Arizona Winter League

Arizona Winter League

Arizona Winter League logo
Sport	Baseball
Founded	2007
No. of teams	6
Country	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Team Canada
Official website	arizonawinterleague.com

The Arizona Winter League is a short-season independent winter professional baseball league. All Winter League games are played at Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma, Arizona. The league is utilized by free agent players looking to get signed and by players currently under pro contracts that want a competitive advantage and a month's headstart on spring training. The league had originally disbanded in 2013 due to parent league, the Golden Baseball League/North American League, folded. But it was restarted in 2016 with Team Canada and five new teams, all of whom play in Yuma.

The inaugural season consisted of a 21-game regular season, with the first and second place teams facing off in a one-game playoff for the championship. All teams are based in the Yuma, Arizona area playing all games at Desert Sun Stadium and utilizing the Ray Kroc Complex which used to house the San Diego Padres and Yakult Swallows spring training operations. The league is for players out of college or university and other players who are looking for professional contracts either from independent leagues, Minor League Baseball or Major League Baseball. It is an instructional winter league that includes a number of ex-major league stars as managers and instructors including Mike Marshall, Garry Templeton, Ozzie Virgil Jr., Les Lancaster, Darrell Evans, and Cory Snyder, most of whom manage independent league teams in the North American, American Association, and Frontier Leagues or are coaches in the minor league system for big league clubs. All the managers draft and sign players to pro contracts at the end of the AWL for their leagues and teams.

At the conclusion of each Arizona Winter League, the top players are drafted and signed to professional contracts for the upcoming summer season. In the first five years, over 225 players have left the AWL with professional contracts. Many with independent teams, but several with major league teams, European professional teams, and teams in Latin America and Asia. Two pitchers from the 2007 Arizona Winter League, Scott Richmond and Sergio Romo have reached the major leagues pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants respectively in 2008.