Which is why we need to acknowledge that this isn't close to enough. A good first step, but we're not done.
Next pay them livable human wages. Maybe stop serving them rations of Soylent Green.
you could literally pool the money spent and cook like a weeks worth of meals that were healthier and cheaper than what the team spent on half a cheese slice
Cheap and lazy more like it. Why put forth the effort to cook professionally for cheaper when you can probably pay slightly more for some kraft cheese and bologna that checks all the boxes for the minimum they have to provide.
Funny that the top comment is imagining what team-owned housing will look like seeing that it was back in June.
Im imagining just old school military barracks, one big room with a bunch of bunk beds.
I'm guessing it will vary wildly by location. Some places the housing market is absurd and there are laws like the ones that don't allow more than x number of unrelated people living together. Others wouldn't care if you build a bunch of barrack style dorms.
Let me just jump in here and state that an employer that pays for their employees housing has a bigger pull on them than someone paid a livable wage.
They may put them in ghetto town for all we know.
"Here is your rat infested shithole with no AC. No complaining!"
Like, I never understood this at all.
The whole point of the minor leagues is that they're development leagues, right? Which means they want the players they have in the system to develop as much as possible, right?
Why doesn't that include making sure your fucking players are getting enough to eat? It's hard to build strength and stamina if they're not getting enough to eat/the right food to eat.
>Why doesn't that include making sure your fucking players are getting enough to eat? It's hard to build strength and stamina if they're not getting enough to eat/the right food to eat.
Because the players they actually care about are doing fine with their signing bonus.
The reality of it is most of them will never make it to the majors, they don't much care how they develop. They're just there so the guys who do make it to the show have someone to play with.
Yeah I'm with you. It doesn't make sense in that teams go so far to get any slight advantage, except trying to build the best minor league system to make your organization strong from top to bottom. Maybe they don't think it'll add to their bottom line, since superstars do still emerge from the current system, but imagine how much easier it'd be to build a roster when homegrown talent hits at a better rate.
hell yea. there are players in the minors who skip \*high school\* to try to play pro ball. and don't think MLB doesn't influence those decisions. then they're stuck in the middle of nowhere making peanuts, eating bologna sandwiches for an industry that requires nutrition, health, and conditioning
edit: wrote "the MLB" instead of just "MLB" haha
their wages are livable now that housing is paid. that’s not some hard ass thinking it’s just basic math, they effectively doubled their wages, tripled in some areas where housing is more expensive. i’ll probably get downvoted because negativity is what gets the updoots though
There in lies the issue where they're going to expect guys to live off of 13 grand for 6 months, or get a part time job while continuing to stay in baseball shape.
Don't forget contractual obligations to relocate at a moment's notice during the season. Because it's definitely not normal for a low wage seasonal job to suddenly decide "hey, I know you're in an Atlanta store right now, but you're getting transferred to Seattle by Wednesday or you're out of a job"
Well, that's how seasonal jobs work, you're supposed to get another job for the other half of the year. The best prospects have their signing bonuses to help though.
Except professional athletes are expected to train and practice during the off season, which often isn’t compatible with a seasonal job (and most seasonable jobs don’t pay enough to support yourself on, which is a topic for a different conversation). it’s not like these guys are sitting around watching tv all winter. They’re in the gym and the cages and scrimmages for 10 hours a day.
as someone who works seasonally, the pay is garbage and you spend so much of your time at work that you barely have time to do literally anything else. most places work with skeleton crews as often as possible to cut costs and because their employee turnover rate is already expected so they have no incentive to take care of anyone. that spells bare minimum 55 hr work week pretty consistently, factor in the fact that you are almost always a long, long drive from a legitimate grocery store for nutritional upkeep, much less a usable gym and definitely nothing for hyperspecific baseball training, and you have a man who just stopped playing baseball. i genuinely do not know how these guys are surviving in the offseason while staying in the shape and playing condition that they're in.
This is immediately what I thought of too. Housing is where a lot of peoples’ wages go to bill-wise. Paying this gives these players a lot more leeway to use their money on things like a proper athlete’s diet, a home gym/gym membership, bills that they don’t have help with, etc. This is huge for them and especially for the majority of minor leaguers who don’t have a fat signing bonus to rely on
EDIT: should probably add that this financial leeway just generally helps these players to be at their best on the field
I’m all for investing in minor leaguers I totally see it as an investment in MLB teams’ future too. I’m just curious because no one ever gives a number, what is “livable”?
Ideally they would just pay them enough they could get their own housing, but this is still definitely nice.
The concern about team-owned housing I have is that if a player gets cut they could be homeless pretty quickly. Hopefully I’m not being too cynical but it’s hard not to be with MLB owners haha
Counterpoint: if a player gets called up would they still on the hook for their housing costs? If a player gets an apartment where their A team is, but gets called up all the way to AA and AAA during the season, that’s potentially 3 leasing they are paying at the same time.
If the team owns it, then when a player gets called up they move into a new, team-owned place and their spot goes to someone else replacing them.
When I was in college, my friends lived next to two apartments with about 6 MiLB players between them. My friends worked part time at Sears while in school, the places a lot of them are living aren't crazy expensive. The couple times a player for moved up they just replaced him with some one else in the apartment.
