Baseball in the United States the Atlanta Braves' affiliates except the Carolina Mudcats. Minor League teams that are owned directly by the major league Club do not have PDCs with each other and are not part of the reaffiliation shuffles that occur every other year. A special minor league is the Arizona Fall League. It operates outside the Minor League Baseball hierarchy and is owned by MLB as a whole; teams generally assign prospects from the AAA and AA classes to the league's six teams. Today, 19 affiliated minor baseball leagues operate with 246 member clubs in large, medium, and small towns, as well as
1977 Major League Baseball expansion 1977 Major League Baseball expansion The 1977 Major League Baseball expansion resulted in the establishment of expansion franchises in Seattle and Toronto in the American League of Major League Baseball. The Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays began play in the 1977 Major League Baseball season, becoming the 25th and 26th teams in Major League Baseball. Seattle and Toronto were included in a list of potential expansion cities in a survey conducted by the American League in 1960. The others were Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas–Fort Worth, Denver, Oakland, and San Diego (all of which received franchises eventually through expansion or relocation