Any NeL stats from leagues and seasons deemed "major" by the MLB back in 2020 have been treated as such in OOTP for the past few versions.
That said, the players themselves are still treated akin to minor leaguers. They cannot be included in Random Debut games, nor do they appear in any other types of game other than those in which historical minors are invoked. Other than if one introduces them manually, that is.
All this latest announcement has done is decree that stats from these seasons are now to be included in the "official" MLB leaderboards.
Other than that, little has changed.
SABR has, however, just recommended a whole new batch of indy NeL teams and additional seasons be deemed "major league".
The full list of teams and organizations that were determined to be of major-league caliber are:
Pre-1920
- Algona Brownies (1903)
- All Cubans (1905, 1911)
- Atlantic City Bacharach Giants (1918-1919)
- Brooklyn Royal Giants (1905-1914, 1916-1919)
- Chicago American Giants (1911-1919)
- Chicago Columbia Giants (1899-1902)
- Chicago Giants (1910-1911, 1913)
- Chicago Leland Giants (1905-1910)
- Chicago Union Giants (1902-1906)
- Chicago Unions (1897-1900)
- Cuban Giants (1889, 1891, 1893-1894, 1907)
- Cuban X-Giants (1897-1899, 1901-1906)
- Cuban Stars East (1916-1919)
- Cuban Stars of Havana (1906-1915)
- Cuban Stars West (1916-1919)
- Detroit Stars (1919)
- French Lick Plutos (1913)
- Hilldale Club (1918-1919)
- Indianapolis ABCs (1914-1918)
- Kansas City (KS) Giants (1909, 1911)
- New York Gorhams (1891)
- New York Lincoln Giants (1911-1919)
- New York Lincoln Stars (1914-1916)
- New York Quaker Giants (1906)
- Oklahoma City Monarchs (1910)
- Page Fence Giants (1897-1898)
- Philadelphia Giants (1903-1911)
- Louis Giants (1911-1912, 1915-1916)
- Paul Gophers (1909)
- Schenectady Mohawk Giants (1913)
- Stars of Cuba (1910)
- West Baden Sprudels (1910-1913)
- York Monarchs (1890)
1920-1948
- Atlantic City Bacharach Giants (1920-1921)
- Baltimore Black Sox (1922, 1930-1931)
- Birmingham Black Barons (1923)
- Brooklyn Royal Giants (1920-1922)
- Chicago American Giants (1936)
- Cuban Stars East (1920-1922)
- Hilldale Club (1920-1922, 1928, 1930-31)
- Homestead Grays (1928, 1930-1931, 1934)
- Kansas City Monarchs (1931-1936)
- Memphis Red Sox (1923)
- New York Bacharach Giants (1922)
- New York Black Yankees (1932-1935)
- New York Harlem Stars (1931)
- New York Lincoln Giants (1920-1922, 1930)
- Philadelphia Stars (1933)
- Pittsburgh Crawfords (1932)
Post-1948
- Negro American League (1949-1950)
It is also is in the process of revising the SABR Style Guide to explain how the terms “Major League” and “major league” should be used.
How the MLB will respond to this is yet to be seen.
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