Imagine the chance to watch top Twins prospects Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff play in St. Paul. Imagine watching Jordan Balazovic pitch to the best prospects from other major league franchises at CHS Field.

It’s an enticing prospect for Minnesota baseball fans, and likely is to the Twins. But would moving from independent baseball to affiliated baseball be good for the St. Paul Saints?

“It’s not an obvious answer,” Saints vice president and general manager Derek Sharrer said Saturday. “I think to the general public, it’s probably a no-brainer, and the scenario you just described, that’s interesting.

“There are interesting stories that need to be discussed, and I’d be lying to say they don’t. Whether it would be for better or worse? That’s an entirely different question.”

The working agreement between Major League Baseball and most of its minor league affiliates will expire after next season, and MLB is using the opportunity to pitch a massive package of consolidation and realignment.

In its first proposal for the next Professional Baseball Agreement, according to Baseball America, MLB has presented a bundle of changes that includes eliminating as many as 42 teams, changing the classifications of others and making independent teams from St. Paul and Sugar Land, Texas, major league affiliates — presumably for the Twins and Houston Astros.

But no one from the Twins or MLB has talked to the Saints, said Sharrer, who called the proposal as it pertains to his team “presumptive.” “And,” he added, “the mention of two independent clubs is a really small part of a very complex proposal.”

The Saints helped build CHS Field and moved in five years ago. In that time, they have averaged 800 more fans than the stadium’s seating capacity of 7,210. In September, they won their first American Association championship. As important, independence has been the Saints’ identity since they helped found the AA and moved into Midway Stadium in 1993.

“We believe in what independent baseball is about, the principles of independent baseball, and we’re committed to it,” Sharrer said. “We’ve enjoyed being a second opportunity for so many players, and in some cases first opportunities.

“We’ve sent over 130 players back into affiliated baseball; that’s players somewhere in their mid-20s finding a way back onto a major league roster. We’re proud of that.”

The Saints would seem to be an attractive option for the Twins, a successful franchise in a new, downtown stadium less than 13 miles from Target Field. Currently, their Double-A team is in Pensacola, Fla., and their Triple-A team is in Rochester, N.Y.

Twins President Dave St. Peter declined to say whether the Twins are interested in having a minor league team in St. Paul, saying in an email, “It’s too early to assess outcomes of ongoing dialogue between MLB and MiLB.”

Under current rules, CHS Field is inside the Twins’ territorial rights, which keeps affiliated minor league teams outside of a 35-mile radius of a team’s home stadium. To add an affiliated team in St. Paul, the Twins would have to waive those rights, something they all but certainly wouldn’t do for another MLB organization.

And if MLB is trying to collect its affiliates geographically, St. Paul makes little sense for any other team.

“Lots of rumors/speculation regarding how possible change could impact teams such as Twins,” St. Peter acknowledged, “(but) no substance at this point.” Popular Articles ‘It’s devastating’: Harassment of COVID public health workers is widespread and ‘unprecedented,’ officials say.

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With a seating capacity of 7,210, CHS Field is large enough for Class A or Class AA teams, but under the current PBA, Triple-A stadiums must be able to seat 10,000. Being home to the Twins’ big-time prospects is attractive, but so is being a iconoclastic team that plays good baseball for a large fan base.

“We’re really happy with who we are and where we are after 27 years of being an independent,” Sharrer said. “This (PBA) negotiation is going to change, and who knows where it ends up relative to the relationship independent and affiliated baseball? So, I don’t really know what to tell you other than we’re great where we are.”