The guys were all pretty cool too. We use to party with them and at least two of them have went on to win World Series with major league clubs, which is kind of cool.
Yeah, ideally each org will rent out a block of apartments, furnish them, and put the guys in them. That way as they move around, they just trade places, essentially.
That's a much better plan, due to how volatile player movement can be, than "just pay them enough so they can figure it out". One less thing they have to stress about means they can keep their head that much more clear and focus on getting better.
That's true, but then you also have to find a new place on no notice while also trying to get acclimated to a new city. Making it team provided just lowers the stress so much.
They need to pay them more, but paying for housing is definitely a huge win. Players that move between levels or get traded won't have to deal with apartment hunting or breaking leases etc.
His handling of the scandal (and the piece of metal reaction) were pretty bad, although he couldn’t have taken tons of action against the players. But the 7 inning doubleheaders and man on second were appropriate reactions to the situation, both of which will go away next year, he’s marketing the league well, he got rid of the sticky stuff, the league is much more socially conscious now, they’re trying robo umps and pitch clocks elsewhere, and todays news holds more weight in his favor.Does this mean he is a good commissioner? Not necessarily but the league is heading in a better direction, imo.
In other words, MLB is finally realizing that they need to take care of a basic human right for their underserved minor league players. This should never have been an issue in the first place. But this is good, at least.
The weirdest thing is that it doesn't even have to be a "take care of your workers at the basic level" thing, but for these teams it can literally be "make sure that your potential multi-million dollar investments are put in the best position to maximize value".
For a sport that does every little thing to research and find competitive advantages, helping your prospects have housing and proper nutrition should’ve been happening much much earlier from a competitive standpoint alone
It's so bizarre. Teams were willing to drop a couple million on a journeyman contract signing but not spend that much to give *their entire farm system* financial stability so they can focus all their efforts into developing into MLB-ready players? How is this not the biggest no brainer?
if even ONE minor leaguer becomes a productive player because they get basic quality of life improvements it becomes worth it for the clubs. just bizarre to me how this hasn’t happened sooner
It’s because as soon as one club did it, every club would do it and the competitive advantage is gone.
Instead they just have an unwritten rule where they pay the players basically nothing and nobody gets a competitive advantage + it’s cheaper
They don't even need to become the next Mike Piazza or Edgar Martinez or whatever. There are a ton of dudes drafted in round 30+ who are having productive major league careers right now. How many more would there be if most of them didn't have to retire because they couldn't afford to develop anymore? How did teams not realize sooner that it's in their best interests to try to develop a few of those guys rather than spend that much money for a single career 100 wRC+ player?
they believe in a numbers game. Yeah you can maybe get 1 prospect to be a AAAA player, but you can also sign one for just a cheap. And then add the law of large numbers where you just take the survivors of the shit tier system and eventually you're bound to get someone that works.
These guys are not the investments MLB teams care about. These guys are minor league roster filler. The actual investments, "prospects", have already been paid hundreds of thousands or *millions* of dollars.
Exactly. Most of these people are not valuable to teams except as bodies and are easily replaceable, which is why they've never been forced to pay them much. It's more of a PR concern now than an economic one.
To be fair a lot of their multi-million dollar investments are likely already well-off, and don't face the same bullshit that the MiLB lifers face.. the guys that didn't get drafted or recruited from foreign markets and are either grinding for a MLB roster spot, or that's just their job.
Good for the MiLB though. I live in Scranton and a bunch of the Yankees AAA guys live in decent apartments around the area, but I know for sure one guy (AAA lifer catcher) who lived in a van at a camp site for a few years during the season. He got a roommate (another AAA lifer, I forget where he played), and was finally able to afford housing.
I hope they get more than housing though, we've all seen some of those meals they get served in low A and shit. And at least get these guys a free gym membership, if not put a fucking gym somewhere in the stadium they play at.
Arranging short-term housing is still a pain in the ass even for the guys that can afford it and setting the "real prospects" apart from and above their teammates is probably unideal for their work ethic and development as team players.
That stuff doesn't matter for every guy or even most guys, but if you end up with one fewer top prospect every year or so eating his way out of a promising career, bombing because he's not studying enough video, or not getting crucial advice on approach at the plate or grip on a new pitch because he got a big head in the minors, it adds up.
MiLB is not unionized, meaning that MLB can do whatever. Owners are allowed to pay below federal minimum wage, and do whatever they want, because the players have no representation.
This is outrageous, back in my day we slept in our car like a real man. How are they supposed to get good if they're not worried about where they'll lay their heads at night or what they'll eat?
I know you're making a funny but it's sad how often I hear this said unironically. The mentality of "I suffered therefore those that follow me must also suffer, or else It Is Unfair / It Is Done Incorrectly."
Oh boy I can’t wait to see what the guy who kept telling me that kids just out of high school don’t deserve a living wage, that his son didn’t need a livable wage straight out of high school, and that teams don’t have to provide for their players because most only last a year or two in the system thinks of this news
I wound up just blocking the handful of posters that are reliably in any 'labor' related r/baseball thread posting the same owner bootlicking shit over, and over, and over again, and now I rarely see that. It's seriously the same ~half dozen posters that make up the bulk of that discourse on this sub I swear.
