Frontier League

The Frontier League (FL; French: Ligue Frontière, LF) is a professional baseball league in North America composed of 18 teams – 15 in the United States and 3 in Canada.^[1] The FL is one of the eight independent baseball leagues in North America and is considered the oldest currently running independent baseball league in the world. The Frontier Cup, the oldest independent baseball trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The league is an official MLB Partner League since 2020, and the level of play is comparable to Minor League Baseball's Single-A level.^[2] The FL is headquartered in Sauget, Illinois.

Frontier League

Current season, competition or edition: 2025 Frontier League season
Classification	Independent baseball
Sport	Baseball
Founded	1993
Commissioner	Steve Tahsler
No. of teams	18
Countries	United States (15 teams) Canada (3 teams)
Headquarters	Sauget, Illinois
Continent	North America
Most recent champion(s)	Québec Capitales (3rd title)
Most titles	Schaumburg Boomers (4 titles)
Broadcaster(s)	Sports Illustrated TSN RDS TVA Sports
Streaming partner(s)	HomeTeam Network
Official website	https://www.frontierleague.com/

The Frontier League was organized by several men who got together in the winter of 1992–1993 and decided to start an independent professional baseball league to serve the West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southeast Ohio areas. They believed they could bring professional baseball to areas that would never have a chance of affiliated professional baseball coming to their communities. The seed was planted and they named their project The Frontier League.^[3]

25 distinct franchises had competed in the league. Its largest period of growth followed in 2020–21, when six teams from the ceased Can-Am and New York–Penn leagues joined alongside an expansion franchise. The Evansville Otters, the only one of the original eight franchises still playing today, is the longest tenured team in the league.

The FL is the fifth-highest grossing professional minor sports league in the United States by revenue, after the American Hockey League (AHL), International League (IL), the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB). The league's headquarters have been in Sauget, Illinois since 2001, when the Gateway Grizzlies were formed. As of the 2024 season, the FL had players from 17 different countries.

The league's regular season is typically held from May to September, with each team playing 96 games.^[4] Following the conclusion of the regular season, 8 teams advance to the Frontier League playoffs, a three-round tournament that runs into late-September to determine the league champion.^[5] Since the league's founding in 1993, the Schaumburg Boomers have won the most combined FL titles with four, and the reigning league champions are the Québec Capitales, who defeated the Washington Wild Things in the 2024 Frontier League Championship Series.^[6][7]

History

The Frontier League was founded in 1993. It initially struggled to retain franchises, with four of its eight founding teams folding within three seasons, though steadily grew to twelve teams within a decade. The first league champions were the Zanesville Greys. Eight teams have won more than one championship: Springfield in 1996 and 1998; Johnstown in 1995 (as the Steal) and in 2000 (as the Johnnies), Richmond Roosters in 2001 and 2002, Windy City in 2007 and 2008, the Joliet Slammers in 2011 and 2018, and the Evansville Otters in 2006 and 2016. With four titles, the Schaumburg Boomers have won the most league championships.

On June 20, 2000, Brian Tollberg debuted with the San Diego Padres, becoming the first FL player to make it to the Majors. A week later, Morgan Burkhart made his debut with the Boston Red Sox.

Although the league does not have any teams located in the same city as Major League teams, it does nonetheless have teams located within the markets of Major League teams. The Chicago area has three teams (Joliet Slammers, Schaumburg Boomers and Windy City ThunderBolts), as does the New York area (New Jersey Jackals, Sussex County Miners, and New York Boulders), and St. Louis (Gateway Grizzlies), Cleveland (Lake Erie Crushers), Cincinnati (Florence Y'alls) and Pittsburgh (Washington Wild Things) each have one. The Wild Things, in particular, have been able to market themselves as a successful alternative to the Pittsburgh Pirates due to the latter franchise's long stretch of losing seasons, which lasted from the league's founding in 1993 until 2013 when the Pirates finished with a record of 94–68.^[8]

On October 16, 2019, it was announced that the Frontier League would be merging with the Can-Am League, absorbing five of its teams to form the largest independent professional baseball league. This added the New Jersey Jackals, New York Boulders, Québec Capitales, Sussex County Miners, and Trois-Rivières Aigles to the league; the Ottawa Champions, the last remaining Can-Am League team, were not invited to participate.^[9] The divisions were renamed, with the easternmost teams playing in the Can-Am Division and the westernmost teams playing in the Midwest Division.

