{"id":115424,"date":"2025-08-03T11:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T11:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115424\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T11:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T11:06:09","slug":"frederick-keys-are-an-orioles-affiliate-once-again-starting-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115424\/","title":{"rendered":"Frederick Keys are an Orioles affiliate once again, starting in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It will mark the return of affiliated baseball back in Frederick County, Maryland, for the first time since 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Major League Baseball renewed its affiliation with the Frederick Keys, making it a High-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles once again starting in the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>It will mark the return of affiliated baseball back in Frederick County, Maryland, for the first time since 2020. The Keys will play in the South Atlantic League, and will once again be a part of the Orioles farm system, meaning fans watching players in Frederick could end up seeing those same stars play in the big leagues in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAffiliated professional baseball is coming back here to the Frederick community,\u201d Attain Sports CEO and team owner Greg Baroni said during a press conference.<\/p>\n<p>The Keys will play at Harry Grove Stadium, which is undergoing a <a href=\"https:\/\/attainsports.com\/frederick-keys-groundbreaking-nymeo-field-renovations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$39 million renovation.<\/a> Reports of the Keys\u2019 return to Minor League Baseball<a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/local-sports\/2025\/05\/affiliated-baseball-may-soon-return-to-frederick-maryland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> began in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled that affiliated baseball is returning to Frederick,\u201d Orioles general manager Mike Elias <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbdraftleague.com\/frederick\/news\/attain-sports-announces-reorganization-of-baseball-teams-bringing-high-a-affiliated-baseball-back-to-frederick-and-mlb-draft-league-to-aberdeen-beginning-in-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThe Frederick community and fans have always been strong supporters of the Orioles, and we look forward to building on a 30-year partnership with the Keys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frederick\u2019s baseball legacy runs deep, dating back to the 1910s. It became Baltimore\u2019s Class A-Advanced affiliate between 1989 to 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are only so many communities across this country that get to say they are minor league baseball towns, and today, Frederick returns to that list,\u201d Frederick Mayor Michael O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n<p>Major League Baseball made big changes back in 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic, cutting 43 teams, including the Keys, who had been as an minor league affiliate since 1989. It joined the six-team MLB Draft League, which operates as an amateur collegiate summer baseball league to showcase for draft-eligible prospects.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the Keys returning as an Orioles affiliate, the Aberdeen IronBirds \u2014 which play in Ripken Stadium in Harford County, Maryland \u2014 will drop to the MLB Draft League. Both teams will retain their original cities and identities.<\/p>\n<p>WTOP\u2019s Jos\u00e9 Uma\u00f1a contributed to this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up <a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/newsletter-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">\u00a9 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will mark the return of affiliated baseball back in Frederick County, Maryland, for the first time since&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":115425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[72400,72401,72402,72403,53749,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-115424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-aberdeen-ironbirds","9":"tag-frederick-keys","10":"tag-harry-grove-stadium","11":"tag-kyle-cooper","12":"tag-minor-league-baseball","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114964514898683545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}