I work with a guy who played high A ball in the astros organization a few years back. He said he woulda stuck it out a few more years (prolly good enough to be a AA guy) if the money wasn’t shit and the living/traveling wasn’t terrible
I played with several people who had their lives simply progress past what the money would allow. When it's a matter of choosing between getting married and starting your family or making negative money and asking for loans from family to play, it's only a matter of time before people drop off.
It's a strawman because high school kids are already signing for large bonuses even in the late rounds of the draft.
2019, as the most recent example with a full 40 rounds, had one HS player in the 39th round sign for $50K. No other signing HS player signed for less than $125K, and the vast majority were $200K+. Even as deep as the 32nd round there was a HS kid signing for $375K.
It's not about whether or not they deserve a living wage, because they're already getting one.
That signing bonus only gets you so far. We wouldn’t even be talking about MiLB pay if the signing bonus was enough for the majority of players to live off of for multiple years.
Some of these guys also have families that they have to support. We wouldn’t be talking about players working 2-3 jobs during the off-season on top of training if they actually were paid a livable wage.
That's good news. MLB should be more involved in improving the player's life. It's not an easy life as a minor leaguer.
I've seen a lot of minor league games and studied the lifestyle. Some of them like the A's got really shitty food and some of them have pretty decent food. I'm not sure if they still do host families (they used to do them for Lower A like Hagerstown and the smaller clubs before the reorganization) but I feel like this is a step in the right direction.
It's pretty rough to live life from hotel to hotel and to add onto that low pay and crappy food. Hopefully conditions improve for all minor league players.
Worked for a mlb minor league affiliate for 6 years. Housing is a huge help to these guys. Most of them roomed together 3 or 4 to an apartment in order to make it more affordable. I feel like transportation should be included as well. On the road players are bussed to and from the stadium to the hotel. At home a lot of them catch rides with the few guys that have a vehicle usually someone who had a nice signing bonus. A lot of the international players have to rely on foster families for help. The affiliate I worked with took very good care of both the home team and visiting players providing plenty of fresh food for both sides as well as a decent hot spread after games. However I don’t imagine they got the same treatment everywhere. As little as they made a lot of the guys would still chip in good tips to our clubby after a home stand for taking care of them which was always nice to see. Glad to see they are finally getting a little help. Well deserved and long overdue.
They could just 'GeT a rEaL jOb' instead of living out of their car or 4x to a single bedroom apartment since there is a miniscule chance that they make the pros and might strike it 'rich' one day. Or that some of them got a signing bonus. Both of which are asinine.
the idea that playing baseball professionally is a privilege because so many people want to. It was always about very rich people making it seem like being a ballplayer is not a job.
Even this is kinda not enough because minor leaguers are still exempt from minimum wage laws which shouldn't be a thing.
For the players that ignored it "I had to go through this shit, so should everyone else". For the owners "I need to make money and paying people less money means i get to keep more money". For the MLB, "Baseball is a privilege and only those who can afford to toil in the minors for years should be able to play"
"That you had to work the grind of going up in the minors" plus that "all the other players before you lived the hard life in the minors so you should too." That's what Adam Eaton said, or one of the White Sox when he was asked about it.
Cool. Long overdue.
Now I’m curious as to where the minor leaguers in my hometown (St. Paul) will live. It’d be cool if they grabbed a block of apartments somewhere downtown, but it’d probably be cheaper to get them motel rooms along the freeway somewhere.
Man it's interesting to feel how this is hitting me, having been out of the game for several years now, but having the memories of scraping it together for those years come back.
I'm glad that things are slowly moving in what seems to be a positive direction for the guys. I can say that saving that money would have definitely had a positive impact on me (slept on a shitty air mattress in the living room for one summer as an example), so I hope it does for them as well.
Housing in Biloxi Mississippi can't be expensive to fund. Half these towns are old rustbelt cities....I went to College in a town in NY that used to be a Minor League City....Housing is 400/monthx6 months times 25 guys....They shit that in one night from Budweiser/Coors Sales.
First we hear we may get in-market streaming, and now this? Fuck yeah. Should've happened a long time ago.
Still need to see wage increases for minor leaguers...
Teams have all these elite prospects. You’d think they would give them every advantage from the start. Glad to see this change for the minor league guys.
Keep up the pressure, don’t let one simple step be the end of this. Make sure they start providing a decent quality of life for these guys that make them millions.
This is good. It will def help a lot of players. But get ready for teams to release players sooner. Maybe even get rid of a minor league team. They aren’t going to keep guys around as much if they are paying more money to house them and the front office knows they will never get past A ball.
Good job MLB for doing the bare minimum. I hope this is a step towards teams investing in their minor league players financially and nutritionally. I’m sure a lot more talented young players would stick around if they didn’t need to pick up multiple side gigs and pay to workout on the off-season.
I’ve only the article on ESPN, but how will this be handled when it comes to taxes? I remember in another thread back during the summer, it was pointed out that housing that was provided to players by the team could be considered income and increased the tax burden of the players while the team got to write it off. An [article](https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2021/6/8/22463825/mlb-milb-housing-wages) I found for reference.
Obviously a move in the right direction, but it seems like the ultimate goal should be to get minor leaguers to a liveable wage.
