There has been plenty of talk about “billionaires versus millionaires” as Major League Baseball owners and players continue to clash over a potential 2020 season, but minor leaguers aren’t so lucky. They make a pittance in comparison, which is why it’s so important that many teams have committed to paying those players their $400-per-week stipends through the end of a minor league season that likely won’t occur this year.
The Nationals became the latest franchise to make the $400 promise Tuesday when they informed their minor leaguers they’ll earn their weekly pay through September, per Emily Waldon and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. That continues a welcome change of heart from the reigning World Series champions, who two-plus weeks ago reversed an unpopular decision to cut minor leaguers’ weekly pay to $300 after great internal and external pressure.
In another noteworthy development, the MLBPA announced Wednesday that the MLB Players Trust has pledged $1MM to help minor leaguers over the next few months.
MLBPA executive director Tony Clark stated, in part: “Within the baseball community, minor leaguers have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic and many of them will lose a season they will never get back. We will continue to seek ways to support them.”
I fear to see what the minors will look like after all of this. Do teams have just like 2 minor teams? That would suck. I used to go watch and root for the Single A team in my town and it was a lot of fun.
i doubt they’ll cut any more teams then they originally planned to.
Independent leagues might grow and thrive in some areas.
Or baseball just fizzles out due to lack of die hard fans and various other obstacles in other areas.
Ottawa lost their AAA affiliation after 2007 but then an independent team formed from 2014-2019 and wasn’t slated to be in any league for 2020 apparently. Was drawing around 1500 fans most recently and big discussions around various obstacles similar to the TB D-Rays.
Vancouver lost their AAA affiliation after 1999 but has been Class-A Short Season since then. Near selling out 6500 fans per game in recent years.
If Vancouver lost Class-A designation, I’d expect a team join the West Coast League and/or the upcoming Western Association of Professional Baseball Clubs.
Perhaps an independent league for the region would form altogether.
As far as I’m aware, the existence of an MLB affiliated team prevents another professional team from existing in the same city. I might have misunderstood but something related to MLB antitrust exemption.
Like Portland Mavericks, from ‘Battered Bastards of Baseball’.
Trouble finding specifics at a quick glance.
Out of curiosity while I’m peeking at some of these sources:
AAA is raising pay from $500/week to $700/week going forward.
AA from $$350 to $600/week,
A ball from $300 to $500/week,
Rookie/short season from $300 to $400/week.
For comparison, Independent Frontier $150-$400/week, American Association $200-$300/week. All I could really find for semi-pro at a quick glance.
Class A short season could be at risk? I suppose another option for Vancouver could be promotion to A, AA or AAA again.
Not outrageous to imagine.
Attendance in 2000 was 2800/game; in 2005 was 3300/game; in 2010 was 4000/game; in 2015 was 5800/game; and 2019 was 6200/game. New ownership in 2007 seems to be the big start of the attendance spikes.
Is your town’s minor league team attendance thriving or flailing? If not thriving, now would be a great time if not too late already for volunteering some time and attention toward their marketing efforts.
A citycouncilwoman I met at a small-town, AA game told me how she and her husband would host players for dinner. I didn’t realize at the time that the players could barely afford to live. Billionaires and millionaires – they should be ashamed of the way minor leaguers are treated.
It’s highly unlikely minor league sports survive with being subsidized by their major league counterparts.
In baseball’s case, you’ll probably see the Arizona Fall League model adopted at most levels besides AAA and maybe AA. Multiple MLB teams sending a few prospects to the same team.
I think the single A teams playing in the spring training complexes are safe
It’s just a sad situation. All those unemployed minor leaguers, baseball fans. We all lose while the Owners and players stay rich.
This app runs so poorly nowadays. I have to restart it every time I launch it to make it usable. Not like I’m using a potato, I have an iPhone X.
Sounds like a phone or connection problem, not the app. Works fine for me on every device n wifi im on
Try restarting your phone every now & then. Or even uninstalling and reinstalling the app. It could be that an update didn’t install properly for whatever reason on your phone. Re-downloading from the App Store will automatically get you the latest version. I haven’t had any issues with the app in a couple years.
Well we know cheap ass Wilpons don’t care, can’t wait until I read SOLD
Without a season for minor leaguers, the professional team will suffer. Who will they call up for injuries? What will next year look like when there are no new players to call up? The players are regressing being away from games.
Low level minor leagues: 20-25k/yr salary. Single A: 35k-45k AA: 50k-60k. AAA: 75k-100k
Minor leagues should play a living wage, and salaries can be based of regional cost of living. Players should be able to make a career out of minor league baseball.
Major league teams can subsidize payrolls. Lower the major league minimum to 400k to help compensate. I know that part sounds rough, but if you’d been making all that money through the minors, it evens out.
…and yet another gem.
Two death nails to your briefly thought out comment:
-do you think, for one second, the union would allow a decrease in minimum pay at MLB level?
-did you even consider, for one second, supply vs demand of labor, and the significant percentage of MiLB players with signing bonuses, at any size? How many dreamers would play “just for a shot”.
Death nails? I think you doth need to go back to school.
“-do you think, for one second, the union would allow a decrease in minimum pay at MLB level?”
No, I suspect they will kick and scream, because they’re bunch of thuggish babies. This would be much better for all players.
-did you even consider, for one second, supply vs demand of labor, and the significant percentage of MiLB players with signing bonuses.
Please, show me the numbers. There is not a “significant percentage” with massive signing bonuses. If signing bonuses were as widespread as you seem to think, minor league salaries wouldn’t be an issue. They are an issue. It needs to be fixed.
And you need to go back to kindergarten.
Sure, have the owners increase annual salaries for minor leaguers. Than listen to all of the complaining when ticket prices to minor league games go up to cover the cost. The same complainers who are probably thrilled saving money ordering off the Dollar Menu and picking up their food from minimum wage workers. The Easy Button approach to fixing problems always is a bear when it goes against you
I was going to post something similar. If minor league baseball was that popular, pay would not be an issue. As it is, there is talk about downsizing the SI Yankees. Biggest city in the country, relatively rich, and a stadium conveniently located by the ferry. With 1,848 fans a game.
It’s not like the club is charging $$ for all of those tickets. To push up attendance numbers, there’s a bunch of those 1848 fans who get free comp tickets, thru ticket giveaways or whatever. Those people are included in gross attendance figures. The club obviously hoping to make $$ off them if they buy concessions there at the game. Many WNBA teams do that all the time. Nothing wrong with that.
Here’s my solution to that: have the major league teams subsidize minor league salaries. If major league prices go up, so be it. But MiLB ticket prices must remain low to allow baseball’s popularity to flourish.
Another potential way of offsetting it is to institute a salary cap in the major leagues. Leftover revenue could go to paying minor leaguers, and scouting programs to find better amateur talent.
End of the day, if minor league salaries rise, it will attract a better class of player. Right now, because of the long wait from drafting to major league action (the point where you begin to make ANY real money), lots of high school and college athletes are choosing other sports like the NBA and NFL.
No, raising salary is not a solution. And minor leaguers do not get into minor league ball for the money. And raising their salaries to increase the quality of players is a myth — the vast majority of them are “1 sport” athletes. They make the same deliberate decisions that actor wannabe’s make when they go to LA:: I’m gonna pay my dues, not make any money, and hope for the best. If raising salaries was the solution, teams would’ve done that ages ago — they are not stupid.
Supply = Demand. Minor leaguers do not bring in enough revenue. I’d think going to a straight A, AA, AAA program eliminates the least profitable franchises and benefits the players.