When to switch teams?
Long time listener, first time poster. Sorry in advance for the long read.
TL;DR: Son (12) played first year 13U AA travel, did not play much. Paid $3000+ to basically watch and cheer on other kids play baseball. Was invited to come back next year at 13U again and I assume likely on a different team with a different coach and mostly different kids (his team is a mix of 12 and 13 year olds, so I assume some are gonna move up to 14U). But I'm not so sure how I feel about it as I felt we were just a wallet for this team. Son tried out for other teams (still more tryouts in the next few days) and was offered to play elsewhere. Should we make the jump or stay?
Now to the long part of it.
I kind of already have an idea of what we should probably do, but I just need to vent and talk through it and maybe hear what others think as I'm sure we're not the first to go thru this.
We made the jump from Rec to Travel so is past Spring (2026) was my Son's (and our) first year of travel ball and it did not quite go the way we expected.
Some background: He was one of the better players on his LL Majors team (as he was taking private lessons with this Travel org and we were doing work on our own), but that isn't saying much as our LL isn't very competitive. Anyway, last Fall (2025) we played Fall Ball with this same travel org and they played up at 13U AAA (AA team, but vs AAA teams), he was barely 12 (turned 12 towards the end of Fall Ball). Being new to this level of competition and playing up he struggled.
Fast forward to winter and being new to this Travel environment, I wasn't aware of when tryout season was (my fault). So its Winter already and there are not many tryouts as I imagine, looking back, most rosters are probably already set for the next year. Last minute this same Travel Org is holding tryouts for some last minute 13U players. At the time I decided, well, he did struggle with 13U fall Ball but he's been thru it before, we've been working all winter, he's still taking his private lessons and were informed this is a AA team playing AA so maybe by Spring something will turn around. So we tried out and thought the worst they can say is no and we'll just go back to Rec (intermediate) or something. They ended up offering (which might have been a red flag as they just needed a "warm body").
Part of the issue (I think) is, we ended up being assigned to a team that had an established core set of players (been together for a few years). We went thru all winter workouts and practices and it wasn't until the first tournament of the season I was informed that only the "top 9 will play, with my Son getting some reps during pool play." Now maybe this is my fault for not asking this question or understanding this before signing up but I was caught off guard with that.
I won't say my Son's necessarily deserved playing time as his struggles from Fall Ball ended up carrying over to the first half of the Spring season and maybe thats my fault knowing that he struggled there, where I hoped it would be different being AA and not AAA. And while I acknowledge that he's one of the less experienced kids on the team in terms of this level of competition, I also felt that he's not the worst player on the team either. Physically, I felt he can compete/play, but honestly it felt a lot of his struggles were mental. Part of it was that he wasn't given as many opportunities or a long leash for "mistakes" like some of the others. A majority of playing time went to their core set of players and families they had relationships with. They also literally rotated 4 players (including my Son) thru RF, while the other 8 positions mostly went untouched or rotated amongst those players.
For context, 35 total games played so far. Only 21 PAs, so less than 1 per game. Some kids have 3 times as many PA. As for defensive innings. Some kids have 6 to 7 times as many innings played.
In a sense, I felt that his confidence was down at the beginning of the season, especially since he didn't get to play much. It was bad enough that after one tournament he asked me "Why didn't I get to play? Is it because I suck?"
We did approach the coach and ask what do we need to do and basically it boiled down to political talk of we're a developmental team, but that is mainly done thru practices and outside work, games are meant to give our players competition and basically to win at all cost. If your Son wants to play he needs to "essentially" be more consistent.
All in all, I get that my Son wasn't "the best" player and was inexperienced, but I also felt that they were part of what crushed his confidence (and possibly love for the game). I get that a majority of a player development is done thru practices and what work we do outside, but I also feel that you need to play games or get game reps to also get better. I felt that he got shafted on that and in a sense, his early struggles set the impression his coaches had of him throughout the season and he wasn't given a long leash to learn by making mistakes/errors as he wasn't even on the field a majority of the time. I mean, if you're "good enough" to make the team then why aren't you "good enough" to play.
I also understand that the $3000+ is "stated" to be for paying for the "development" and not "playing time." I will state that I do believe my Son got better over the course of the Season (but that was also because we put in work ourselves) as a majority of his ABs came in the 2nd half of this season, but he's mainly been regulated as a DH or EH sometimes so no field time (even in RF).
Now, back to my question. My Son has tried out for another org, 2 teams from that org have offered and there's another tryout coming up. The main question of this is should we switch? Granted I don't think the coaching will be as good and I understand my Son should have some kind of say as this is his Journey, but I do think my Son would get more playing time with this other Org and I feel that we should go where he is wanted. But I fear that by making this jump we could be jumping into the same situation with this new org being the new kids/parents coming in. I feel that if we stay, even if its a new team and coach, I'd feel like we might get suckered again and my Son ends up riding the bench again.
So essentially when do you know when its time to switch?
Ultimately, I feel like I know what we should do, as he may not even go on to play college ball and I just want him to play and build his confidence back up. But I just wanted to vent and hear others stories/opinions.
If you made it this far, thanks for staying for my long rant.