Fates of RedHawks, Round Rock franchises linked

/> Texas and Oklahoma City have one of the longest relationships in baseball, dating back to 1983. Only three pairs of teams (Kansas City-Omaha, Boston-Pawtucket and the Chicago Cubs and Iowa) have been together longer.

The teams can start negotiating a new player development contract at the end of the Pacific Coast League season.

Oklahoma City and Round Rock are far from the only teams whose contracts expire at season's end. A total of 19 teams have yet to sign a player development contract that extends past the end of this season. In the PCL, only Iowa (Cubs), Memphis (St. Louis Cardinals) and Salt Lake City (Los Angeles Angels) are signed past this year.

The terms of the player development contracts are for either two or four years.

RedHawks manager Bobby Jones said the coaches haven't paid much attention to what's going on with the Rangers sale.

"We read about it in the papers every once in a while, but we're not looking at it too closely,” Jones said. "There's nothing we can do about it, so there's no point in worrying too much about it.”

Affiliation shuffles aren't rare in the Pacific Coast League. New Orleans is on its fourth affiliate in the last seven seasons. In recent years, the Zephyrs have been affiliated with the Florida Marlins (2009-present), the New York Mets (2007-08), Washington Nationals (2005-06) and Astros (1997-2004).

The RedHawks are also going through a sale process of their own, but that figures to have less of an impact in the on-the-field product in Oklahoma City. Mandalay Baseball is negotiating to buy the RedHawks; and it was recently approved to have the lease for AT&T Bricktown Ballpark transferred. But that sale, which must be approved by the Pacific Coast League and Minor League Baseball, is still in the negotiating process.