Minor League Wages -- A Major Issue in the MLB Boom Era

[jerichoholicninja]

The minor leagues are nothing more than extended tryouts for major league jobs. At worst, a kid gets to spend a few summers playing a game usually driving a nice car they bought with their signing bonus.

 

Seriously?

 

I think you need to revisit your bonus baby comments.... it's not relevant past the top 4 rounds or so.

 

5. Dustin Demuth - $50,000

6. David Burkhalter - $200,000

7. Mitch Meyer - $10,000

8. JB Kole - $159,000

9. Greg McCall - $10,000

10. Javi Salas - $15,000

 

Burkhalter is a HS kid, how many years could he live off of that $200,000 bonus? You seem to be forgetting that there are all kinds of deductions taken out of that sum such as taxes. Here's a good blog post on the financial side of the draft.

 

TCU baseball coach shows how fast the guaranteed $$ of the MLB draft goes

 

This whole deal is complete garbage and has been for a very long time, MLB is awash in money, just pay the kids in the minors enough that they can sleep in regular beds and eat good meals, that's not asking much. I'm not a liberal by any stretch, I tend to lean very conservative, but even I can see how ridiculous this situation is. Does MLB want great athletes/players or not? There isn't much incentive to stick with baseball if you aren't drafted in the top 3-4 rounds and there is even less incentive to play the game clean. Poor rest and poor nutrition directly lead to athletes looking for "pick me ups" or an edge, MLB has created, almost forced upon the athletes, it's own drug culture.

MiLB is a farce by any measure.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about how much minor leaguers should be paid but this part is just ludicrous that MLB teams aren't supplying their youngsters with proper meals and accommodations. When your prospects are staying in $50 a night hotels and eating McDonalds every day they are not going to reach their peak potential. I would bet the players in the Latin American baseball academies are provided a better life than AA or lower players by the parent club.

[Mass Haas]

Interesting article from a Baltimore feature, but still relevant.

 

Really, when you think about undrafted free agents (Nathan Orf, Stephen Peterson and more with the Brewers), it is all about the end goal.

[MrTPlush]

These kids get $25 a day to spend on food. I mean I find that to be a decent chunk of change to spend on food.

 

it isn't so simple as to raise their salary. If you want to raise everyone's salary by $25,000 you are looking at a $6mil expense.

[torts]

These kids get $25 a day to spend on food. I mean I find that to be a decent chunk of change to spend on food.

 

it isn't so simple as to raise their salary. If you want to raise everyone's salary by $25,000 you are looking at a $6mil expense.

 

$25 a day for how many meals? dinner? lunch and dinner? breakfast lunch and dinner? $25 doesnt really get much depending on how many meals you are trying to cover with it.

[TooLiveBrew]

And a $6M expense for MLB franchises, to drastically improve the quality of life for the vast majority of their on-field employees, would be a relative drop in the bucket.

[torts]

and if its $6 million per team, thats $180 million across baseball. MLB made $8 BILLION in revenue in 2013... they'd still have a revenue of $7,820,000,000!!!!

[Mass Haas]

Baseball America - For Pro Players, The Glove Store Comes To Them

[Mass Haas]

Via John Sickels discussing Ashley Marshall's MiLB article - How minor league players really live (The real cost of being a Minor Leaguer: A look inside Todd Van Steensel’s bank account)

 

ALSO: A post at the Sickels site details current pay scales

[TheCrew07]

Baseball has so many issues that would be easily fixed, but by far this is the most troubling problem.

 

Seriously, give players enough to pay for rent, utilities, and groceries during the season. Then give it a minor $500/month bump per level till they are on the 40 man roster.

 

With a sport awash in money this is ridiculous.

[Baseballneazy32]

wow i did not realize these guys got paid this little i always figured they made close to six figures with some making in the six figure range...i think manfred will get this fixed.. listening to him talk at the draft i like his ideas for expanding the game and think hes a commisioner that will get things done to better help the game and players..he was already talking on draft night how he wants international players to come through a draft as well which i think would be huge for competitive balance.. i think he will get something done to help the players out..

[jerichoholicninja]

I don't know about them being paid more but the big league club should be providing more stuff for them than they already do, especially for the low level guys.

[Mass Haas]

As Joe Block re-tweeted last night:

 

Note for Sept Call-Ups: 1st year AAA player gets paidd $2,150 per month. Minimum salary in 2015 for #MLB player is $2,773 per in season day.

 

It's the biggest percentage life-changing bump there is, from AAA to the big leagues, and explains why so many hang on until the uniform is torn away.

 

Plus, if you get called up to a contending team and acquit yourself well, there is a postseason share coming your way, and given the explosion in growth of those payouts, even a partial share can be again, life-changing.

[dacbrewers]

Any news about the lawsuit regarding milb players wages?

[FVBrewerFan]

As Joe Block re-tweeted last night:

 

Note for Sept Call-Ups: 1st year AAA player gets paidd $2,150 per month. Minimum salary in 2015 for #MLB player is $2,773 per in season day.

 

It's the biggest percentage life-changing bump there is, from AAA to the big leagues, and explains why so many hang on until the uniform is torn away.

 

I don't believe that's why guys hang around. They hang around because they love playing baseball at the pro level, and don't need much money when they're young. I have actually talked to a few players (and parents of players) and they've all said pretty much the same thing.