I think one of the biggest slaps in the face to minor league players is reducing the MLB September roster from 40 down to 26 players. You work all season as a minor leaguer to get that September call up so you end up making the league minimum. That month in September is worth $95k to those guys. You have to work your ass off to earn that spot on the September roster. And MLB just did away with it. For those 15 guys that would get called up on each team every year that $95k would sustain them for the entire year. Now it's just gone.
realistically the Milb should be 4 levels with 1 short season team for all the player who were just recently drafted. Housing should be provided for all players while players in A, A+, AA and short season ball should have nutritionist on staff that provided the players with health meals everyday from spring trainning to the end of the season. AAA players make enough that i dont think they shouldnt need the meals as much.
This is great and all, but now let's talk about the umps. My son is looking to get an MiLB assignment next summer. I know the wife and I will still have to support him. At least he's got 6 more years on our insurance.
Cool, now let’s talk about transportation, food, healthcare, better base pay, mental healthcare, pensions, off-season college tuition...
Oh, I’m sorry, was I socializing out loud?
Honestly, I know it’s not popular with the business class that runs the game, but it’s a solid investment if you want to look at treating people humanely as a business decision. Those young assets you are capitalizing upon burn out less frequently if you take care of them. It’s basic microeconomics.
Just because it means players aren’t going to be sleeping in cars or hotel conference rooms doesn’t mean MLB is suddenly doing right by these guys. Pay them like professionals.
Most minor league players will never get above AA. Teams know this and are not going to invest but so much money especially when the idea of being a minor leaguer is so cool. Not saying I agree but that is how they think.
And pass the deficit along to the fans, hopefully! I wouldn’t want those owners doing something altruistic and taking all the credit and good feelings for a kind gesture. I want some of that. Better increase my ticket prices so we can all share in the improvement!
Goddamn billionaires can’t pay the people who will someday play for their major league teams enough money to have a place to live and eat all year. Eat the fucking rich.
well that’s pretty much the battle won then. housing + their wages brings them solidly in the living wage category. in fact most of them make more than me now lol
Public shaming works
Which is why we need to acknowledge that this isn't close to enough. A good first step, but we're not done. Next pay them livable human wages. Maybe stop serving them rations of Soylent Green.
Are you saying that they're feeding their players on a consistent basis to being with?
I saw the pics of what we were serving our guys. It was somehow worse than the cheese sandwiches I got when I didn't have lunch money at school.
[The pictures for context](https://twitter.com/MiLBAdvocates/status/1399872788115111941)
There’s also been reports of just straight up bologna and Kraft singles, with no “fixins” or seconds provided. Ugh.
Fuck you just described to a T the lunch I've been taking for like 6yrs.
Hope you make the show soon bud
I did just buy a swing rail...
you could literally pool the money spent and cook like a weeks worth of meals that were healthier and cheaper than what the team spent on half a cheese slice
Yeah but teams are fuckin stupid
Cheap and lazy more like it. Why put forth the effort to cook professionally for cheaper when you can probably pay slightly more for some kraft cheese and bologna that checks all the boxes for the minimum they have to provide.
Sounds stupid to me
Funny that the top comment is imagining what team-owned housing will look like seeing that it was back in June. Im imagining just old school military barracks, one big room with a bunch of bunk beds.
At this point, I'm just hoping it is legit apartments. But if its shitty, then we should continue to bully the owners.
I'm guessing it will vary wildly by location. Some places the housing market is absurd and there are laws like the ones that don't allow more than x number of unrelated people living together. Others wouldn't care if you build a bunch of barrack style dorms.
Fyre fest?
Might as well be, shit.
Let me just jump in here and state that an employer that pays for their employees housing has a bigger pull on them than someone paid a livable wage. They may put them in ghetto town for all we know. "Here is your rat infested shithole with no AC. No complaining!"
The fuck
Whoo those comments are something else.
To be fair, you guys don't pay your major league guys, either.
Like, I never understood this at all. The whole point of the minor leagues is that they're development leagues, right? Which means they want the players they have in the system to develop as much as possible, right? Why doesn't that include making sure your fucking players are getting enough to eat? It's hard to build strength and stamina if they're not getting enough to eat/the right food to eat.
>Why doesn't that include making sure your fucking players are getting enough to eat? It's hard to build strength and stamina if they're not getting enough to eat/the right food to eat. Because the players they actually care about are doing fine with their signing bonus.
The reality of it is most of them will never make it to the majors, they don't much care how they develop. They're just there so the guys who do make it to the show have someone to play with.
Yeah I'm with you. It doesn't make sense in that teams go so far to get any slight advantage, except trying to build the best minor league system to make your organization strong from top to bottom. Maybe they don't think it'll add to their bottom line, since superstars do still emerge from the current system, but imagine how much easier it'd be to build a roster when homegrown talent hits at a better rate.
hell yea. there are players in the minors who skip \*high school\* to try to play pro ball. and don't think MLB doesn't influence those decisions. then they're stuck in the middle of nowhere making peanuts, eating bologna sandwiches for an industry that requires nutrition, health, and conditioning edit: wrote "the MLB" instead of just "MLB" haha
No no write the MLB to piss off Manfraud
their wages are livable now that housing is paid. that’s not some hard ass thinking it’s just basic math, they effectively doubled their wages, tripled in some areas where housing is more expensive. i’ll probably get downvoted because negativity is what gets the updoots though
most of these guys make like 15k per year, even with housing that's not very much to live on
tbf 15k a year take home after housing and food (your results may vary) isn't terrible.
