In the meantime, they’re thankful for their place in the Draft League.
Given the scale of the changes needed, the Keys are likely years away from a completed project. “If you’ve got someone that a major league team has invested millions of dollars in, you don’t want to necessarily be putting them right in the middle of the fans if they don’t want to be there,” Klein said.Īny such upgrades also would include adding indoor batting cages, as well as general wear-and-tear upkeep for the playing surface and stadium lights. “But at the end of the day, our stadium opened in 1990, and our stadium was built with the standards of Major League Baseball’s minor leagues at that point.”
“The community has always supported us, and that’s been something that we always made sure to take care of, a lot of that forward-facing, fan experience-side of stuff,” Klein said. Team ownership and the city are looking into renovating Harry Grove Stadium or building a new venue at another site, he said. Given Frederick’s location in a region featuring several minor league teams, Klein said that what cost the Keys their affiliation was likely their ballpark. “I did not know if the team was going to exist.”īut with a year in the Draft League complete and another season set to begin in June, Klein believes the Keys are positioned well for the future - and an eventual return to affiliated baseball, with the Orioles or some other team.
“We didn’t know if we were going to stay with the Orioles, we didn’t know if we were going to be affiliated with any team or if we were gonna have to be looking to move into some other type of baseball to provide to our community,” Klein said. Major League Baseball's restructuring meant 43 minor league teams lost their affiliations to major league organizations in December 2020, with the Frederick Keys being the only one of Baltimore’s five affiliates to be trimmed away.
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