Tim,
The Minor League system will start over and all of the leagues from Rookie to AA will be turned over to Regional Assignors throughout the country. They will work with the League Presidents to provide umpires as independent contractors (similar to the assignments we get for college baseball).
The AMLU will eventually dissolve and the guys will come back individually, working games at all levels (except AAA) according to what's available around where you live. They will have to go through their regional assignor to get games but I'm sure they will get first crack at whatever they want since they are the most experienced/qualified to work those games. The big jump will probably be from A/AA to AAA, or when you go from being an independent contractor working within a certain geographical area to being a full time AAA umpire with an outside chance at working in the bigs.
For what it's worth...oh, God, why I am responding to this...there is one problem about the regional assignors...
If you think the assignors will be college assignors, you are very, very wrong. I have been contacted to be one of these regional assignors, with my decade-plus experience. There seems to be this feeling that this is going to open the door to anyone and everyone. The big problem is, if I take this job in a league that I can't mention under penalty of death
, I will not hire people based on how well they kiss my ***. If you think it was hard to get into professional baseball before...haha...you better be very, very, very good to get any kind of schedule.
I would suggest if you'd like to work in this league...and suffice it to say it's above A ball, you might consider umpire school this winter. Also, if the union is broken, I have permission, should I take the job, to rehire those umpires, with exceptions based on attitude, as I see fit.
So, MiLB is looking to get these guys back, but, like you said, at their terms.
Good luck to all