2017 Winter Leagues Coverage | What are the Winter Leagues?

While the painful 2017 MLB season for the Mets may be over.....there is still plenty of baseball to be played elsewhere! Every season 15-20 Mets organizational players make the decision to get more work in and develop their skills even further by participating in any one of 5 off-season baseball leagues.

Arizona Fall League (Starts October 10th)
- As the only off-season league owned and operated by the MLB, teams generally choose to send either Top Prospects or soon to be Rule 5 eligible/on the 40 man roster cusp players to get an idea of where they are in their development stage. Each MLB club must send 7 players from their organization to help fill the 35 man rosters on each of the 6 teams in the league. Players sent are generally of the AAA or AA variety, however, teams can opt to send up to two players from below the AA level.

Liga Mexicana del Pacifico (Starts October 10th)
- The Mexican Pacific League is one of the 4 Caribbean World Series participating independent baseball leagues. The eight-team league regular season is the longest running schedule in the Caribbean Leagues consisting of 68 games (broken up into 2 halves) between October and December. The league has also been growing in popularity among MLB teams and its players as safety concerns continue to be an issue in Venezuela.

Liga Venezuela Beisbol Profesional  (Starts October 10th)
- The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League is one of the 4 Caribbean World Series participating independent baseball leagues. The eight-team league regular season is the 2nd longest running schedule in the Caribbean Leagues consisting of 63 games between October and December. With the explosion of MLB players from Venezuela over the past decade, the Venezuelan League generally saw a large contingent of players returning to their homeland to participate in these league. However, as stated above, due the political and financial environment of the country, major security issues have developed over the past few seasons limiting the number of MLB players participating.

Liga de Beisbol Dominicano (Starts October 13th)
- The Dominican Baseball League is one of the 4 Caribbean World Series participating independent baseball leagues. The six-team league regular season consists of 50 games between October and December. Although the season is shorter, the "LIDOM" is by far the most competitive of the 4 Caribbean Leagues with a massive contingent of Hispanic and American ballplayers opting to play for teams here. The hyper competitive environment also leads to significant parity within the league. In 2016 the regular season gap between the 1st and the last place team was only 4 GB.

Liga de Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (Start Date TBA)
- The Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League is the 4th and final independent league participant of the Caribbean World Series. The five-team league regular season is the shortest in the Caribbean consisting of  only 40 games between November and December. While Puerto Rico is home to a large number of MLB caliber players, the Roberto Clemente league itself has had a difficult time over the past few years maintaining a presence in the country. Due to financial problems created by shrinking attendance and profits, the league actually had to shut down for 1 season in 2007. With assistance from the MLB and after some restructuring (which included the dismantling of the "Senadores de San Juan" team) the league did return in 2008 but has since taken a back seat as a destination for higher caliber MLB players. Large contingents of MiLB players though still participate.