The Pittsburgh Pirates are close to finalizing a deal to purchase the Florida State League team in Sarasota and move the high Class-A team to Bradenton, team president Frank Coonelly said in a statement today.

The move would end the Pirate's affiliation with the Lynchburg (Va.) Hillcats, which would be bought by the Cincinnati Reds as part of what amounts to a swap of one Carolina League team for an FSL entry.

The deal, which would bring 70 scheduled games in the summer to the Pirates' McKechnie Field in Bradenton, requires a two-thirds vote from the FSL's 12 team directors to pass.

Chuck Murphy, the FSL's chairman, president and treasurer, expects the Pirates' move to be accepted when his league's directors conduct their fall meeting Nov. 10 in Daytona Beach, Fla., its headquarters.

"We're a major-league-owned league," Murphy said. "I wouldn't expect there to be too much problem.

"We've been looking at [the proposed move] for some time now. It's basically paperwork that we're working on right now. We'll present it to the directors and go from there."

The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees, among others, run their Florida compounds in the same fashion as the Pirates' aim in such a move: an FSL team plays out of their spring-training ballpark and uses their major-league-ready facilities, which better enables players on rehab assignments as well as high-Class A prospects to work with the parent-club's medical staff and development personnel on site.

Cincinnati moved its spring-training base of operations from Sarasota to Arizona and is expected to pick up a rookie team in the Arizona Summer League.

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