The Pittsburgh Pirates have announced the purchase of the Sarasota Reds from the Cincinnati Reds organization and their intention to move the team to Bradenton, Florida.

The team will play in the Florida State League, an Advanced-A class league.

"The purchase of the Florida State League team is the latest investment by the club to improve its core baseball operations," said team chairman Bob Nutting. "This will allow our baseball operations staff to take further advantage of our world-class facilities at Pirate City, as well as allowed for the increase usage of our Spring Training home of McKechnie Field."

The team name and logo have yet to be announced, but the inaugural game of the new club will be played under the lights at McKechnie Field on April 8. The Pirates announced in 2006 a contract that will keep the team in Bradenton for Spring Training through 2038.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@