In what comes as somewhat of a surprise move the
Wilmington Blue Rocks decided today not to renew their player development contract with the
Boston Red Sox organization. Instead, Wilmington has opted to once again affiliate with the
Kansas City Royals as they were from 1993-2004. This leaves the Red Sox very few options. With
Myrtle Beach set to resign with
Atlanta, the Red Sox have to hope to steal
Frederick away from the
Orioles organization (which will be no small task), or risk a move to the hitter-friendly California League. This is something that Red Sox officials surely did not want to do as it would make it very difficult to shuttle prospects cross country between affiliates. If the Red Sox do have to go to the California League, look for it to be a short 2 year player development contract, after which Boston would attempt to move back to either the Carolina League or the Florida State League following the 2008 season.
