Indians announce minor league affiliates for 2021

In a statement released today, the Indians announced changes to their minor league affiliates for 2021 and beyond.

As expected, the Columbus Clippers will remain as the Triple-A affiliate, and the Akron RubberDucks will handle Double-A duties. Going forward, however, the Lake County Captains will be the team’s High-A affiliate and the Lynchburg Hillcats have swapped places, now serving as the team’s Single-A club.

With last month’s announcement that the short-season Mahoning Valley Scrappers are no longer affiliated, that leaves the final tally as follows:

• Triple-A: Columbus Clippers
• Double-A: Akron RubberDucks
• High-A: Lake County Captains
• Single-A: Lynchburg Hillcats

They will also still have teams in the Arizona Rookie League and Dominican Summer Leagues.

The swap at the lower levels will allow the Captains — who are a cool 25 minutes away from Cleveland in Eastlake — to have higher-level prospects closer to home, as opposed to Virginia’s own Lynchburg Hillcats.

Following the announcement, each affiliate reacted to the news in their own unique way. The Hillcats and Captains had their own short messages about the news:

The Clippers provided this nice image:

And RubberDucks ... well, never change. You are beautiful.