 

Some, perhaps many, of these players know MLB is a long shot or not a chance at all. But you pay me a few hundred bucks a week to hear my name announced and walk up to the plate in front of cheering fans, I'll take it.

[torts]

im having a tough time finding any update since February when the federal judge ordered Broshius (the lead attorney) and his team to find more class members with ties to California in order to proceed with the suit

 

http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150221/Sports/150229787

 

they also tried to move the case from California to Florida (I think because the number of affected players are greater in Florida than in California?)

 

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/02/13/lawsuit-seeks-better-pay-for-minor-league-baseball-players/

[torts]

wait! I found an update!

 

The original lawsuit has since been consolidated with another similar case. The plaintiffs now include 34 former minor leaguers, and the suit counts Major League Baseball, former commissioner Bud Selig, and all 30 big-league teams among the defendants. St. Louis-based attorney Garrett Broshuis, a former minor leaguer himself, is representing the players. The case is in the discovery phase, with a trial scheduled for February, 2017.

 

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/03/minor-league-baseball-players-lawsuit-mlb-mlbpa

[LouisEly]

As Joe Block re-tweeted last night:

 

Note for Sept Call-Ups: 1st year AAA player gets paid $2,150 per month. Minimum salary in 2015 for #MLB player is $2,773 per in season day.

 

It's the biggest percentage life-changing bump there is, from AAA to the big leagues, and explains why so many hang on until the uniform is torn away.

 

Plus, if you get called up to a contending team and acquit yourself well, there is a postseason share coming your way, and given the explosion in growth of those payouts, even a partial share can be again, life-changing.

It's about getting that one day in the bigs. While a first-year AAA player gets paid $2150/month, the minimum minor league salary for a player with major league experience is >$80K/year (season?). For $80K per year/season, you'd have to tear my jersey away to get me to quit playing baseball.

[pacopete4]

This was a great read. Never really thought of the difference between the majors in minors in terms of pay. I had a good family friend make it to AAA and he quit early in his life for family and he's mentioned the money not being good. I didn't think much of it at the time but the article and what people have talked about is pretty sickening when they aren't even getting fed properly.

 

Maybe the Brewers become the first team to implement something in their minor leagues to help solve this issue? Never hurts to be a pioneer in a category such as this.

[JohnBriggs12]

Can we stop putting minor league baseball players into yet another victim category?

[stoutdude04]

Can we stop putting minor league baseball players into yet another victim category?

 

Yea...a lot of jobs come with crummy situations. I did a year of student teaching and received $0. In fact, I had to pay in. I have a hard time sympathizing in this situation.

[TheCrew07]

Can we stop putting minor league baseball players into yet another victim category?

 

Yea...a lot of jobs come with crummy situations. I did a year of student teaching and received $0. In fact, I had to pay in. I have a hard time sympathizing in this situation.

 

I'm not sure why people aren't connecting the dots here: horrible income + no signing bonus = poor nutrition + rest = low energy and difficulty building/maintaining muscle mass = looking for stimulants.

 

MLB created it's own drug culture by the very nature of the minor league system. No one is saying pay them 50K a year, no one is even saying pay them for 12 months, but a seasonal wage that allows them to pay rent and eat healthy food is not too much to ask considering how much money is floating around baseball these days.

 

It's laughable (or maybe sad) that in 2015 and with literally 1000s of pages of documentation on the effects of proper nutrition and rest on athletic performance there are parents and people in general who refuse to understand or grasp the true nature of the problem.

 

I've experienced this first hand... parents putting their athletes at risk by buying them energy drinks and what not before sporting events then coming back to the coaches about a lack of conditioning when their sons cramped up and weren't able to play or their energy level faded over the course of the game. We had been giving out literature at the parent meetings for 20 years on this stuff and it was obvious who took the couple of minutes to read the bullet points and who thought they knew everything they needed to know about raising their child already. It was ludicrous and stupid, and yet every year the same issues kept coming back around.

 

Granted baseball doesn't require the physical stamina of basketball or football but there is so much information out there I have a very difficult time believing there are actually people who will align themselves with MLB on this issue, and I'm a pretty conservative dude politically.

[igor67]

Other people get treated like garbage by their employers is the opposite of a compelling argument for MLB not to treat minor leaguers with a minimum amount of respect.

[pacopete4]

Can we stop putting minor league baseball players into yet another victim category?

 

Yea...a lot of jobs come with crummy situations. I did a year of student teaching and received $0. In fact, I had to pay in. I have a hard time sympathizing in this situation.

 

 

I too am a teacher and paid to student teach. Other than receiving some chocolate treats and a beer from my advisor at the end of it, I received $0 as well. Just because we came through a crummy, horrible situation doesn't make it okay for either of our careers. Teachers should be taken better care of as well as these guys in the minor leagues. Two wrongs, don't make a right.

[jerichoholicninja]

It boggles my mind that Major League teams aren't at least providing meals for these guys. How much would it really cost a big league club to hire a chef or nutritionist for each team to provide meals? How is that any different than an athletic trainer?

[Mass Haas]

Darren Rovell (ESPN) Tweet--

 

Factoring for inflation, the average Triple A baseball player today makes 53% LESS than what a AAA player made in 1980.