51s, Blue Jays ready to ‘make best of it’

The 51s and Toronto Blue Jays have agreed on a two-year player development contract and will announce the deal today in a news conference at Cashman Field.

The unlikely pair wound up together by default after several major league clubs changed their Triple-A affiliations in the past few weeks.

The Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday ended their eight-year relationship with Las Vegas by agreeing to a two-year agreement with Albuquerque of the Pacific Coast League, and the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League recently severed ties with Toronto after 31 years.

The affiliation shuffle also saw the Cleveland Indians depart Buffalo for Columbus, Ohio, the New York Mets leave New Orleans for Buffalo, the Washington Nationals exit Columbus for Syracuse and Florida depart Albuquerque for New Orleans.

When the Washington and Florida deals were confirmed Saturday, Las Vegas was the only Triple-A city and Toronto the lone major league team left to be matched.

"It is what it is. We're going to make the most of it," 51s president Don Logan said. "Obviously there are a lot more Dodgers fans here than Blue Jays fans ... but we're going to try to do some more things promotionally, and we want to grow the business."

Dick Scott, Toronto's director of player development, said the Blue Jays are "very happy to be coming to Las Vegas."

"We're excited about it and think it's going to be a good fit," he said. "I don't want it to appear like there was nobody left and we had to pair up with each other. I think it will be a good situation, and we're going to make the best of it."

In 31 years at Syracuse, the Chiefs had 23 losing seasons, including their last eight.

"A lot of it is where your focus is, and our focus is to try to get guys to the big leagues and contribute," Scott said. "We have a lot of young players on our major league team."

The Blue Jays, who won consecutive World Series in 1992 and 1993, feature veterans Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Vernon Wells and Scott Rolen and youngsters Jesse Litsch, Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGowan, Adam Lind and 20-year-old Travis Snider.

Snider, Toronto's top prospect, is the youngest player in the American League and is hitting .321 with two homers since his call-up.

"Our top priority is developing our players. We're going to make sure our prospects are going to play," Scott said. "We have a tendency to get players through our organization pretty quickly. We get a lot of guys to the big leagues."

Other top prospects who played for Syracuse this season include left-handers Brett Cecil, Ricky Romero and David Purcey.

The Chiefs were managed by Doug Davis, who played four years in the PCL at Edmonton, and Scott also has PCL experience, playing parts for Tacoma in 1989 and 1990.

"I set the league on fire with my career stats," Scott, a career .224 hitter in 10 minor league seasons, jokingly said. "We used to enjoy coming (to Las Vegas). They have a nice ballpark, and they know how to do things right there."

Two years remain on the 51s' lease at 26-year-old Cashman Field, which will start next season as essentially the third-oldest ballpark in Triple A.

"I hope these are the last two years we ever play at Cashman and then we get a new stadium," Logan said.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.