Throughout various countries, competitive winter baseball leagues continue popping up, attracting new players around the globe. With minor league baseball leagues taking the regular season off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the influx of these winter leagues is more important now than ever.

The term “winter league” groups leagues like the Dominican Baseball League, the Australian Baseball League, and the Mexican Pacific League and their season’s held in the traditional winter months. These leagues provide exceptional development to players, build fanbases and followings in certain areas, and help spread the sport of baseball around the world.

However, due to the cancellation of the MiLB season, many players from MLB affiliated teams are turning to winter leagues in order to further their development.

And just because it’s not the traditional time of the year for baseball doesn’t mean these competitions lack entertainment value. Filled with players we’ll watch on our favorite teams in just a few years, these athletes are fighting, learning and growing in an effort to reach the next level.

Don’t feel intimidated by the language barrier when watching these leagues, either. Baseball continues to transcend backgrounds and bring young, talented, athletes into the fold. Look no further than the opportunities a winter league is providing to one rising star in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

The Mexican Baseball League, Santiago Elizondo & The Milwaukee Brewers

“My parents took me to the little league baseball here in Santa Catarina Nuevo Leon when I was 3 years old. This is something I’ve done all my life,” said Santiago Elizondo, a pitcher in the Milwaukee farm system, when asked how he came to play baseball and why he chose this sport as his passion.

For Elizondo, the opportunity to play in the winter league providing a new chance to showcase his talents, especially with the suspension of MiLB: “It was a very important opportunity to me because I understand the current situation, not all baseball players could work this season, so for me it was a big opportunity to keep going and learn more.” The ability to stay on the field and continue honing his craft keeps his mind, body and spirit fresh.

“I’m practicing with the team and living with players with a lot of experience and I’m trying to learn at least something from all those with more experience than me.”

But just playing baseball in 2020 doesn’t quite mean playing a recognizable game.

“There are no people in the stadiums, the league was suspended around 12 days and it has cancelled games due to COVID-19. At the same time, the league has tried to keep the health recommendations to ensure players and personnel safety.”

Baseball Heads Down Under

Overseas, the Australian Baseball League is beginning on December 17th and their story isn’t so different from the Mexican Pacific League in terms of having their own mark on the sport.

Andrew Reynolds, the General Manager of Broadcast, Media & Communications for the Australian Baseball League lent his thoughts on the opportunities his league provides: “The ABL is unique in that it is in the Southern Hemisphere. This means we get a lot of foreign talent mixed with Australian players for a truly international winter league. Australia is also one of the only English-speaking countries outside of North America with a baseball league, which also helps to attract high caliber athletes from North America.”

Reynolds originally got into announcing while in high school and college for the University of Arkansas, it was there that his passion for it grew and it led to an opportunity in the minor leagues which transitioned to the Australian Baseball League.

“We have had more interest in players coming down this year than ever before. While it has been difficult to get everyone who wanted to play down to Australia because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, we will still have plenty of big names including Manny Ramirez and Delmon Young.”

In similar fashion to other winter leagues, this is an opportunity for those effected by the season cancellations in North America due to the ongoing worldwide pandemic.

“Protocols are certainly in place; however, we’ve gotten lucky in that most of Australia is now completely open, with very few cases being reported each day. This has allowed teams to begin training and practicing ahead of the season’s commencement.”

An Attempt At Normalcy

In a year filled with irregularities, leagues like the ABL and MBL continue their crusade to return an impacted baseball community to a semblance of normalcy.

Major League Baseball forges ahead with offseason instructional camps, but with opportunities not available to every prospect, creativity to build the proper tools is off the charts. These Winter Leagues provide some help to those types of players and while things may look different for them as well, it seems they’re just glad to have baseball back in their lives.