The Mariners have a new minor league affiliate team

The Seattle Mariners will have a different Single-A affiliate in the minor leagues beginning in 2026.

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The Inland Empire 66ers announced Thursday that they will become a part of the Mariners organization following next season. The 66ers, who have been an affiliate team of the Los Angeles Angels since 2011, will play one last season in 2025 as a member of the Angels organization.

The change is actually a sale and relocation of Seattle’s current Single-A affiliate, the Modesto Nuts, to Diamond Baseball Holdings, and a subsequent move of the team from Modesto in the Central Valley region of California to San Bernardino, which is roughly an hour east of Los Angeles.

We are excited to announce the forthcoming affiliation with the Seattle Mariners come the 2026 season.

To read more about our new affiliation check out the full press release. https://t.co/oOhkOTyG9G pic.twitter.com/hWNafNsDlA

— Inland Empire 66ers (@66ersBaseball) December 12, 2024

This is the latest domino to fall in a greater shakeup for the Single-A California League in 2026. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ affiliate, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, will move after next season to Ontario, Calif., and the Angels will then move their affiliate from San Bernardino to Rancho Cucamonga. The team names in San Bernardino and Rancho Cucamonga will remain the same, while the Dodgers’ affiliate in Ontario will have a new name altogether.

The Mariners’ affiliate has been the Nuts since Seattle purchased a majority share of the team following the 2016 season. The Mariners and the City of Modesto announced in July that the Nuts would no longer call John Thurman Field home, though a deal was struck a month later to extend the team’s lease at the stadium through September 2025.

Per a release from the Mariners, the move from Modesto to San Bernardino was a Diamond Baseball Holdings decision, and the Mariners’ initial ownership of the Nuts was made to guarantee Seattle’s organization had a team in the California League, which the franchise considered important for competitive reasons in assisting the development of players. The Mariners are now confident that owning their affiliate in the California League is not necessary following changes to the minor league system, and with DBH’s business built for owning teams in the minor leagues and Seattle’s baseball operations focused on on-field development, the transfer of ownership allows the Mariners and DBH to focus on each of their strengths.

The 66ers play in the California League and are based out of San Bernardino Stadium. The California League plays at a Low-A classification, a step below the High-A Northwest League where the Mariners’ affiliate is the Everett AquaSox.

This is a reunion for the Mariners and San Bernardino – a second one, at that. The San Bernardino minor league franchise was a Mariners affiliate from 1987-94 when it was the San Bernardino Spirit, and again from 2001-06 when it was the San Bernardino Stampede (2001-02) and then the current Inland Empire 66ers name, which it was changed to in 2003.

Fun fact for Mariners fans about the team’s history in San Bernardino: Ken Griffey Jr.’s famous 1989 Upper Deck rookie baseball card features a photo of him in his Spirit uniform that was edited to look like he was in Mariners gear.

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