Minor League Pay

[Stokes1931]

From a former Mouse Board mod. I would tend to agree with his proposal.

Dear Giants, Be Better: Pay The Minor Leaguers More

This week, the Toronto Blue Jays announced they were going to give their minor leaguers a pay increase of around than 50%. That’s good, but that’s still a ridiculously low amount of money.

• For Triple-A, that takes a base yearly salary from about $11,825 previously to $15,250 now.

• Double-A’s goes from about $9,350 to $12,750.

• Single-A goes from a base range of $6,050 to $8,400 up to $12,600.*

Minor league players are not paid for Spring Training. If a player stays in Extended Spring Training, they are not paid for that either, cutting into these salaries.

Those are yearly salaries. Yearly. The Federal Poverty line is $14,380.

Owners and operators of the San Francisco Giants, your players deserve better.

 

[broncosmitty]

My cousins house A ball players every year. They're kids. It's like having an exchange student.


Minor League ball isn't really a career to me. Or even a job.

 

[SFGRTB]

From a former Mouse Board mod. I would tend to agree with his proposal.

Dear Giants, Be Better: Pay The Minor Leaguers More

This week, the Toronto Blue Jays announced they were going to give their minor leaguers a pay increase of around than 50%. That’s good, but that’s still a ridiculously low amount of money.

• For Triple-A, that takes a base yearly salary from about $11,825 previously to $15,250 now.

• Double-A’s goes from about $9,350 to $12,750.

• Single-A goes from a base range of $6,050 to $8,400 up to $12,600.*

Minor league players are not paid for Spring Training. If a player stays in Extended Spring Training, they are not paid for that either, cutting into these salaries.

Those are yearly salaries. Yearly. The Federal Poverty line is $14,380.

Owners and operators of the San Francisco Giants, your players deserve better.

The Blue Jays are getting the big applause because they were the first team to do it, but as the article states they are still criminally under-paid.

Baseball has plenty of money (look at the Mike Trout deal), the owners are just greedy as fuck.

 

[Stokes1931]

 

[LHG]

I may be reading this incorrectly (and/or misunderstanding tax regulations) but that "contract rate" would suggest they are issued 1099s, and not W2s, at the end of the year. That would make them independent contractors. So why are they restricted to one organization for 6 years?

 

[calsnowskier]

I may be reading this incorrectly (and/or misunderstanding tax regulations) but that "contract rate" would suggest they are issued 1099s, and not W2s, at the end of the year. That would make them independent contractors. So why are they restricted to one organization for 6 years?

Monopoly exemption?

 

[LHG]

Monopoly exemption?

I don't think the exemption would impact the type of employee that the players would fall under. However, as I look again at that paystub, there are a few taxes that I don't think employers have to take out of checks to 1099 employees. Maybe contract rate simply refers to the fact that they are contracted employees and not "at will". Again, I'm just guessing because I'm not an expert in taxes.
Regardless, getting paid $10,275 (before taxes) for 7 months of work, where the employee is required to work at least 6 days a week, put in well over 40 hours a week and has to travel for the company, is absolutely ridiculous. Sure, those who make it to MLB more than make up for it but many of these guys never make it.

 

[SFGRTB]

Too lazy to create a new thread for this, but this article has a lot to do with MiLB pay.

It's bad optics that a bunch of billionaire's proposal to increase MiLB pay is to reduce the number of MiLB players by the hundreds, but that's American business I guess.

 

[calsnowskier]

Too lazy to create a new thread for this, but this article has a lot to do with MiLB pay.

It's bad optics that a bunch of billionaire's proposal to increase MiLB pay is to reduce the number of MiLB players by the hundreds, but that's American business I guess.

Negotiation ploy. They don’t want to pay all the kids a healthy wage, so they go in with a lowball offer to start. Let me know what the two sides actually agree to, and I will then be either excited or pissed. Until that happens, it is nothing but posturing.

 

[LHG]

Too lazy to create a new thread for this, but this article has a lot to do with MiLB pay.

It's bad optics that a bunch of billionaire's proposal to increase MiLB pay is to reduce the number of MiLB players by the hundreds, but that's American business I guess.

I just read about this on ESPN and, while some ideas are intriguing, there are quite a few troubling ideas. Eliminating 40 teams?!?!? A "Dream League" for undrafted players made out of those 40 teams? How would all of this help? I've got to think a lot of jobs and a lot of small cities' economies would be negatively impacted by this.

And while the idea of improving facilities, travel and accommodations sounds good - who foots the bill on all this? Is MLB going to pay for these upgrades or do they want to saddle the minor league teams with all these increased costs? If the latter, this is a really bad look by MLB.

Oh, and I found it humorous that the author of the MLB article says that the draft would be reduced from up to 40 rounds to 20-25 rounds. Seems like someone there isn't really up to date on the number of rounds in the draft.

 

[LHG]

Too lazy to create a new thread for this, but this article has a lot to do with MiLB pay.

It's bad optics that a bunch of billionaire's proposal to increase MiLB pay is to reduce the number of MiLB players by the hundreds, but that's American business I guess.

MiLB has responded - MiLB President Responds To MLB Restructuring Proposal

 

[SFGRTB]

MiLB has responded - MiLB President Responds To MLB Restructuring Proposal

I wonder how a minor league lockout would work. But yeah this proposal is a joke for MiLB and they are clearly very far apart.

 

[LHG]

I wonder how a minor league lockout would work. But yeah this proposal is a joke for MiLB and they are clearly very far apart.

