Does MLB need to change way minor league players live?

[Mike Sixel]

Just curious....but if the pay is fair, how about we make them all free agents every year, and see what they are paid......

[Unwinder]

8 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Just curious....but if the pay is fair, how about we make them all free agents every year, and see what they are paid......

Hey, yeah. The free market is only a free market if it cuts both ways.

[Rosterman]

The biggest pain for minor league players, and it used to be that way for major league players, is that you do have "off" unpaid months. Roughly four months a year. In my day you heard stories about players taking off-season jobs as bartender, meat-packing, car sales, whatever, to supplement their wages in a job that doesn't offer longterm job security.

 

That is the pain of minor league ball. Say you only have to show to the ballpark by 4pm for an evening game and work until say 11pm. If you come earlier, is that on your own time? If the game runs long? Often you used to play seven games a week. You get a free meal in the deal?

 

The toughest part is housing and the cost. Is housing for a Saint Paul Saint the same as a player in Las Vegas, New Orleans, Wichita, Portland, Nashville? You live every other week in the housing. Some towns you live with families, others not. You still have to furnish living quarters and many a player is happy with internet, a beanbag chair and a mattress. If the ballpark is nice, you spend your time there like you are at a gym.

 

Nutrition should be job one of minor league organizations, too. I red stories about the training camps that the Twins, for one, have in the Domincian Republic. Players get instructions and decent food. Basically treating it like school. 

 

But food and lodging should be the part of any minor league position, plus a salary for the season. You are, after all, working and entertaining for a local team that is a franchise of a bigger team. Without you, they don't have product to put on the field. 

 

Players should also be housed and fed, as well as have a per diem for spring training as well as any instructional ball. If they wish to live beyond what the team provides, that is their decision. Again, I would think it would work in the interest for all spring training facilities to at least have dorm situations. Heck, the Vikings used to camp at Mankato State, living in the dorms (for students) there. You are, afterall, there to play baseball...not party, veg in your rooms, whatever.

 

Now, let's talk about paying collegiate athletes!

[DJL44]

18 hours ago, Unwinder said:

How come minor leaguers have to make a case for more money

The MLBPA won't let them into the union

[TheLeviathan]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

The MLBPA won't let them into the union

Well....technically the MLBPA negotiates on their behalf.  Of course, since they aren't members or highly paid, that representation is mostly exploited for leverage.

[Brock Beauchamp]

On 10/5/2021 at 12:57 PM, Mike Sixel said:

Just curious....but if the pay is fair, how about we make them all free agents every year, and see what they are paid......

There you go. If we’re going to “free market” this debate, let’s actually free market it.

And then watch as salaries skyrocket as teams have to actually COMPETE for services.

Which absolutely decimates any acceptance or argument that their current pay structure is fair or adequate.