Don’t Expect Trend Of Seven-Inning Games in ACL, FCL To Slow Down

Image credit: Angels prospect Raudi Rodriguez in an Arizona Complex League game. (Photo by Bill Mitchell)

If you’re an avid follower of the complex leagues in Arizona or Florida, you’ve noticed a bit of a trend since the sport emerged from the pandemic in 2021. Namely, games often don’t go the full nine innings. 

In 2019, the FCL (then the GCL) had 116 games go seven innings, which usually happened because rainouts turned into two seven-inning games in a doubleheader. The much drier ACL (then the AZL) had eight games go seven innings. 

Flash forward two seasons, and those numbers started to tick up. In 2021, the FCL had 197 seven-inning games that year, while the ACL had 247. In 2022, the FCL had 123 seven-inning games, while the ACL had 222. 

Last season, the numbers went down a bit, and the ACL played 179 seven-inning games while the FCL had 86. 

In Florida, part of the reason is obvious: It rains. Games are quickly cut when that happens. That’s not often the case in Arizona, where summer rain is more of a song title than a phenomenon. 

When it happens in Arizona, the reason is almost always because teams simply didn’t have enough pitching to cover a full nine innings. Whether that’s because of a blowout earlier in the week or injuries cutting into a team’s depth, there just weren’t enough arms that day. 

That’s part of the reason this season, too, but there’s also another wrinkle. For the first time, the ACL and FCL both started their seasons on May 4, more than a month earlier than last season’s Opening Day. 

The sport is also in the first year of the collectively-bargained 165-player domestic roster cap, so there are fewer players to go around than ever before. Smaller rosters plus an earlier start date means less pitching, so it’s only natural that the seven-inning games would happen almost immediately, which has been the case in the early going. 

Managers from both teams decide before the game whether they’ll play seven or nine innings, and both sides have to agree. There is no cap to how many seven-inning games a team can play, nor is there a minimum number of nine-inning games a team must play. 

This kind of thing can only be done in the complex leagues, where attendance isn’t counted and tickets aren’t taken. Only doubleheader and rain-shortened games can be fewer than nine-inning games in full-season ball. 

Through May 8, there have been 19 seven-inning games (eight FCL, 10 ACL) in the complex leagues. That total is just nine fewer than the 28 games of nine innings or more combined between the circuits. In other words, just more than 40% of the ACL and FCL games have been seven-inning affairs. 

So, if the teams knew the roster cap was coming, why start the leagues earlier? Follow the money. Part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement in the minor leagues means players are now paid for extended spring training, so, according to a source with MLB, teams in the offseason decided they’d rather pay the players for playing games rather intrasquads or camp days.  

The ACL and FCL seasons end on July 25, which is just nine days after draft concludes and six days before the deadline for draftees to sign with their respective clubs, which means the teams won’t get their usual influx of talent from players who’ve just turned pro. 

Earlier start dates, fewer players and no help on the way from the amateur ranks means the stretch of seven-inning games in Arizona and Florida is unlikely to slow down any time soon.