I think MLB has most of the leverage and they know it. This is just their way to pretend to care about minor league pay while getting more money off the books.

 

[calsnowskier]

To be totally honest, I have very little sympathy for the players’ stance on this one. They know the rules before they start. And the potential payoff is generational money.

The teams are dumping a lot into these kids as far as training goes. And the minor league teams are not exactly rolling in the dough.

If these kids want to get paid, get jobs and stop playing a kids game “for a living”.

Brutal, sure. But come on. They want to play a game, make a real wage AND get the carrot at the end of the journey.

 

[SFGRTB]

To be totally honest, I have very little sympathy for the players’ stance on this one. They know the rules before they start. And the potential payoff is generational money.

The teams are dumping a lot into these kids as far as training goes. And the minor league teams are not exactly rolling in the dough.

If these kids want to get paid, get jobs and stop playing a kids game “for a living”.

Brutal, sure. But come on. They want to play a game, make a real wage AND get the carrot at the end of the journey.

I mean, I'll be honest here, these guys work way harder than I do from February/March-August/September and just because it's baseball doesn't make it any less of a job. These guys are out there 7 days a week and at least 8 hours, usually more, yet they're paid for a fraction of that (no overtime either), and live/work in poor conditions. They make no money during Spring Training and have to completely fend for themselves. Any time outside of the regular and post season, they are not compensated, including any type of mandatory training.

Minor league franchises can't foot the bill (maybe a couple can), and I don't think they should have to pay the players anyway. That should all be on the major league franchises.

IMO, I think an idea setup would be for ML teams to just own the minor league teams and they can invest as much or as little as they want. Pay the players a baseline wage based on the level, including for Spring Training and the AFL. The teams can absolutely afford it.

 

[tzill]

To be totally honest, I have very little sympathy for the players’ stance on this one. They know the rules before they start. And the potential payoff is generational money.

The teams are dumping a lot into these kids as far as training goes. And the minor league teams are not exactly rolling in the dough.

If these kids want to get paid, get jobs and stop playing a kids game “for a living”.

Brutal, sure. But come on. They want to play a game, make a real wage AND get the carrot at the end of the journey.

Well, sure. But, assumption of the risk doesn't really apply here. An extreme example to illustrate: coal miners in the 20s knew (or arguably should have known) the risks of black lung, mine shaft collapses, etc. But they unionized and most everyone thinks that was a good thing. Now, I'm not saying MiLB is coal mining but by extension -- what other choice do aspiring ballplayers have? MLB has in effect almost a monopoly on the minor leagues. I have sympathy.

 

[calsnowskier]

Well, sure. But, assumption of the risk doesn't really apply here. An extreme example to illustrate: coal miners in the 20s knew (or arguably should have known) the risks of black lung, mine shaft collapses, etc. But they unionized and most everyone thinks that was a good thing. Now, I'm not saying MiLB is coal mining but by extension -- what other choice do aspiring ballplayers have? MLB has in effect almost a monopoly on the minor leagues. I have sympathy.

The minor leagues are almost like college/grad school. The org is training them to do their jobs.

They are not driving fans to the seats (those that are made their money in their signing bonus). They, as individuals, are a drain on an org. When they hit, the org makes it up at the major league level. But minor leaguers are essentially R&D while the major leaguers (first few years, at least) are the cash cows to pay for the R&D. Once a player hits arb and FA, they begin to “pay themselves”.

is it nice to want these kids to make money? Sure. But they are taking a path that has a HUGE carrot rather than the safe, hourly route.

 

[Sandisfan]

There is the need in baseball or any other sport with minor leagues to have enough players to play with and against for the real prospects to as it were train against. Most players will never have a chance to make the Bigs but without the non-prospects there wouldn't be enough players to make enough teams at different levels for the real prospects to play and grow their skills.

 

[calsnowskier]

There is the need in baseball or any other sport with minor leagues to have enough players to play with and against for the real prospects to as it were train against. Most players will never have a chance to make the Bigs but without the non-prospects there wouldn't be enough players to make enough teams at different levels for the real prospects to play and grow their skills.

And getting those players at bargain basement prices shouldn’t be hard to do. The job is a friggin kids game.

coal mining is something people do ONLY for the money. No kid lies awake at night dreaming of same day making it to the big dig. And it is a VERY dangerous profession. Those guys deserve to be paid and get lots of benefits.

Minor league ball players are competing with tons of other people who have dreamed of this job their entire lives. Hell, every town has multiple leagues where people PAY to play the game in an organized fashion.

I am not an ogre. I want these kids to be able to eat. But I lose no sleep if these kids are making min wage. They are playing a game. And the prospects are essentially in school, so again, they will get paid later (or got paid by a nice signing bonus).

 

[SFGRTB]

And getting those players at bargain basement prices shouldn’t be hard to do. The job is a friggin kids game.

coal mining is something people do ONLY for the money. No kid lies awake at night dreaming of same day making it to the big dig. And it is a VERY dangerous profession. Those guys deserve to be paid and get lots of benefits.

Minor league ball players are competing with tons of other people who have dreamed of this job their entire lives. Hell, every town has multiple leagues where people PAY to play the game in an organized fashion.

I am not an ogre. I want these kids to be able to eat. But I lose no sleep if these kids are making min wage. They are playing a game. And the prospects are essentially in school, so again, they will get paid later (or got paid by a nice signing bonus).

They aren't even making minimum wage, though. They're below the poverty line and may have to pay for housing. It's teetering on the edge of being an exclusive game to those who can afford the lulls. Most of these players ARE paying to play organized baseball every year.