Atlantic League of Professional Baseball

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced that it would be unable to operate for the 2020 season with the current 8 member ballclubs, thereby canceling its season.[28] Several teams (Somerset, York, and Lancaster) did not gain necessary approval from governmental and health officials to open their ballparks to the capacity level necessary for competition.[29] They used their stadiums to host recreational and community-based events, as well as local baseball activities where allowed. Meanwhile, the Long Island Ducks, High Point Rockers, and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs initially attempted to partner with teams from other leagues in order to play a 70-game season from mid-July through the end of September. However, due to ongoing restrictions and capacity limitations, they ultimately decided to suspend all baseball activities for the 2020 season. The only teams that played in 2020 was the Sugar Land Skeeters, who would create a new 4-team independent league in Texas, with all 60 games played at Constellation Field, and the Somerset Patriots, who played weekend games with a second squad called the New Jersey Blasters.[30][31]

In July 2020, the league announced the addition of a new franchise in Gastonia, North Carolina beginning in 2021; it is the league's second team based in North Carolina.[32]

In November 2020, the Atlantic League lost its last charter franchise and its westernmost franchise when both teams became official minor league affiliates. On November 7, the Somerset Patriots announced that they were leaving the league to join the MLB-affiliated Eastern League, where they will replace the Trenton Thunder as the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees.[33] Approximately two weeks later, the Houston Astros announced that they had purchased a controlling stake in the Sugar Land Skeeters and, as a result, the Skeeters would become the Astros' Triple-A affiliate and join the Pacific Coast League.[34]

On February 18, 2021, the league announced the addition of the Lexington Legends, previously the Class A South Atlantic League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, for the 2021 season.[35] The Charleston Dirty Birds, formerly the West Virginia Power of the South Atlantic League, announced their move to the league on February 24, 2021.[36]

On September 1, 2021 the league announced the addition of a new Hagerstown franchise with the intent to begin play in 2023 pending the construction of the Hagerstown Multi-Use and Sports and Events Facility.[37] In 2022 it was announced that the team was delayed to being play in 2024 due to delays with the stadiums construction.[38]

In 2022, Kelsie Whitmore signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks of the Atlantic League, and started a game for them in left field; this made her the first woman to start an Atlantic League game.[39][40] Later that year she became the first woman to pitch in an Atlantic League game when she made her first pitching appearance for Staten Island; entering the game with the bases loaded and two outs, she retired Ryan Jackson, a former major leaguer, on a fly out to end the inning.[41]

On July 20, 2023, the Hagerstown team announced that they would be named the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars.[42] In September, 2023 it was announced that Spire City Ghost Hounds would be on hiatus during the 2024 season due to the league now having an odd number of teams with the addition of the Hagerstown franchise. The team is set to return for the 2025 season.[43]

In March 2019, the Atlantic League and Major League Baseball reached agreement to test multiple rule changes during the 2019 Atlantic League season:[44]

• Use of a radar tracking system to assist umpires in calling balls and strikes
• Reducing the time between half innings by 20 seconds, from 2 minutes 5 seconds to 1:45
• Requiring pitchers to face at least three batters
  • Exceptions: side is retired or injury
• Banning mound visits
  • Exceptions: pitching change or for medical issues
• Restricting infield shifts
  • Two infielders must be positioned on each side of second base
• Increasing the size of bases from 15 inches (38 cm) to 18 inches (46 cm)
  • The size of home plate is not altered
• Moving the pitching rubber on the pitcher's mound back 24 inches (61 cm)
  • This change would have taken effect in the second half of the season

In April 2019, implementation of two of the changes was delayed:[45]

• The tracking system for calling balls and strikes "will be implemented gradually over the course of the 2019 season"
• Moving the pitching rubber back will not occur until the second half of the 2020 Atlantic League season; this rule change was never implemented.

The tracking system for calling balls and strikes was introduced at the league's all-star game on July 10.[46] In addition to rule changes noted above, additional changes being implemented for the second half of the league's 2019 season are:[47]

• Pitchers required to step off rubber to attempt pickoff
• One foul bunt permitted with two strikes
• Batters may "steal" first base
  • "Any pitched ball not caught by the catcher shall be subject to the same baserunning rules for the batter as an uncaught third strike, with the exception of the first base occupied with less than two out exclusion."
• "Check swings" more batter-friendly
  • "In making his ruling, the base umpire should determine whether the batter's wrists 'rolled over' during an attempt to strike at the ball and, if not, call the pitch a ball."

The Atlantic League and MLB jointly announced that the former would adopt several additional experimental rules for the 2021 season:[48]

• The automated ball-strike calling system introduced for 2019 remains in use, but has been tweaked. The strike zone, which had been a three-dimensional space above home plate in 2019, changed to a two-dimensional space measured at the front of home plate.
• A "double-hook" rule is in force for the entire season. Under this rule, once a team removes its starting pitcher, it loses the right to use a designated hitter for the rest of the game.
• During the second half of the season (starting on August 3), the pitcher's rubber was moved back 1 foot (30 cm), making the distance between the front edge of the rubber to the rear point of home plate 61 feet 6 inches (18.75 m).

In January 2022, the Atlantic League announced they would no longer be using the following rules for the 2022 season:[49]

• The automated ball-strike system that was first introduced in 2019, would no longer be used to assist home plate umpires in making ball or strike decisions. While the Atlantic League discontinued the use of the system, MLB opted to use the system in Spring Training games and in Triple A for the 2022 season.
• The distance of the pitching rubber to home plate went back to its original length, 60 feet 6 inches, down from 61 feet 6 inches. The mound was first moved a foot back (from 60 feet 6 inches to 61 feet 6 inches) on August 3, 2021, half-way through the 2021 season.

In March 2022, the MLB announced modifications to the "double-hook" rule and reintroduced the "dropped pitch" rule for the 2023 season:[50]

• The "double-hook" rule was modified so that clubs do not lose their designated hitter if their starting pitcher completes at least five innings.
• The "dropped pitch" rule allows batters to attempt to advance for first on any pitch not caught in the air by the catcher, even with a runner on first. Those that reach first base will be awarded a hit.

In April 2023, it was announced that the Atlantic League would be testing three rules for the 2023 season:[51]

• The "designated pinch-runner" rule will have clubs designate a pinch runner that is not in the starting line up. That player can be substituted into the game at any point as a baserunner, but unlike typical substitutions the player that is substituted for as well as the pinch-runner will be allowed to return to the game with no penalty.
• Pitchers will be allowed only one disengagement per at-bat. Any additional disengagements will be counted as a balk unless an out is recorded.
• The "double-hook" rule will continue being used in its 2022 form.

League members Moved to another league