On September 24, 2020, Major League Baseball announced that it named the FL as an ''MLB Partner League''.^[10] This enables collaboration with MLB to jointly discuss marketing and promotional initiatives to grow, expand, and enhance the game and quality of baseball.^[11]

For the 2021 season, the league announced that they would be adding two new teams. The first announcement came around the same time as the announcement of the partnership with Major League Baseball, as Ottawa was granted an expansion franchise in the league. The team, as chosen by fans in a contest, was named the Titans and started playing at Ottawa Stadium.^[12][13] Then, on January 8, 2021, after the reorganization of Minor League Baseball, the league added the Tri-City ValleyCats, which were one of several teams that were orphaned or disbanded when the New York-Penn League was folded. The Titans, ValleyCats as well as the Washington Wild Things joined the five former Can-Am League teams in the Can-Am Division, to even the divisions at eight teams; Lake Erie was transferred to the Midwest Division.

In April 2021, the league announced that the Québec Capitales, the Trois-Rivières Aigles, and the Ottawa Titans would not compete in the 2021 season due to the prolonged closure of the Canada–United States border as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Titans, Aigles and Capitales later joined forces to form a new team that competed as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Can-Am Conference.^[14] Known as Équipe Québec, they began the season as a traveling team, and starting on July 30, 2021, started sharing home games between Quebec City and Trois-Rivières following a loosening in border restrictions.^[15][16] 10 games were played in Québec City and 11 in Trois-Rivières. They did not play in Ottawa due to COVID-19 restrictions in Ontario.

On October 6, 2021, the owners of the Southern Illinois Miners, Jayne and John Simmons, announced they would be retiring from professional baseball to spend more time with family and the Miners would be ceasing operations and dropping out of the FL.^[17][18] As a result, the league formed the Empire State Greys, to compete as a traveling team with a roster of players from the Empire Professional Baseball League.^[19]

In September 2023, the league announced a new team, the New England Knockouts, who were planned to play at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton, Massachusetts, beginning with the 2024 season. This brought the total number of permanent members of the league to sixteen teams.^[20] After playing one season as the Knockouts, the team was renamed as the Brockton Rox in January 2025.^[21]

In September 2024, the league announced an expansion to Mississippi and North Carolina.^[22][23] A franchise was awarded to Pearl, Mississippi, called the Mississippi Mud Monsters,^[24] following the departure of the Atlanta Braves Double-A affiliate, the Mississippi Braves.^[22] The Down East Bird Dawgs, a new team in Kinston, North Carolina, will play in Grainger Stadium, which was formerly home of the Texas Rangers-affiliated Down East Wood Ducks.^[25][23][26]

Season structure

The Frontier League season is divided into a preseason (late April and early May), a regular season (from early May through early September) and a postseason (the Frontier League playoffs) that runs until late September.^[4]

Teams usually hold a spring showcase for prospects in April and participate in prospect tournaments, full games that do not feature any veterans, in late April. Full training camps begin in late April, including a preseason consisting of a few exhibition games. Split squad games, in which parts of a team's regular season roster play separate games on the same day, are occasionally played during the preseason.

During the regular season, clubs play each other in a predefined schedule. Since 2021, in the regular season, all teams play 96 games: 48 games each of home and road, playing 84 games in their own geographic division—four series (12 games) against five of their eight intra-conference opponents, plus three series (9 games) against two others, and two series (6 games) against the remaining one; and only one series (3 games) against four of the nine teams in the other conference once—home or road.^[27]

The league's regular season standings are based on a win percentage system. At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the highest win percentage in each divisions is crowned the division champion, and the league's overall leader are named the Frontier League regular season champions.

The Frontier League playoffs, which go from early to late September, are an elimination tournament where two teams play against each other to win a series in order to advance to the next round. The final remaining team is crowned the Frontier League champion. Four teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs: the top team in each division plus the two conference teams with the next highest win percentage.^[28] The two Wild Card Series winners proceed to the Frontier League Division Series (FLDS) as the league's conference finals, and the two conference champions proceed to the Frontier League Championship Series (FLCS). In all rounds, the higher-ranked team is awarded home-field advantage, with up to three of the five games played at this team's home venue. In the FLCS, the team with the most wins during the regular season has the home-field advantage.^[5]

Players

The Frontier League uses a salary cap. As of the 2025 season, clubs are required to spend a maximum of US$895,000 on player compensation, with a minimum salary of $26,200 per player.^[29] For players aged 23 and younger on standard contracts, only 50% of their salary counts towards the cap (up to $150,000 total).^[30] There is also a separate salary cap for coaches and technical staff.

Teams in the FL must recruit and sign their own players, who usually are undrafted college players or one-time prospects who have been released by their teams.

