San Jose Giants facilities are now for the A’s

There won’t be a Minor League Baseball season in 2020, but the San Jose Giants will still get plenty of baseball played on their fields. San Jose — the high-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants — will be the alternative training site for the Oakland A’s this year.

The A’s announced the news on Friday.

Here’s the full release from the team:

The Oakland A’s will use Excite Ballpark in San Jose as their alternative training site for the 2020 season, the Club announced today. All players not on the active roster or taxi squad are assigned to the alternative training site and will report to San Jose this weekend.

“We are grateful to the San Jose Giants for their partnership in this unique endeavor for baseball. We look forward to working with Dan Orum and his staff in San Jose for the duration of the 2020 season. Additionally, Larry Baer, Farhan Zaidi, and the San Francisco Giants organization were instrumental in making this happen and I appreciate their willingness to collaborate across the Bay,” said Oakland A’s General Manager David Forst. “We’re excited for our players to continue their development and preparation to potentially join our Major League Club at some point this season.”

All practices and baseball-related activities by the A’s in San Jose are closed to the public and media, consistent with MLB guidance to ensure the health and safety of the players.

The San Jose Giants facilities, like the bulk of Minor League facilities, are not actually owned by the MLB team. In this case, Excite Ballpark is owned by the city of San Jose. But according to The San Francisco Chronicle’s Hank Schulman, the deal was made between the A’s and the Giants, with organizational ties (Farhan Zaidi started his front office career with the A’s) playing a role.

Every MLB team has to have an alternative training site this year. Players who are not on the active roster or the three-player taxi squad will train at the alternative site. The Giants had reportedly listed San Jose as a possibility, but opted for the facilities of the Sacramento River Cats, their AAA affiliate.

The Giants and A’s playing each other six times this year, representing 10% of each team’s schedule.