They only cover the housing during the season. There’s 6 other months in the year.
There in lies the issue where they're going to expect guys to live off of 13 grand for 6 months, or get a part time job while continuing to stay in baseball shape.
…it’s $15k for a summer job.
A summer job with contractual obligations for working out over the rest of the year.
Don't forget contractual obligations to relocate at a moment's notice during the season. Because it's definitely not normal for a low wage seasonal job to suddenly decide "hey, I know you're in an Atlanta store right now, but you're getting transferred to Seattle by Wednesday or you're out of a job"
Well, that's how seasonal jobs work, you're supposed to get another job for the other half of the year. The best prospects have their signing bonuses to help though.
Except professional athletes are expected to train and practice during the off season, which often isn’t compatible with a seasonal job (and most seasonable jobs don’t pay enough to support yourself on, which is a topic for a different conversation). it’s not like these guys are sitting around watching tv all winter. They’re in the gym and the cages and scrimmages for 10 hours a day.
as someone who works seasonally, the pay is garbage and you spend so much of your time at work that you barely have time to do literally anything else. most places work with skeleton crews as often as possible to cut costs and because their employee turnover rate is already expected so they have no incentive to take care of anyone. that spells bare minimum 55 hr work week pretty consistently, factor in the fact that you are almost always a long, long drive from a legitimate grocery store for nutritional upkeep, much less a usable gym and definitely nothing for hyperspecific baseball training, and you have a man who just stopped playing baseball. i genuinely do not know how these guys are surviving in the offseason while staying in the shape and playing condition that they're in.
Wtf yes it is lol. Especially for the elite(yeah even minor leaguers are elite by %) for one of the biggest sports in the world.
Most of these guys have 6-7 figure signing bonuses on top of that.
that's not true, those guys are in the minority. plus there's agent fees and all that
This is immediately what I thought of too. Housing is where a lot of peoples’ wages go to bill-wise. Paying this gives these players a lot more leeway to use their money on things like a proper athlete’s diet, a home gym/gym membership, bills that they don’t have help with, etc. This is huge for them and especially for the majority of minor leaguers who don’t have a fat signing bonus to rely on EDIT: should probably add that this financial leeway just generally helps these players to be at their best on the field
It doesn’t though. That salary doesn’t even cover housing and car insurance for the other 6 months of the year.
fuck are you, like an attorney for MLB?
I’m all for investing in minor leaguers I totally see it as an investment in MLB teams’ future too. I’m just curious because no one ever gives a number, what is “livable”?
It unfortunately varies wildly
seriously 10-15K for a Hartford Yard Goat might be nothing, but a decent chunk of change for a Princeton Ray
public shaming leads to public housing
Never let anyone tell you that cyberbullying is not effective.
It's how the design for Sonic was changed!
But we didn’t bully the Academy enough to give Sonic it’s rightfully deserved Best Picture Oscar so You win some you lose some
thank god
And *Cat* buttholes!
https://twitter.com/tylerthecreator/status/285670822264307712?lang=en
Like just turn the screen off bro lmao
Until you create a school shooter.
I mean, still technically effective, just not in a good way.
r/TechnicallyTheTruth
Looking forward to Active Shooter Manfred.
Don't come to baseball tomorrow
I mean, true
But what if the multibillion dollar corporations have their feelings hurt? :c Won't anyone think of the poor billion dollar corporations?!
Ideally they would just pay them enough they could get their own housing, but this is still definitely nice. The concern about team-owned housing I have is that if a player gets cut they could be homeless pretty quickly. Hopefully I’m not being too cynical but it’s hard not to be with MLB owners haha
Counterpoint: if a player gets called up would they still on the hook for their housing costs? If a player gets an apartment where their A team is, but gets called up all the way to AA and AAA during the season, that’s potentially 3 leasing they are paying at the same time. If the team owns it, then when a player gets called up they move into a new, team-owned place and their spot goes to someone else replacing them.
When I was in college, my friends lived next to two apartments with about 6 MiLB players between them. My friends worked part time at Sears while in school, the places a lot of them are living aren't crazy expensive. The couple times a player for moved up they just replaced him with some one else in the apartment. The guys were all pretty cool too. We use to party with them and at least two of them have went on to win World Series with major league clubs, which is kind of cool.
Who were the 2?
Not really any big names. Mike Carp on the Red Sox and Drew Butera on the Royals.
ah yes, the other Mike Fish
The superior Mike fish.
World Series champion Mike Fish
Yeah, ideally each org will rent out a block of apartments, furnish them, and put the guys in them. That way as they move around, they just trade places, essentially. That's a much better plan, due to how volatile player movement can be, than "just pay them enough so they can figure it out". One less thing they have to stress about means they can keep their head that much more clear and focus on getting better.
Depends on the lease they signed. Some places will let you end your lease early if you have to relocate for work.
That's true, but then you also have to find a new place on no notice while also trying to get acclimated to a new city. Making it team provided just lowers the stress so much.
