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Sacramento River Cats Considering Affiliation Change From Oakland Athletics To San Francisco Giants

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The Sacramento River Cats are officially considering changing their Triple-A affiliate from the Oakland Athletics to the San Francisco Giants.

The team has been a successful farm squad for the A's since its inception in 2000, but next season could be sending players to AT&T Park instead of the Oakland Coliseum.

"As of tomorrow we're allowed to speak to major league teams about affiliating," River Cats spokesman Mark Ling said.

The team's contract with the A's is up this month, so executives are fielding options with other teams. Rumors swirled around a switch to the Giants back in May.

The team says it's not about getting a better contract.

"There's no real negotiation room in there. they're all pretty standard," Ling said. "So it's not like one team could offer us something that one team couldn't."

What a team like the Giants could offer the River Cats is a bigger fan base. A map that shows teams' popularity based on Facebook data shows Northern California as solidly Giants orange. The A's didn't win over a single county.

"Us being with the A's for 15 years, that's almost the exception, because very few teams last that long with a big league affiliate," he said

If the team does switch affiliations, it would still remain the Sacramento River Cats, only the players would change. If the team links with the Giants, they would get the Giants' Triple-A players, and the current River Cats players would move to the A's new affiliate.

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