The manner in which teams are — or, in some cases, aren’t — continuing to pay their minor league players has drawn increased attention as the end of the month draws near. Major League teams agreed back in March to pay minor league players $400 per week through the end of May, but most minor league players now face ongoing financial uncertainty. The Dodgers have already committed to continue that $400 weekly stipend through the end of June, but veteran left-hander David Price is stepping up to add a helping hand, pledging $1,000 to each non-40-man Dodgers minor leaguer, according to a report from Francys Romero (Twitter link). That includes more than 220 minor leaguers, per MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. It’s a similar gesture to the one Shin-Shoo Choo made with the Rangers back in April.
Of course, the very fact that veterans such as Choo and Price even feel it necessary to step up to help out minor leaguers speaks to the manner in which minor league players are under-compensated. While some clubs — the Marlins and Padres — are reportedly set to pay out that $400 weekly stipend through the end of the minor league season, the Athletics are cutting off the stipend at month’s end. Others have extended the stipend through June but have not committed further.
Here’s how a few other clubs are handling the matter…
- The Mets, Rays, Brewers, Cardinals, Giants and Indians are all extending the $400 weekly stipend through the month of June, per reports from MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (tweet), the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak (tweet), the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (tweet) and Kyle Glaser of Baseball America (tweet). “This money right now, especially for guys who aren’t as well off, this is a huge deal,” Rays minor league catcher Chris Betts tells Topkin. “…I’m beyond excited about it, and I’m honestly just more stoked and proud that the organization I play for took this route more than anything.”
- The Athletics have, unsurprisingly, drawn a wide array of harsh criticism for their wide-ranging furlough and the full cutoff of minor league payment, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. Slusser notes that owner John Fisher repeatedly used the word “family” in his letter to fans explaining the cutbacks, but many impacted by the cuts don’t feel the effects of that word. “It’s very hard to preach family and then not act like it when times are difficult,” Class-A pitcher Aiden McIntyre tells Slusser. Triple-A outfielder Jason Krizan added: “…[I]t hurts to see the Marlins continue to pay their players when they made the least in baseball last year,” though he noted he’d rather remain an Athletic and receive benefits than otherwise. Other players, past and present, voiced similar criticisms to Slusser, as did a big league agent and an executive with another club. Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein writes that termination of the stipend saves the Athletics an approximate $1.3MM.
David Price is a true professional and a class act.
David Price is an overpaid, egotistical cry baby. Aside from that he isn’t a bad guy. And while he may not be the greatest pitcher of all time, he has been underrated in the playoffs. People made a big deal out of him not having a playoff win going into 2018, but he also hadn’t had any run support.
Price has never had a problem anywhere in his career outside of Boston. Its their overly aggressive media hounds fault for Price coming off that way when he was with the Red Sox. He was overpaid because of Dave Dombrowski. With the Sox paying for half the contract, its more than a good deal for the Dodgers.
David Price just didn’t like the media in Boston. And he let it be known. He has always had the reputation of a great teammate and Clubhouse guy.
I remember the headlines and stories when the Red Sox signed price in the first place. They gave him all that money not only for his skills but also for his positive influence on the rest of the pitching staff and the team in general. Now suddenly he’s not like that?
I remember one of the many specifics that was mentioned when the Red Sox signed price. Many starting pitchers head to the showers and are done once they’re taken out of the game. Price will stay on the bench and support his teammates till the very end, and I remember seeing that all the time. Great teammate just doesn’t take Flack from the Press.
Tell us how you really feel. Your unbiased opinion is very vague.
Way to turn Price’s generosity into something negative. Funny the number of who players were supposedly terrible and awful people when they were playing in Boston but we never hear that about them when they play somewhere else. Some things never change. They should, but they never do.
The Price is right.
1.3M is 1.3M, but your brand name is priceless.
I am so relieved a multi Billionaire was able to save $1.3 by no longer paying the minor leaguer who at the same time cannot file for unemployment.
That $2..1 Billion worth almost came $2.09 Billion instead, I was worried about Jeff Fisher. phew!
They actually can file for unemployment. There’s a lot of misinformation on how that works. You are not required to be unemployed. Their criteria is based on hours worked.
minor league is vastly different though. they don’t even make minimum wage
Unemployment for professional athletes are far different than the average Joe. Your wages are paid based on where you play, though sometimes reports the wages where their home stadium is. That can change where you file, and some states aren’t allowing professional athletes to file since this technically the season, even though they aren’t playing right now.
No they can’t. They are not eligible for unemployment.
The Reserve Clause makes unemployment a non-option.
Depends on the city or state. AHL players on certain work visas are eligible.
Nope.
“As we noted earlier this week, they had not been paid for since last August. Additionally, they were unable to apply for unemployment benefits, and could not take long-term jobs, given the uncertainty about their availability.”
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-announces-support-for-minor-league-players-during-coronavirus-shutdown/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/minors/2020/05/27/minor-league-baseball-weekly-payments-unemployment-benefits/5264181002/
From the Wall Street Journal:
“Minor leaguers face an uncertain future. They’ve been instructed to stay in shape, even as gyms around the country close. They can’t take a part-time job, because they don’t know when they’ll have to depart suddenly to head back to spring training. They can’t collect unemployment, because they are technically still employed by their baseball teams. Now that they aren’t in spring training more, they will no longer get the team-provided lodging and meals.”
Yeah mlb and mlbpa should step in and nullify that.