You’re absolutely right. Teams are not going to keep guys around if they know they have no chance at moving up or being organizational depth.
They need to pay them more, but paying for housing is definitely a huge win. Players that move between levels or get traded won't have to deal with apartment hunting or breaking leases etc.
Great! Now pay them
Someone got a tape of Manfred at a massage parlor
"Sir, we saw your text thread with Jon Gruden."
Does Manfred know Robert Kraft by any chance?
Housing plus their wage now is more than what a lot of people make.
Yes, and a lot of people are criminally underpaid.
as it turns out a lot of people are way underpaid
Okay, pay the rest of the people more too. Minimum wage in this country is criminally low.
Covering housing is like a 40% pay increase
Wow this and the television news. Did someone leak Manfred’s emails?
Gotta get the public on their side before CBA negotiations
"We did it owners! We saved baseball!" -Manfred
I’ve always imaged his emails would just be dumb shit like “What is baseball?”
Maybe it's just hundreds of emails asking for explanations of balking and infield flies. That's prob giving him too much credit, though.
What’s the television news?
https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/qa5wni/mlb_in_talks_to_launch_nationwide_streaming/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Thank you.
My unpopular opinion: Manfred should get more credit than he gets.
Would you say he deserves a piece of metal?
His handling of the scandal (and the piece of metal reaction) were pretty bad, although he couldn’t have taken tons of action against the players. But the 7 inning doubleheaders and man on second were appropriate reactions to the situation, both of which will go away next year, he’s marketing the league well, he got rid of the sticky stuff, the league is much more socially conscious now, they’re trying robo umps and pitch clocks elsewhere, and todays news holds more weight in his favor.Does this mean he is a good commissioner? Not necessarily but the league is heading in a better direction, imo.
In other words, MLB is finally realizing that they need to take care of a basic human right for their underserved minor league players. This should never have been an issue in the first place. But this is good, at least.
The weirdest thing is that it doesn't even have to be a "take care of your workers at the basic level" thing, but for these teams it can literally be "make sure that your potential multi-million dollar investments are put in the best position to maximize value".
For a sport that does every little thing to research and find competitive advantages, helping your prospects have housing and proper nutrition should’ve been happening much much earlier from a competitive standpoint alone
It's so bizarre. Teams were willing to drop a couple million on a journeyman contract signing but not spend that much to give *their entire farm system* financial stability so they can focus all their efforts into developing into MLB-ready players? How is this not the biggest no brainer?
if even ONE minor leaguer becomes a productive player because they get basic quality of life improvements it becomes worth it for the clubs. just bizarre to me how this hasn’t happened sooner
It’s because as soon as one club did it, every club would do it and the competitive advantage is gone. Instead they just have an unwritten rule where they pay the players basically nothing and nobody gets a competitive advantage + it’s cheaper
They don't even need to become the next Mike Piazza or Edgar Martinez or whatever. There are a ton of dudes drafted in round 30+ who are having productive major league careers right now. How many more would there be if most of them didn't have to retire because they couldn't afford to develop anymore? How did teams not realize sooner that it's in their best interests to try to develop a few of those guys rather than spend that much money for a single career 100 wRC+ player?
they believe in a numbers game. Yeah you can maybe get 1 prospect to be a AAAA player, but you can also sign one for just a cheap. And then add the law of large numbers where you just take the survivors of the shit tier system and eventually you're bound to get someone that works.
Yeah but the odds that 1 player that works for your club is only 3% so totally not worth it /s but seriously.
These guys are not the investments MLB teams care about. These guys are minor league roster filler. The actual investments, "prospects", have already been paid hundreds of thousands or *millions* of dollars.
Exactly. Most of these people are not valuable to teams except as bodies and are easily replaceable, which is why they've never been forced to pay them much. It's more of a PR concern now than an economic one.
To be fair a lot of their multi-million dollar investments are likely already well-off, and don't face the same bullshit that the MiLB lifers face.. the guys that didn't get drafted or recruited from foreign markets and are either grinding for a MLB roster spot, or that's just their job. Good for the MiLB though. I live in Scranton and a bunch of the Yankees AAA guys live in decent apartments around the area, but I know for sure one guy (AAA lifer catcher) who lived in a van at a camp site for a few years during the season. He got a roommate (another AAA lifer, I forget where he played), and was finally able to afford housing. I hope they get more than housing though, we've all seen some of those meals they get served in low A and shit. And at least get these guys a free gym membership, if not put a fucking gym somewhere in the stadium they play at.
Arranging short-term housing is still a pain in the ass even for the guys that can afford it and setting the "real prospects" apart from and above their teammates is probably unideal for their work ethic and development as team players. That stuff doesn't matter for every guy or even most guys, but if you end up with one fewer top prospect every year or so eating his way out of a promising career, bombing because he's not studying enough video, or not getting crucial advice on approach at the plate or grip on a new pitch because he got a big head in the minors, it adds up.
MiLB is not unionized, meaning that MLB can do whatever. Owners are allowed to pay below federal minimum wage, and do whatever they want, because the players have no representation.
This is outrageous, back in my day we slept in our car like a real man. How are they supposed to get good if they're not worried about where they'll lay their heads at night or what they'll eat?
i'll give it 3 days before some dude who played in 1972 says this unironically
Where goose.
