The Chattanooga Lookouts are down to the final five games of their Southern League season.
They also are down to the final five games of a four-year player development contract agreement with the Minnesota Twins that was announced on Sept. 17, 2014. Chattanooga’s four-year partnership with Minnesota followed a six-season run as the Class AA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the Lookouts are among just six Double-A teams without a contract in place for next season.
“We just haven’t come to an agreement with the Minnesota Twins at this point, and I don’t know that I can really say anything else,” Lookouts general manager Rich Mozingo said Wednesday.
The Lookouts are on pace to reach Labor Day without a player development contract in place for only the third time in the past 30 seasons. Chattanooga left a 21-year partnership with the Cincinnati Reds after the 2008 season to hook up with the Dodgers, who elected to leave Chattanooga after the 2014 season for a chance to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and significantly closer to their Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City.
When Twins director of minor league operations Jeremy Zoll was contacted in June about the contract with the Lookouts, he responded, “We appreciate all of the relationships we have with our affiliates and keep the information on PDC discussions internal until we have an announcement to share.”