The Angels will continue to pay their minor league players through the end of June, The Los Angeles Times’ Maria Torres reports. No determination has been made beyond June 30, though for now, the Angels’ minor leaguers can count on receiving the $400 weekly stipend for at least the next few weeks.
The news means that all 30 Major League clubs have now committed to paying minor league players through at least June, with the Angels and Athletics being the last two teams on board. The Athletics had planned to halt the $400 stipend at the end of May, but in the face of widespread public criticism, owner John Fisher said yesterday that the organization would be pay their farm system’s players through the end of what would have been the 2020 minor league season. “We clearly got this decision wrong,” Fisher said of his team’s initial decision.
Given all of the bad press Oakland received, it isn’t surprising that the Angels also made the call (albeit a late one) to continue the minor league stipend through June. The question could be why it took the Halos so long to make this choice, especially as several other organizations announced weeks ago that their minor leaguers would be paid through the end of either August or through early September. The Angels have been more aggressive than most other clubs in cutting costs with the season on hold, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported in May that Los Angeles was making “sweeping reductions in every division of the franchise’s operation except the Major League coaching staff” by furloughing many employees, though these staffers are still receiving benefits through the end of the year and are eligible for grants through a team-sponsored employee assistance fund.
But they stopped paying their scouts and player development six days ago.
Again, What are the scouts going to be doing? There no games to scout. No College games. No minor league games. Back before Free agency in regards to the players the players had regular jobs during the off season. Maybe some of these guys should think ahead. Plan for a rainy day.
Exactly! Who are they going to be scouting? And they can get in line with the tens of millions of other Americans that are getting unemployment checks right now.
Almost everyone is getting kicked in the shins right now, my family included. Don’t know why people thinks baseball should be immune to this nightmare of a year.
And no I’m not defending the owners. It’s just the unfortunate trickle down effect of the pandemic. Wish it didn’t impact anyone, it sucks for all of us.
C’mon. With that logic what are the minor league players going to do? Not play. I’m a huge Angels fan and disappointed how a BILLIONAIRE with a $2B franchise is treating the little guys.
So….pay players but not scouts? Why the outrage for teams not paying players yet defend teams for not paying scouts? Flawed logic here.
arte moreno, get real and stop being cheap. codo!
Arte entering into bad player contracts should not be a reason to play cheap with those who are in need right now.
At the end of the day it’s still a business. Would you expect your local businesses to keep paying employees if they were closed down or losing money?
I would expect that billionaires who make ungodly sums of money could do more during a time of crisis, yes.
Really – why? You think the billionaire who owns the Houston Rockets isn’t impacted? He owns restaurants. Should he be paying all the people tied to his sports team at the expense of getting his restaurants opened up? How much money did he lose with the stock market going into a nose dive? How much of his own capital does he have tied up in building new restaurants that can’t open?
Banks have all but cut off the big lines of credit. So he can’t go and access money from his assets as easily as he has in the past.
What about the Rangers owners? Big time oil and gas tycoons. You think they were doing cartwheels when oil futures were selling in a negative dollar range? How many hundreds of millions came off their net worth? They just forked over $600M in debt obligations for the new ballpark. Think they can just stop making payments?
If these minor leaguers were let go, they would be better off financially. They would get their $600 stimulus check per week, on top of unemployment. So their income would double.
I’ve had my income slashed and so did the owner of my company (who is much richer than me). But what the heck was he supposed to do? Close the doors? Lay everyone off? There are tens of millions of people standing in the unemployment line right now. No one saw the world coming to an abrupt halt like this.
So tired of hearing about the poor freaking athletes and the rich owners. Just about the entire planet got kicked in the shorts. It sucks for all of us.
I work for Disney and I’ve been furloughed since April. It’s understandable because the parks were closed. Why is this situation different? Or any worse? They are eligible for unemployment and keep their benefits. Not ideal but understandable given the situation.
My point is and most seem to have missed it, is that those in a position to help the less fortunate should do so. Billionaires seem to be near or at that top of that list. That will teach me to interact with the great unwashed.
I don’t know that you fathom how much a billion dollars is…
Glad you are so high and mighty to not interact with the great unwashed. Guessing I won’t see you on my next trip to Africa or the next time I’m sleeping on the streets to raise money for the homeless kids.
You sound like someone who would be a blast to hang out with at parties. Big time business owner that points fingers at everyone but the person in the mirror. Cool stuff.
WHR – “those in a position to help the less fortunate should do so.”
But it’s their decision, not yours or the government’s. They are billionaires because of capitalism so applying socialism is a contradiction.
Yes! For a couple million dollars they now have a bottom five rep with minor league free agents and top scouts. Forget the emotion, it’s horrendous business where the margin of difference between the best and worst team is a sliver.
It’s not a business. To these people, It’s a hobby and a tax write off
My local business? No. Absolutely not.
A billion dollar international industry? Yes. If they are smart.
If Starbucks can pay their baristas whose stores closed down, MLB can pay it’s employees, too.
They simply choose not to do so.
Whitehouse you obviously have never owned a business? Do you see anyone pulling an owner out of bankruptcy? Not the last time I checked.
uhhhh, the government.
ain’t no welfare like corporate welfare…..
Actually I am a rather successful business owner. It’s time for people of means to step up to help out. And as far as bankruptcy goes, it’s a sham system. People go into BK all the time who have personal assets shielded by that bulls hit notion that a corporation is a person.
Whitehouse, based on your description of the bankruptcy system, i HIGHLY doubt you are owner of a legit, successful business. However, if you are truly that successful, how about you be less hypocritical and give back…seems to me you are on here way too often complaining about how to spend other peoples money more than anything else.