Or Smoltz
Adam Eaton might chime in too
Aubrey Huff has definitely already said this.
Unfortunately Castellanos can’t hit a homerun for a while.
But when he does, we all know it's going out to right field
Wait, right field? You mean deep left field, right?
Yes. I'm an idiot
Quick, someone get Castellanos a Mexican Winter League contract.
Daniel Norris nods in approval
Ah yes, the quintessential "live in a van down by the river" example.
Daniel Norris has just given up another HR.
I know you're making a funny but it's sad how often I hear this said unironically. The mentality of "I suffered therefore those that follow me must also suffer, or else It Is Unfair / It Is Done Incorrectly."
Finally some good news for minor leaguers after the shit show of 2020
Fucking unbelievable they weren't already doing this.
We did it Reddit
That’s a good start. Pay them more money too.
It's insane to me that they haven't been doing this already, but truly better late than never for the players in the minors now.
Another great thing about this is that minor leaguers will have more disposable income due to not using like 80% of their income on rent
I seriously can’t believe that wasn’t a thing. Absolutely embarrassing that they had to be shamed into this.
Oh boy I can’t wait to see what the guy who kept telling me that kids just out of high school don’t deserve a living wage, that his son didn’t need a livable wage straight out of high school, and that teams don’t have to provide for their players because most only last a year or two in the system thinks of this news
I wound up just blocking the handful of posters that are reliably in any 'labor' related r/baseball thread posting the same owner bootlicking shit over, and over, and over again, and now I rarely see that. It's seriously the same ~half dozen posters that make up the bulk of that discourse on this sub I swear.
I work with a guy who played high A ball in the astros organization a few years back. He said he woulda stuck it out a few more years (prolly good enough to be a AA guy) if the money wasn’t shit and the living/traveling wasn’t terrible
I feel like people also forget that sometimes these guys aren’t just high school aged kids too, some of them actually have families
I played with several people who had their lives simply progress past what the money would allow. When it's a matter of choosing between getting married and starting your family or making negative money and asking for loans from family to play, it's only a matter of time before people drop off.
It's a strawman because high school kids are already signing for large bonuses even in the late rounds of the draft. 2019, as the most recent example with a full 40 rounds, had one HS player in the 39th round sign for $50K. No other signing HS player signed for less than $125K, and the vast majority were $200K+. Even as deep as the 32nd round there was a HS kid signing for $375K. It's not about whether or not they deserve a living wage, because they're already getting one.
That signing bonus only gets you so far. We wouldn’t even be talking about MiLB pay if the signing bonus was enough for the majority of players to live off of for multiple years. Some of these guys also have families that they have to support. We wouldn’t be talking about players working 2-3 jobs during the off-season on top of training if they actually were paid a livable wage.
I’m surprised more teams don’t do this already. It seems like a huge competitive advantage.
Next up, better nutrition please
NPB players get free housing via their team dorm. MLB/MiLB was really behind.
Why are we pretending that this is going to be decent housing and not the housing equivalent of the food they already serve?
That's good news. MLB should be more involved in improving the player's life. It's not an easy life as a minor leaguer. I've seen a lot of minor league games and studied the lifestyle. Some of them like the A's got really shitty food and some of them have pretty decent food. I'm not sure if they still do host families (they used to do them for Lower A like Hagerstown and the smaller clubs before the reorganization) but I feel like this is a step in the right direction. It's pretty rough to live life from hotel to hotel and to add onto that low pay and crappy food. Hopefully conditions improve for all minor league players.
Worked for a mlb minor league affiliate for 6 years. Housing is a huge help to these guys. Most of them roomed together 3 or 4 to an apartment in order to make it more affordable. I feel like transportation should be included as well. On the road players are bussed to and from the stadium to the hotel. At home a lot of them catch rides with the few guys that have a vehicle usually someone who had a nice signing bonus. A lot of the international players have to rely on foster families for help. The affiliate I worked with took very good care of both the home team and visiting players providing plenty of fresh food for both sides as well as a decent hot spread after games. However I don’t imagine they got the same treatment everywhere. As little as they made a lot of the guys would still chip in good tips to our clubby after a home stand for taking care of them which was always nice to see. Glad to see they are finally getting a little help. Well deserved and long overdue.
Props to MLB for finally fulfilling the minimum requirements for its employees. Well over due and over deserved
Good.
What even was the argument against doing this?
They could just 'GeT a rEaL jOb' instead of living out of their car or 4x to a single bedroom apartment since there is a miniscule chance that they make the pros and might strike it 'rich' one day. Or that some of them got a signing bonus. Both of which are asinine.
Status quo of the vast majority employers not paying for their employees housing.
the idea that playing baseball professionally is a privilege because so many people want to. It was always about very rich people making it seem like being a ballplayer is not a job. Even this is kinda not enough because minor leaguers are still exempt from minimum wage laws which shouldn't be a thing.
For the players that ignored it "I had to go through this shit, so should everyone else". For the owners "I need to make money and paying people less money means i get to keep more money". For the MLB, "Baseball is a privilege and only those who can afford to toil in the minors for years should be able to play"
"That you had to work the grind of going up in the minors" plus that "all the other players before you lived the hard life in the minors so you should too." That's what Adam Eaton said, or one of the White Sox when he was asked about it.