It applies if you’re being paid a stipend but if the teams not going to pay you then the minor Leaguers should be able to seek work in the mean time.
Idk why minor Leaguers for the A’s haven’t filed a lawsuit over this.
Unfortunately, MLB and the MLBPA don’t give a toss about Minor Leaguers. The PA uses them for leverage, but doesn’t represent them, so when it comes to moral obligations, they want nothing to do with the little guys.
Fisher is a known a h o l e in Oakland.
my respects to price this was a classy move. i hope that we can all talk about this, its seems we only embrace the nagativity
You are right, David Price is awesome for what he did and needs to be shared more.
Expect more releases. The owners are going to contract the minor leagues for next year so many of these players are going to lose their jobs sooner or later.
contract or not, Price is a stand-up guy
You can’t help but recall the line in the Godfather “Sonny, it’s just business…:”
Despite all that, how you treat your people matters.
Umm not quite the exact line, but close enough and B for effort!
Minor leaguers are being released without pay and MLB players and Owners are fighting over millions…losers!
However, an awesome gesture by Price! Stand up guy.
A wonderful gesture by Price. His commitment could be a major chunk of change if he’s sending a grand to every Dodger minor leaguer who isn’t on the 40-man.
Its 180 players as far as I can tell.
In that neighborhood. I read 200+ in another article. Either way not just walking around money, for most of us anyway.
why no love for choo? he made same agreement but all I read in these comments is about Price
Just go to the Choo article for that.
Maybe go to the article with the title “Shin-Soo Choo Donates $1K To Each Rangers Minor Leaguer”.
Aw, don’t Choo us out for that!
Times like those we’re experiencing tend to bring out extremes in people, often the extreme worst, but sometimes the extreme best. People like Shin-Shoo Choo and David Price are an extremely welcome breath of positivity for the world in general. We don’t get to read about many of these gestures, but when we do, it helps a LOT in regards to not giving up on humanity.
And this is all the more reason to tell the owners to f— themselves, on the pay dispute. When u got players like price and choo taking care of minor league players bc mlb and team owners wont, that speaks volumes. And yea choo and price are drastically overpaid, but u cant tell me they can better afford it than owners.
Sadly no one on the A’s is paid enough to step up and cover for the coward Fisher. Owners really making it weird to root for millionaires over billionaires.
Let’s see.. 220 players x $1,000 is $220,000 a month that Price is donating. He makes what 35 MM a year. That’s almost 3 MM a month. In effect, Price will have to figure out how to live on $2,780,000 a month. Hope he can do it. 😉
But seriously, it is a nice gesture and I’ll definitely be rooting for him when the Dodgers play again.
.
It’s more impressive because Price isn’t going to make 35M, his contract is for 32M and even then he isn’t going to make that much. The first agreement between the owners and MLBPA was to only pay players for the games they play, so at best he is going to make half of that, or 16M. Even then the owners only want to pay the highest paid players a fraction of that amount in the current negotiations. I believe the breakdown was, the highest paid players would only make something like 3M a year.
He also pays taxes and I imagine he pays an agent… so whatever gross figure that he makes is not what goes into his pocket.
“But seriously it is a nice gesture.”
How magnanimous of you. It is a great gesture that he was under no requirement to make. What the owners have done is created the next generation of anti-owner union members. Dumb.
Very cool of Price. Choo too, and not to take anything away from him – he was the first to donate and doesn’t make as much (but still makes plenty). But Price is a new guy on a new team that didn’t have any previous connection that donated while someone like Kershaw, who I love, grew up in the organization and makes just as much money, didn’t make the gesture. Bravo for Price, I’m now officially a fan.
How many of these players wish they had stopped playing baseball as soon as high school was over. I mean, it’s difficult as you commit your entire childhood to the sport and mostly it just does not work out.
The employers won’t pay their employees so now employees have to pay other employees.
K.
The Padres and Marlins, two of the lowest revenue teams, are committing to pay their minor leaguers that $400 per week stipend through August.. That is a class move. Why are the big revenue teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Giants not doing the same? Guess big money does not = class organization.
Bravo to David Price. He is a first class guy. Choo did the same thing for the Rangers. Love to see these guys stepping up. Why is it the players and not all the teams?
The Giants are at least extending the stipend through the end of June, while other assholes(John Fisher) won’t pay minor leaguers for an extra 2 months. As time goes on, and sports are still not being played, most teams will probably extend that stipend on a monthly basis.
The MLB owners should be taking care of them.
Being an A’s fan has to be so difficult.
Most of the time, no it isn’t.
You know (as an A’s fan) that you’ll get a punchers chance with a roster looking to prove or improve themselves. It’s a cheap and cheerful alternative baseball sphere, where you can live with the lack of extensions, cheap jibes etc.
And then something like this breaks – the cost of the stipend to end of the year is reckoned to be what – $1.3 million? Across 30 teams? $40 million. So approximately one year of an ace pitcher plus insurance across the entirety of MLB.
This is frankly outrageous – the A’s are essentially casting adrift their employees. From an A’s (and a baseball) perspective this could create a whole lot more Kyler Murray’s.
My Jays better pay the kids!
Why pick now to go anti Price? Guy hasn’t played a game for the Dodgers and shells out $220,000 for minor leaguers he’s never met. I’d say that’s a great start as a Dodger.
John Fisher needs to sell the A’s and move on. What a jerk!