The team competed at the Triple-A level as members of the International League, and were affiliated with the New York Yankees for nine of their 11 seasons.
The minor-league Virginians were the transplanted version of the International League edition of the Baltimore Orioles, who were uprooted from their Maryland home when the St. Louis Browns of Major League Baseball transferred there for the 1954 season.
The Virginians, the Yankees' sole Triple-A farm club after 1958, sent several key players (including Tom Tresh, Al Downing and Joe Pepitone) to the major league team, but the club's attendance figures were usually in the bottom tier of the league.
After 43 seasons in Richmond, the club moved to Gwinnett County, Georgia, for the 2009 campaign.
In 2010, Virginia's capital joined the Double-A Eastern League with the creation of the Richmond Flying Squirrels—formerly the Connecticut Defenders of Norwich, Connecticut—an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.