Three of the 14 teams in the New York-Penn League would be saved under Major League Baseball's proposal to contract the minor leagues, according to a story in Saturday's New York Daily News.

The Brooklyn Cyclones and Hudson Valley Renegades are two of them. The third team is unnamed. The long-term future of the Tri-City ValleyCats remains in doubt heading into the team's 19th season in Troy as the NYPL affiliate of the Houston Astros.

MLB wants to reduce the current number of 160 affiliated minor-league teams by about 25 percent when the Professional Baseball Agreement between the majors and minors expires following the 2020 season. MLB has cited inadequate ballparks and excessive travel for its prospects among the reasons, according to reports.

That would mean getting rid of most of the teams that play in the short-season rookie classification, which includes the New York-Penn League, founded in 1939.

In an ironic twist, the plan was first conceived by Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, according to the Daily News.

ValleyCats president Rick Murphy didn't return a call seeking comment on Saturday.

The MLB draft, which supplies much of the ValleyCats' roster, would be reduced to 20 rounds and moved from June to August. Each organization could carry a limit of 150 players in its minor-league system.

The reasoning of the Astros and many small-market teams, according to the Daily News, is that too much money is wasted on minor-league prospects who never reach the majors.

Under the proposal, Brooklyn and Hudson Valley would be upgraded to full-season leagues, according to the Daily News. Brooklyn, owned by the New York Mets, would replace Binghamton in the Double-A Eastern League and Hudson Valley would be moved to a new Class A league.

Minor-league teams that lose their affiliation would be given the option of playing in the "Dream League," an independent league operated by MLB. But those teams would have to pay players' salaries and workman's comp insurance, which are currently covered by their major-league parent clubs. That would cost an extra $350,000 to $400,000 per year, the Daily News estimated.

Considering the value of these teams could drop drastically without MLB affiliation, it's uncertain whether the ValleyCats and other franchises could afford to operate independently.

"It's a whole different business model,'' Murphy said in October. "It's one that I'm not familiar with. I've been involved with affiliated baseball."

The Daily News described MLB's position on its contraction plan as non-negotiable. The MLB owners will have their meetings in Arlington, Texas, from Tuesday through Thursday, followed by the winter meetings in San Diego from Dec. 9-12.

"If we are forced to defend ourselves and fight for mere survival, we will," Minor League president Pat O'Conner told the Daily News, which suggested lawsuits could be next.

msingelais@timesunion.com • 518-454-5509 • @MarkSingelais