You May Have Missed It: Cubs Have A New Minor League Team

Carrie Muskat announced the Cubs new minor league staff for 2013 on December 11th.  Depending on how far you read (if you saw it at all), you may have missed this:

“Yudith Ozorio will manage the Dominican squad, the same position he has held for the past three seasons. Leo Hernandez will serve as the pitching coach in his 18th year with the club while Oscar Bernard makes his organization debut as the club’s hitting coach. Osmin Melendez will serve as the Venezuelan Cubs manager, a newly created team. He will be joined by hitting coach Franklin Blanco, who begins his seventh year with the organization.” – Carrie Muskat

This comes as a bit of a shock since the Cubs have a new state-of-the-art complex in the Dominican Republic for their DSL teams (or now, their DSL team) and the level of instability in both Venezuela and the Venezuelan Summer League itself is something I’d rather avoid.

The Cubs return to the Venezuelan Summer League for the first time since 2007, when they shared the VSL Cubs/Twins with Minnesota.  The team has also shared VSL clubs with Rockies, Marlins, Yankees and Dodgers, and the Reds and Red Sox.