The Moose Jaw Miller Express are already planning for the 2020 Western Canadian Baseball League season.

Last year’s manager Rich Sorensen is signed to be the on field boss once again next year, according to Miller general manager Cory Olafson.

“Rich is signed to come back and so he’s excited to return and we’re excited to have him back,” said Olafson. “Eric Marriott, who has been here the past two seasons… his eligibility has run its course and he’s not eligible to play anymore, but he wants to get into the coaching gig. So we’ve approached him and he’s agreed to be our assistant coach for the year.”

Plans are in the works on who will be coming to the team this year, according to Olafson.

“We’ve talked to some kids about coming back, some of last year’s kids we’ve talked to a bunch of them about coming back and we’ve had some commitments from some of them,” Olafson said. But there is going to be some familiar faces around.

The Millers were 25-31 last season in Sorensen’s first year with the club and they lost in the first round of the playoffs to Regina.

League meetings last month reconfirmed the number of games for a two year trial period, of which this is the second year. Just as it did last year, the regular season schedule will have 56 games this year, which is a lot of games to put in a nearly two-month window.

But the schedule won’t include games with the Yorkton Cardinals or Melville Millionaires because those teams have filed one year leaves of absence.

“Both franchises have been struggling a bit the last couple of years,” said Olafson. “There’s been some major turnover with Yorkton and Melville had some major overturns with their board of directors as well.”

He said the finances of those teams means it’s time for them to step back, reorganize and see if they want to be part of the league moving forward.