BRIDGEWATER — The New York Yankees will move minor league affiliates out of Staten Island and Trenton next year, shifting their Double-A team from the Trenton Thunder to the Somerset Patriots.

The move is part of a reorganization that is affecting teams across the majors.

The Class A club that had been in Staten Island since 1999 will move to Hudson Valley, previously an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which was the Yankees’ alternate training site during the pandemic-shortened season, will remain as New York’s top affiliate.

Businessman Steve Kalafer, the founding owner of the Patriots, called the news "a dream come true."

“The first baseball game my father took me to was at Yankee Stadium and I continued the tradition, taking our sons Jonathan and Josh to their first games there as well. Our love for baseball and the New York Yankees came from those special days and has remained with us throughout our lives," Kalafer, who retains the title of chairman emeritus, said in a written statement Saturday. "I’ve always looked at the Yankees as the gold standard in baseball and sports as a whole. It is how we’ve modeled the way we’ve conducted our business at the Somerset Patriots since day one."

The minor league team was a founding member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball in 1998.

The team plays its home games at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater.

Double-A is the the second highest tier in the minor league system.

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