Tri-City Dust Devils kick off 2021 season in new MLB league — and with new rules
When the Tri-City Dust Devils open the 2021 High-A West baseball season Tuesday against the Vancouver Canadians, it will have been 600 days since the team last played.
And it was a 3-1 loss to the Hillsboro Hops at Gesa Stadium in Game 5 of the Northwest League Championship series in September 2019.
Since then, there have been plenty of changes.
For starters, there was no minor-league baseball during 2020, thanks to the COVID pandemic.
Major League Baseball spent most of 2020 revamping the minor-league baseball system, slashing the number of affiliated minor-league teams from 162 teams to 120.
That’s four minor-league clubs per Major League team.
The Tri-City Dust Devils originally were on the cut list, but eventually made it through. They are a farm team of the Los Angeles Angels, and have a 10-year contract with the franchise.
A few months ago, the Dust Devils signed the contract with the Angels, and it gives the MLB teams more say-so in what minor-league teams can do.
This is the third affiliation agreement with a big league team in the 21-year history of the Dust Devils. From 2001-14 they were with the Colorado Rockies, and the last six years were with the San Diego Padres.
There are plenty of other things Dust Devils fans need to know for the 2021 season, especially in this time of pandemic.
A new league
The Northwest League, which for decades has been a short-season A league that would begin in mid-June, is completely gone.
There are no more short-season leagues.
The Dust Devils are in what is called the High-A West. The players the Angels will send here will be just three steps away from the big leagues.
The Northwest League was five steps away from MLB.
Brent Miles, Dust Devils team president, said fans will easily be able to tell the difference in quality of play.
Instead of eight teams, the High-A West has just six teams — Tri-City, the Spokane Indians (Colorado Rockies affiliate), Vancouver Canadians (Toronto Blue Jays), Hillsboro Hops (Arizona Diamondbacks), Eugene Emeralds (San Francisco Giants), and Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners).
The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and Boise Hawks were the two Northwest League members cut from MLB affiliations.
Schedule changes
The Dust Devils had 76 regular-season games. The High-A West teams will play 120 games (60 home games) this year.
In a normal season without a pandemic, they would have 132 games starting in early April.
MLB schedule shows teams will have Mondays off, then play a six-game series Tuesday through Sunday at the same field — to limit travel as much as possible.
The Dust Devils, for example, are hosting Vancouver from Tuesday through Sunday next week.
This week’s games at Gesa Stadium will start with the first pitch at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
The Dust Devils team
The players were supposed to arrive Friday but the roster hadn’t been posted yet.
Andy Schatzley is the team manager.
Schatzley had been the associated head coach for eight seasons before the Angels hired him in 2020 to manage the Orem Owlz in Utah, the Angels’ Pioneer Rookie League affiliate.
The pandemic stopped that, so he gets his first chance to manage for the Angels here.
William Bradley is the team’s hitting coach. He did the same for the Angels’ Midwest League franchise, the Burlington Bees, in 2019, and was to be there again in 2020.
Doug Henry is the Dust Devils pitching coach, and has the most major-league experience of any on the coaching staff.
Henry spent time with five teams — the Brewers, Mets, Giants, Astros and Royals — appearing in 582 games over 11 seasons as a reliever.
He had a career 34-42 record and a 4.19 earned run average.
Henry was the pitching coach for the Northwest Arkansas Travellers — a Kansas City Royals affiliate — in 2019.
Jack Santora will be the Dust Devils’ defensive coach. Santora played in the minors for the Diamondbacks, Padres and Phillies organizations, spent time with the independent Newark Bears, and played from 2007-13 in the Italian Baseball League.
He managed at Orem for the Angels in 2019.
Seating at Gesa Stadium
Current Washington health guidelines limit nightly attendance to 25% capacity.
“That puts us around 1,000 fans,” Miles said.
Most season ticketholders from 2019 have re-upped for the season, but there will be single-game ticket opportunities at every home game. They can be purchased online at www.milb.com/tri-city-dust-devils.
“There should be about 300 to 500 seats available, depending on the game,” said Miles.
Miles also said he and his staff believe if Franklin County gets moved back into Phase 2, that it should not affect the number of fans allowed in the ballpark.
Fans will be spread out around the stadium, with distancing at least 6 feet from other groups, and pods of six seats together with no more than two households.
Seats that won’t be used have been zip-tied.
Some fans behind home plate have had their seating moved to create the safe space distancing.
As for the players, the Dust Devils and visiting teams will have a 12-foot buffer zone — or bubble, if you will. The two rows behind the dugouts are unavailable for seating, and seating near the ends of the dugouts are closed.
The upper levels of bench seating on both the first- and third-base line are now reserve bench assigned seating.
Miles said the team is encouraging electronic ticketing, using phones for tickets.
Rules of the game
All fans must wear a face covering while attending a game. No excuses.
“This is a state of Washington and Major League Baseball mandate that face coverings or masks must be worn,” Miles said. “This is not a Dust Devil rule. We’ve been told we have to enforce it.”
All concession stands will be open. “We’ll try to keep the lines moving,” Miles said.
Fans must get their food or drink from the concession area and return to their seat, where they can then take off their mask to eat or drink. After they are done, they must put their face covering back on.
Unfortunately, because of health standards, there will not be any peanuts or sunflower seeds sold — at least in the early part of the season.
Miles encourages fans to go cashless at all concession stands, or in the team store. “But we will also have cash options,” he said.
Programs will also be digital for phones.
Testing and safety
Gates at all home games will open one hour before first pitch. Fans will not be screened when they enter.
Players will have a daily health screening, and they‘ll get COVID testing two times a week, Miles said.
And, unfortunately, players and fans must stay separate.
“There can be no autographs,” Miles said. “We have to keep that 12-foot buffer zone for the players. We’re kind of restricted with baseball’s rules on that. We have to keep the players and fans apart.”
Hand sanitizing stations will be placed throughout the park, and staff will sanitize high-touch areas frequently throughout the night.
Unfortunately, the Dust Devils will have no on-field promotions, and the Dusty mascot is unlikely to make an appearance this season — which means no Dusty’s Dash.
Employees will be required to complete a pre-screening before every shift.
Erik the Peanut Guy will be attending and hosting most home games, but he wont be able to move around the stadium. Instead, he’ll be assigned to an area of the ballpark with his microphone.
Quality baseball is back.
Because the team got the agreement at such a late date, the Dust Devils staff has done about three months work in six weeks to get ready for a longer season in a better league.
Miles understands that some of the new procedures will upset some fans.
But the alternative is no baseball.
“We had no baseball last year,” Miles said. “And this is what we need to do in order to have baseball. So at least we’ll have baseball.”.
This story was originally published May 1, 2021 at 12:27 PM.