The league also has several other rules to give younger players more opportunities. This includes a maximum of eight veterans per team, and a minimum of ten rookies in their roster.^[31] The remaining six players on the 24-man roster can be classified as ''Experienced-1'' or ''Experienced-2''. Rosters are limited to a size of 24 players on the Opening Day series, although up to 10 additional players can be added to a team's roster during the regular season before the transactions limit.

Teams

For the 2021 season, the Frontier League consisted of 14 teams—13 based in the United States and 1 in Canada.^[32] The FL divided the 14 teams into two conferences: the Can-Am Conference and the Midwest Conference. Each conference was split into two divisions: the Can-Am Conference contained 6 teams (three per division), while the Midwest Conference had 8 teams (four per division).^[33] The league temporarily realigned from the 2022 to the 2024 seasons but returned to the previous alignment the following year. With the addition of the Empire State Greys in 2022–23 and the Brockton Rox in 2024, the league operated at 16 teams with only two divisions: East and West.^[34][35]

The league expanded for the first time in 9 years to 15 teams with the addition of the Ottawa Titans in 2020, then to 16 with the addition of the Tri-City ValleyCats in 2021.^[36] In September 2024, a new expansion team in Mississippi was created, after the ownership group of the Mississippi Braves sold the team.^[37] A few weeks later, a second new team in Kinston, North Carolina joined the FL, and started playing in 2025 as the Down East Bird Dawgs.^[38] The expansion of the two new teams marks the league's first expansion into the deep south, and largest expansion in history. The league reverted to the 2021 setup: two conferences with four divisions.^[39]

220km
137miles

Bird Dawgs

Mud Monsters

ThunderBolts

Wild Things

Boomers

Crushers

Slammers

Grizzlies

Y'alls

Otters

Aigles

ValleyCats

Miners

Capitales

Titans

Boulders

Jackals

Rox

   

• East Division
• North Division
• Central Division
• West Division

List of teams

Overview of FL teams

Conference	Division	Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Founded	Joined	General manager	Manager
Atlantic	East	Down East Bird Dawgs	Kinston, North Carolina	Grainger Stadium	3,400	2025		Shari Massengill	Brett Wellman
		New Jersey Jackals	Paterson, New Jersey	Hinchliffe Stadium	7,800	1998	2020	John Hunt	Albert Gonzalez
		New York Boulders	Pomona, New York	Clover Stadium	8,362	2011	2020	Shawn Reilly	T.J. Stanton
		Sussex County Miners	Augusta, New Jersey	Skylands Stadium	4,500	2015	2020	Vincent Sangemino	Chris Widger
	North	Brockton Rox	Brockton, Massachusetts	Campanelli Stadium	4,750	2024		Jerod Edmondson	Jerod Edmondson
		Ottawa Titans	Ottawa, Ontario	Ottawa Stadium	10,332	2021		Martin Boyce	Bobby Brown
		Québec Capitales	Quebec City, Quebec	Stade Canac	4,297	1999	2020	Mike Petillion	Patrick Scalabrini
		Tri-City ValleyCats	Albany, New York	Joseph L. Bruno Stadium	6,500	2002	2021	Matt Callahan	Greg Tagert
		Trois-Rivières Aigles	Trois-Rivières, Quebec	Stade Quillorama	4,000	2013	2020	Simon Laliberté	Jonathan Albaladejo
Midwest	Central	Evansville Otters	Evansville, Indiana	Bosse Field	5,181	1995		Travis Painter	Andy McCauley
		Florence Y'alls	Florence, Kentucky	Thomas More Stadium	4,500	2003		Max Johnson	Chad Rhoades
		Lake Erie Crushers	Avon, Ohio	Crushers Stadium	5,000	2009		Brian Wentzel	Jared Lemieux
		Washington Wild Things	Washington, Pennsylvania	EQT Park	3,200	2002		Tony Bucilli	Tom Vaeth
	West	Gateway Grizzlies	Sauget, Illinois	Grizzlies Ballpark	6,000	2001		Kurt Ringkamp	Steve Brook
		Joliet Slammers	Joliet, Illinois	Duly Health and Care Field	6,016	2011		Dayana Rodriguez	Mike Pinto
		Mississippi Mud Monsters	Pearl, Mississippi	Trustmark Park	6,500	2025		Andrew Seymour	Jay Pecci
		Schaumburg Boomers	Schaumburg, Illinois	Wintrust Field	5,665	2012		Michael Larson	Jamie Bennett
		Windy City ThunderBolts	Crestwood, Illinois	Ozinga Field	3,500	1995	1999	Mike VerSchave	Bobby Jenks

