your new team uniforms and other clothing. Thank you for your efforts so far, and hopefully for your future efforts.”