Sacramento River Cats


The Sacramento River Cats are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League and the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Prior to 2015, the River Cats were for 15 years the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. They are located in West Sacramento, California, and play their home games at Sutter Health Park which opened in 2000 and was known as Raley Field through 2019.
Sacramento was previously represented in the PCL by the Solons, a charter member of the league which was founded in 1903. Three different versions of the Solons played in California's capital city in 1903, 1905, from 1909 to 1914, from 1918 to 1960, and from 1974 to 1976. As of 2018, Sacramento is the only charter city that hosts a PCL team.
The team has won five PCL championships. Most recently, the River Cats won the league crown in 2019. They previously won back-to-back in 2007 and 2008. They went on to win the Triple-A National Championship Game in all three seasons. Sacramento also won the PCL title in 2003 and 2004.
In 2016, Forbes listed the team as the most valuable Minor League Baseball team with a value of $49 million.

History

Following the 1999 season, the Pacific Coast League's Vancouver Canadians were purchased by a group led by Art Savage, moved south to West Sacramento, and renamed the River Cats for the 2000 season. Savage was the majority owner of the team until his death at age 58 in November 2009. His widow, Susan Savage, became majority owner upon her husband's death.
In 2016, Mike Piazza became the first and only former River Cats player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, after earning an 83% vote by the committee. Piazza played three games in Sacramento as part of a 2007 rehab assignment before rejoining the Oakland Athletics.

Attendance

After arriving at Raley Field, the River Cats led minor leagues in attendance during each of its first eight seasons. In 2015, the team drew 672,354 fans in 72 home games, leading the minor league in total attendance. In 2015, they also drew the second highest attendance per game in the minors with an average of 9,338 fans per game. In 2017, the team drew 562,237 fans in 70 home games, placing them third in overall attendance for the Pacific Coast League for the season. In 2018, the River Cats drew their lowest attendance since arriving at Raley Field with 538,785 fans attending 70 home games. While this was the team's lowest attendance since arriving in West Sacramento, it was strong enough to place them fifth in attendance for the Pacific Coast League for the 2018 season.
YearTotal
Attendance		Average
2000 861,80811,969
2001901,21412,516
2002817,31711,351
2003766,32610,643
2004751,15610,432
2005755,75010,496
2006728,22710,256
2007710,23510,003
2008700,1689,724
2009657,0959,126
2010657,9109,138
2011600,3068,455
2012586,0908,140
2013607,3298,435
2014607,8398,561
2015672,3549,338
2016609,6668,587
2017562,2378,032
2018538,7857,808

Playoff history

The River Cats have won 12 division titles, including back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001, three years in a row from 2003 to 2005, and six consecutive titles from 2007 to 2012. In 2019, the River Cats snapped a six year playoff drought by winning the Pacific Northern Division.
They won back-to-back league championships in 2003 and 2004 and again in 2007 and 2008.
In 2007, they went on to defeat the Richmond Braves in that year's Bricktown Showdown by a score of 7–1. The River Cats repeated in 2008, defeating the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, 4–1.

Roster

Players

Notable former River Cats currently in the major leagues

This list does not include MLB players who were in Sacramento on a rehabilitation assignment while on the disabled list.