Dodgers, Las Vegas Close on Pact

The Dodgers are close to finalizing an agreement that would establish the Las Vegas Stars as their triple-A farm club, baseball sources said Wednesday. Dodger officials had no comment, but an announcement is expected in the next few days, sources said.

The Stars have been pursuing the Dodgers since the expiration this season of their latest contract with the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have been in negotiations with both Mandalay Sports Entertainment, which operates the Stars, and the Portland Family Entertainment Group, which recently purchased the Albuquerque Dukes, long the Dodgers’ triple-A affiliate. The Portland, Ore., group is moving the club to a planned new stadium in Portland, where the Padres may end up.

The triple-A decision, pending agreement between the Dodgers and Stars on final details, highlights a minor league reshuffling by the Dodgers designed to make their Vero Beach training base the hub of their farm system, sources said. The commissioner’s office has ordered all clubs to operate only one farm team at each level.

That directive--tied to the desire to make Vero the hub--prompted the Dodgers to end their high A affiliation with the San Bernardino Stampede of the California League, a move which then played into a decision by the Elmore Sports Group, owner of both the Stampede and San Antonio Missions of the Texas League, to end its 24-year double-A affiliation with the Dodgers.

The Dodgers plan to operate four of their six farm teams in relative proximity to Vero. Their low A team, formerly located in Yakima, Wash., will now play in Wilmington, N.C., of the South Atlantic League, and their double-A team is expected to operate out of Jacksonville, Fla., of the Southern League, though that has not been finalized.