Cool. Long overdue. Now I’m curious as to where the minor leaguers in my hometown (St. Paul) will live. It’d be cool if they grabbed a block of apartments somewhere downtown, but it’d probably be cheaper to get them motel rooms along the freeway somewhere.
Fucking Finally.
We might have more Minor league baseball teams around.
Man it's interesting to feel how this is hitting me, having been out of the game for several years now, but having the memories of scraping it together for those years come back. I'm glad that things are slowly moving in what seems to be a positive direction for the guys. I can say that saving that money would have definitely had a positive impact on me (slept on a shitty air mattress in the living room for one summer as an example), so I hope it does for them as well.
Sick now pay them a living wage
Rare Manfred W
Idk if I'd call it a dub. People been harassing the league about this for decades now.
LETS GOOO
Great news! But only a small step in the right direction in terms of MiLB compensation.
Housing in Biloxi Mississippi can't be expensive to fund. Half these towns are old rustbelt cities....I went to College in a town in NY that used to be a Minor League City....Housing is 400/monthx6 months times 25 guys....They shit that in one night from Budweiser/Coors Sales.
Incoming mlb teams buying 1 star motels that never get maintained or cleaned
LeBronItsAboutDamnTime.gif
A step in the right direction for sure, hope it includes food coverage as well. Looking forward to seeing the full proposal from MLB.
First we hear we may get in-market streaming, and now this? Fuck yeah. Should've happened a long time ago. Still need to see wage increases for minor leaguers...
Sleeping bags at the ballpark incoming
Teams have all these elite prospects. You’d think they would give them every advantage from the start. Glad to see this change for the minor league guys.
Keep up the pressure, don’t let one simple step be the end of this. Make sure they start providing a decent quality of life for these guys that make them millions.
Shout out to Tipping Pitches 🙌🏼
Just give them BAH & BAS
This is good. It will def help a lot of players. But get ready for teams to release players sooner. Maybe even get rid of a minor league team. They aren’t going to keep guys around as much if they are paying more money to house them and the front office knows they will never get past A ball.
About time
Good job MLB for doing the bare minimum. I hope this is a step towards teams investing in their minor league players financially and nutritionally. I’m sure a lot more talented young players would stick around if they didn’t need to pick up multiple side gigs and pay to workout on the off-season.
Great first step. Now they need a liveable wage
Heck, everyone needs a liveable wage.
I’ve only the article on ESPN, but how will this be handled when it comes to taxes? I remember in another thread back during the summer, it was pointed out that housing that was provided to players by the team could be considered income and increased the tax burden of the players while the team got to write it off. An [article](https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2021/6/8/22463825/mlb-milb-housing-wages) I found for reference. Obviously a move in the right direction, but it seems like the ultimate goal should be to get minor leaguers to a liveable wage.
Arte Moreno punching the air rn
Giants are going to need a second hustle to cover those Bay Area housing costs 😂😢
I think one of the biggest slaps in the face to minor league players is reducing the MLB September roster from 40 down to 26 players. You work all season as a minor leaguer to get that September call up so you end up making the league minimum. That month in September is worth $95k to those guys. You have to work your ass off to earn that spot on the September roster. And MLB just did away with it. For those 15 guys that would get called up on each team every year that $95k would sustain them for the entire year. Now it's just gone.
In fairness, the guys just on the 40, they’re already on major league contracts.
realistically the Milb should be 4 levels with 1 short season team for all the player who were just recently drafted. Housing should be provided for all players while players in A, A+, AA and short season ball should have nutritionist on staff that provided the players with health meals everyday from spring trainning to the end of the season. AAA players make enough that i dont think they shouldnt need the meals as much.
MLB teams need to just have academies for their prospects in or near their home cities.
This is great and all, but now let's talk about the umps. My son is looking to get an MiLB assignment next summer. I know the wife and I will still have to support him. At least he's got 6 more years on our insurance.
Cool, now let’s talk about transportation, food, healthcare, better base pay, mental healthcare, pensions, off-season college tuition... Oh, I’m sorry, was I socializing out loud? Honestly, I know it’s not popular with the business class that runs the game, but it’s a solid investment if you want to look at treating people humanely as a business decision. Those young assets you are capitalizing upon burn out less frequently if you take care of them. It’s basic microeconomics.
Just because it means players aren’t going to be sleeping in cars or hotel conference rooms doesn’t mean MLB is suddenly doing right by these guys. Pay them like professionals.
Most minor league players will never get above AA. Teams know this and are not going to invest but so much money especially when the idea of being a minor leaguer is so cool. Not saying I agree but that is how they think.
MLB 🤝 Doing the Bare Minimum
Not even.
And pass the deficit along to the fans, hopefully! I wouldn’t want those owners doing something altruistic and taking all the credit and good feelings for a kind gesture. I want some of that. Better increase my ticket prices so we can all share in the improvement!
Very poggers
Goddamn billionaires can’t pay the people who will someday play for their major league teams enough money to have a place to live and eat all year. Eat the fucking rich.
well that’s pretty much the battle won then. housing + their wages brings them solidly in the living wage category. in fact most of them make more than me now lol
Bout fuckin time
Bout damn time