Minor League Baseball

While we recently learned that spring training and the MLB 2021 season are set to begin on time, the same cannot be said for the minors. MLB informed teams at the Double-A and Single-A levels that their seasons will be delayed, writes Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper. MLB wants to mitigate the number of overall bodies sharing space at spring training facilities. With that in mind, players at the Double-A and Single-A levels will wait until Major League players as well as those slated for Triple-A have departed their facilities. Presumably, that means Triple-A will aim for a more traditional start to their season.

Cooper provides additional information from the memo, writing, “Additionally, the memo told minor league teams to expect their schedules to run until as late as Oct. 3, a full month after regular season games normally end in early September. It is also expected there will be no minor league playoffs in 2021. With a delayed start, those playoff dates will be exchanged for more dates for all teams.”

After a year with no minor league baseball at all, this news comes not as a surprise, nor an inconvenience, but closer to, as Cooper describes it, a “relief.” Minor league teams do not have nearly the resources to stay socially distanced as players at the Major League level. Travel between cities will be a particular concern for teams as MLB puts together the minor league schedule. From MLB’s perspective, the slow roll-out is an opportunity to establish their new development system incrementally, which could ultimately provide a runway to make further changes to former norms.

With a new 120-team MLB-run minor league system kicking-off, this year will prioritize providing a space for competitive, developmental play for those players trying to make their way to the big leagues. Playoffs will, at some point, return to the minor league system, but for now, the focus is safely providing venues for minor league players to get back on the ball field without overtaxing the now-cohesive overall structure that encompasses both Major and minor league baseball leagues. The delays also gives more time for vaccines to be distributed, which in a best case scenario, could allow for fan attendance at minor league facilities sometime down the line.

In a typical season, spring training camps begin in mid-late February and feature a large swath of players with varying levels of experience. Given the uncertainty associated with COVID-19, however, MLB is considering a staggered start to 2021 spring training for minor-league players, reports Evan Drellich of the Athletic.

If MLB were to adopt a staggered reporting system, higher-level players (likely those at Triple-A or in the majors) would be the only group to report to spring training at its typical start date, Drellich reports. Lower-level players would report to spring camps only after the higher-level players have dispersed to start their regular seasons (MLB’s Opening Day is currently scheduled for April 1), thus minimizing human contact.

Of course, delaying the start of lower-minors players’ spring training would necessitate delaying the start of their regular season. They would still need a few weeks, at minimum, to work their way into game shape. Drellich suggests a potential mid-May start date for lower-minors teams in this scenario.

Nothing is yet set in stone, it should be noted. It’s not even guaranteed we’ll have minor-league games in 2021. The timetable for widespread deployment of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is far from certain, as is the extent of varying municipalities’ willingness to sign off on minor-league play next season. Indeed, using the 2020 alternate site system again remains a possibility, per Drellich. The resources available to MLB teams for testing and distancing procedures generally aren’t available to minor-league owners. That creates further challenges in guaranteeing those players’ safety, as Drellich discusses with MiLB player advocate Garrett Broshuis.

All this comes during a time of uncertainty about the relationship between MLB and MiLB. The Professional Baseball Agreement that links the parties expired this month. Drellich notes there’s an expectation that a new PBA will come together this winter. That agreement will almost certainly involve the contraction of some teams at the lowest levels, a move MLB angled for even before the pandemic began.

Minor league ballplayers received a big win today when they were granted class action status in their suit against Major League Baseball, per J.J. Cooper of Baseball America. The Supreme Court ruling on Monday denied MLB’s appeal to a previous ruling that granted class action status to a group of 29 players currently suing Major League Baseball for violation of minimum wage laws. Were MLB’s appeal granted, players would have had to individually bring their cases against MLB. For these players, most of whom were never able to reap the benefits of a full-scale major league salary, individual lawsuits simply wouldn’t be financially viable – certainly not against a financial giant like Major League Baseball.

Instead, the floodgates are open and we can expect a great number of players to join those currently named in the suit. Cooper suggests the number of parties could grow to include potentially every minor league player that participated in the system since February 7, 2009. Said Cooper, “It potentially includes almost every affiliated minor league baseball player of the past decade. With more than 6,000 players participating in minor league baseball in a normal year, the number of eligible players could be measured in tens of thousands.”

The case now expects to move forward sometime in 2021, writes The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. Drellich provides a quote from lead attorney – a former minor-leaguer himself – Garrett Broshuis, who explains the violation of minimum wage laws as viewed by the players: “…it’s important to keep in mind that these players are workers and just like all other workers across the country, they deserve to have the benefits of our minimum wage laws. And it’s important for players to be able to band together and pursue that collectively. And so this case is a recognition that the players have the right to do that, and hopefully sometime soon players will be treated with the respect that they deserve and will at some point finally be paid wages that will allow them to live at levels above the poverty level.”

The state of Minor League Baseball remains entirely in flux since the expiration of the agreement between MLB and MiLB last week. Major League Baseball is expected to bring minor league teams under the MLB umbrella, eliminating 40-some teams in the process. Monday’s ruling represents a significant point of negotiation as MLB works with those owners of minor league clubs to come to some kind of accord prior to next season. Owners are saddled with significant time sensitivity, since their stadiums are their greatest revenue assets, and without a minor-league schedule, their hands are tied in terms of seeking out alternative or supplemental revenue opportunities. Especially after a season lost due to the pandemic, those minor league owners are in a difficult negotiating position.

Both Cooper and Drellich provided this statement from Major League Baseball: “While Major League Baseball does not comment on ongoing litigation, MLB remains focused on modernizing its player development system to enhance the Minor League experience for players, including providing them with renovated facilities, reduced travel and improved daily working conditions. MLB has long planned to increase Minor League player salaries as part of our next agreement with Minor League clubs, and announced earlier this year that Minor League players would be receiving salary increases ranging from 38 percent to 72 percent for the 2021 season.”