Former teams

• Canton Coyotes (2002, became the Mid-Missouri Mavericks)
• Canton Crocodiles (1997–2002, became the Washington Wild Things)
• Chillicothe Paints (1993–2008, joined the Prospect League)
• Dubois County Dragons (2000–2002, became the Kenosha Mammoths)
• Empire State Greys (2022–2023, Temporary travel team)
• Équipe Québec (2021, Temporary travel team consisting of Canadian players from Ottawa, Québec and Trois-Rivières operated due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions)
• Erie Sailors (1994, became the Johnstown Steal)
• Florence Freedom (2003–2019, became the Florence Y'alls)
• Frontier Greys (2013–2015, Temporary travel team)
• Johnstown Johnnies (1998–2002, became the Florence Freedom)
• Johnstown Steal (1995–1998, became the Johnstown Johnnies)
• Kalamazoo Kings (2001–2010, folded)
• Kalamazoo Kodiaks (1996–1998, became the London Werewolves)
• Kenosha Mammoths (2003, became the Springfield-Ozark Ducks)
• Kentucky Rifles (1993–1994, folded)
• Lancaster Scouts (1993–1994, became the Evansville Otters)
• London Rippers (2012, folded)
• London Werewolves (1999–2001, became the Canton Coyotes)
• Mid-Missouri Mavericks (2003–2005, folded)
• Midwest Sliders (2008–2009, became the Oakland County Cruisers)
• Normal CornBelters (2010–2018, joined the Prospect League)
• Newark Buffaloes (1994–1995, became the Kalamazoo Kodiaks)
• Oakland County Cruisers (2010–2011, became the London Rippers)
• Ohio Valley Redcoats (1993–1998, became the Dubois County Dragons; returned 2005, folded)
• Portsmouth Explorers (1993–1995, became the Springfield Capitals)
• Richmond Roosters (1995–2005, became the Traverse City Beach Bums)
• River City Rascals (1999–2019, folded)
• Rockford Aviators (2013–2015, folded)
• Rockford RiverHawks (2002–2009, moved to Northern League; returned 2011–2012, became Rockford Aviators)
• Slippery Rock Sliders (2007, became the Midwest Sliders)
• Southern Illinois Miners (2007–2021, folded)
• Springfield Capitals (1996–2001, became the Rockford Riverhawks)
• Springfield-Ozark Ducks (2004, became the Ohio Valley Redcoats)
• Traverse City Beach Bums (2006–2018, folded)
• Tri-State Tomahawks (1993, folded)
• West Virginia Coal Sox (1993, folded)
• Zanesville Greys (1993–1996, became the River City Rascals)

Timeline

Champions

• 1993 Zanesville Greys
• 1994 Erie Sailors
• 1995 Johnstown Steal
• 1996 Springfield Capitals
• 1997 Canton Crocodiles
• 1998 Springfield Capitals
• 1999 London Werewolves
• 2000 Johnstown Johnnies
• 2001 Richmond Roosters
• 2002 Richmond Roosters
• 2003 Gateway Grizzlies
• 2004 Rockford Riverhawks
• 2005 Kalamazoo Kings
• 2006 Evansville Otters
• 2007 Windy City ThunderBolts
• 2008 Windy City ThunderBolts
• 2009 Lake Erie Crushers
• 2010 River City Rascals
• 2011 Joliet Slammers
• 2012 Southern Illinois Miners
• 2013 Schaumburg Boomers
• 2014 Schaumburg Boomers
• 2015 Traverse City Beach Bums
• 2016 Evansville Otters
• 2017 Schaumburg Boomers
• 2018 Joliet Slammers
• 2019 River City Rascals
• 2020 Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic^[40]
• 2021 Schaumburg Boomers
• 2022 Québec Capitales
• 2023 Québec Capitales
• 2024 Québec Capitales

Records

Individual career records

Batting

Statistic	Record	Player
Games Played	588	Chris Sidick
At Bats	2,225
Runs	434
Hits	725	Santiago Chirino
Home Runs	127	Charlie Lisk
Runs Batted In	442

Pitching

Statistic	Record	Player
Games	255	Nick Kennedy
Games started	98	Aaron Ledbetter
Innings Pitched	671.2
Wins	51
Strikeouts	522
Complete Games	18
Saves	74	Zach Strecker

Broadcasting

On February 24, 2022, the FL announced that all games for the 2022 season would be available through the streaming platform FloSports.^[41] They then announced a move to streaming platform HomeTeam Network for the 2025 season.^[42]

See also

• Baseball awards#U.S. independent professional leagues