Actually, during this time of need I am supporting by giving to local charities. And yes, while there are some legit BK applicants, many are not especially large corps that hide their assets. What is so striking is the excuse for lack of empathy and action to help others less fortunate under the guise of “it’s not good business.”
That’s you’re opinion not facts whitehouse. Good for you for donating if you feel that helps. But capitalism is what America is and it’s what we need to protect. We aren’t socialists, we are Americans. There is no guise of its not good business, the fact would be many businesses are hurting and business owners need to provide for their family and loved ones just like the rest of us. I wouldn’t expect a hand out from any business or owner if I was less fortunate. If they choose to help out that’s great but nothing to do with lack of empathy or a excuse if they don’t. We all just received $1200 and $500 per child and unemployment pays an extra $600 a week, credit and loan institutions as well as utility companies are allowing skipping or delaying payments with no interest or penalties, is it really that bad of a time of need? The economy will recover, already starting to, and we will get through this battle with Covid19 and resume our lives.
No fact is that some businesses use the BK system to shield themselves so much so that the IRS has a special unit to ferret out BK fraud. Ugh.
tp’s are typical of those dirty companies
He’s right. I’ve seen it in action. Bankruptcy is like a drive through where people from every corner go in and wipe out their debts with a snap of a finger. And many do hide their assets. Some will deliberately run up their credit and then file bankruptcy to wash it away, and then they’ll repeat the cycle. The reason it’s so accessible, and easy, is because creditors make all their money back, with profit, on interest. Every single person on this thread alone has probably paid back any number of loans long before their terms were up. But despite BK being so accessible, some will still defraud the system out of greed.
luke 3:11!
Set, hut!
Vizionaire – “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11
Very good. However, people try to link biblical teachings of charity to socialism. Jesus talks about charity from the heart, not charity that is government mandated. There’s a big difference.
Trout will soon have a fam to feed.
What was his wife? A homeless person
businesses may operate at losses because they see better futute. if other corporations acted like baseball teams they should have closed shop in march. gm, ge, hp and so many other businesses have operated at losses. many came back strong.
Almost 40 million people were fired since March. So not sure how businesses aren’t operating like baseball.
I live in Texas and businesses big and small have closed their doors. Big companies such as Pier 1 Imports, and JC Penney’s are located here. Both declared bankruptcy. Then a ton of mom and pops have shut their doors. DFW is a big airline hub with American and Southwest being headquartered here. Tons of friends have been furloughed and making a ton less than they were beforehand. So why should baseball players (or any athlete) be immune to this crap storm of a year?
Sure some of the businesses will come back strong. And when they do the incomes of their employees will be normalized.
But most of these billionaire owners have seen their net worth plummet and have other businesses they are trying to manage besides their sport teams.
Wouldn’t wish the negative impact of this year on anyone (health wise or financially). It’s stunk. But the athletes shouldn’t get a hall pass when other people making their income levels are all hurting as well.
players are cash cows for teams. even the dumbest ceo won’t cut them.
It is amazing to see how people are so worried about the financial wellbeings of the owners who have billions of dollars in their bank accounts rather than the minor league players who get paid around the same amount as school janitors.
From the Atletic, “average salary for a minor league baseball player, whose contract is handled by Major League Baseball, ranged from around $6,000 in Single-A to around $9,350 in Double-A to nearly $15,000 in Triple-A in 2018”.
Some of these minor league players have families to feed, too.
I ponder who deserves more financial support; the billionaire team owners or the minor league players who have no job but still are expected to keep working out with a hope to crack the major league roster at some point in the future.
right on!
They aren’t being forced to play minor league baseball and if they are that good they get more then the league average. It’s the players who are just good enough to stay in the minors and it’s by choice. Tell your minor league sob story to the next enlisted military man and see what they have to say about their pay.
Exactly Haighwiser! Under the current circumstances – more than 100,000 dead from the coronavirus, more than 42 million filing for unemployment in the past three months, the nationwide anguish stemming from the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and police treatment of African-Americans – yet with all that we should all be rallying behind ball players. If you really cared so much about them, you would realize that if they were cut they’d see their take home pay skyrocket. They’d get $600 a week plus whatever unemployment pays based off of the state they live in. They’d go from their $6k-$15k to over $30k+ annualized.
As contracted employees they aren’t eligible for unemployment insurance. The only way minor leaguers Would be eligible is to be released outright. Also, that 600.00 I believe is only through July.
Our military men and women don’t need better pay, support or services.
All they need is empty praise from chicken hawks at football games.
No one is saying the billionaires deserve financial support. Rather what makes a minor league ball player any different than the 42
Millions other people that have been laid off since March? Or the countless others that have been furloughed, or seen their salaries slashed?
It’s quite ok to hold protests worldwide, but it’s not ok to play basebal(in the USA)l, go to the baseball(in the USA), or open your business observing social distancing rules and relevant hygiene practices. Of course some in the medical profession say it’s ok to protest but not open your business. All of this this makes complete & logical sense.
Sid – As I’ve said all along, our reaction to corona was fake, based on agenda and fear. Now that there is the new crisis of riots, corona has taken a back seat. There hasn’t been a single news report about how dangerous it is for rioters to not be “social distancing” while they exploit the tragic death of Mr. Floyd. Agenda is in everything, including the “news”.
After all the threats by local Mayors and Governors not to do this, that and the other or else they’d be arrested, they allowed social distancing measures to be broken for protest and stood by while buildings were broken into, raided and torched. You’re right Prov, media were and are complicit.
Play some ball.