Minor league changes not major enough?
MLB overhauls system to improve pay, but advocates say more help is needed
In 2017, just after the Toronto Blue Jays drafted him in the 32nd round, hard-throwing reliever Jacob Condra-Bogan was sharing a living room floor with two teammates and three mattresses, the only way to pay for housing on his professional baseball salary.
A first-round pick, who had a little bit more to spare, had one of the bedrooms to himself. Another high-round pick had the other bedroom. But Condra-Bogan, who was also trying to finish a master's degree, could only afford a little slice of floor.
“When I retired, I was one of the best 500 relief pitchers in the world. And I can't even get minimum wage,” said Condra-Bogan, who retired before the 2021 season. “This is an entertainment industry where there is money. It's not something small. I'm one of the best human beings in the world at what I do and I can't make a living off it.”
A few years later, ahead of the 2021 season, Major League Baseball took over and restructured the minors, part of an effort to “ensure a new set of standards in terms of facilities and player working conditions,” MLB said. But according to an advocacy group for minor leaguers, players are still paid so little — so far below minimum wage — that for many of them, playing professional baseball ends up costing money instead of providing a living.
The MLB-led restructuring — which included cutting 40 affiliates, promising pay increases of 38 to 72 per cent for minor league players, reducing travel with more concerted scheduling efforts and more geographically logical leagues, and stepping up requirements for team facilities — was supposed to help. MLB has largely delivered on those promises, according to people in minor league baseball who say the travel is more tolerable and the quality of facilities more consistent.
“It's really important for the game. And why do I think it's important? I think it is part of modernizing the way that we develop players,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred recently said of the restructuring. “We will have facilities that are better and more equipped to develop professional players. We'll have an economic model that allows us to pay those players better.”
But even with those changes, which are massive by professional baseball standards, most minor leaguers continue to live at or below the poverty line, according to Harry Marino, executive director of Advocates for Minor Leaguers, who said most minor leaguers make somewhere between US$8,000 to $14,000 annually.
Asked about these conditions, an MLB official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as to freely discuss the situation, did not dispute that minor league pay is low. He admitted that while the reorganization of the minors under MLB's purview has led to as much as a $500 per month increase in some players' salaries, part of the idea behind eliminating teams was to reduce the number of players in each system and therefore accelerate the pace at which players could learn if they really had a shot at the big leagues.
By eliminating an entire roster's worth of low-level players, the thinking goes, teams will have to make decisions earlier in the development process — something critics argue will eliminate the chances for late-round picks to scratch and claw their way to the majors.
That official said MLB views minor league baseball more as an apprenticeship — an opportunity for on-the-job training. He pointed to the bonuses players receive when they first sign with an organization as a form of pre-emptive compensation to help them make their way. First-round picks can make as much as several million dollars in a signing bonus, though many later-round players sign for a few thousand dollars.
Multiple executives and MLB officials said those in the industry are beginning to view providing minor leaguers with housing, adequate meal money and other basic needs as competitive advantages, a potential edge in player development. But that approach is not widespread, and many organizations are still pinching pennies.
Minor league players do not have a union and are not represented by the MLB Players Association. They do, however, have advocacy groups like Advocates for Minor Leaguers, that help provide a unified voice. And they have a platform where that voice has some power — Twitter.
“Players have no avenue through which to sort of redress grievances or the things that are happening,” said Marino, a former minor leaguer who serves as the organization's executive director. “So our organization really at its core, you know, exists to provide a collective voice for the players who have just been systematically silenced for decades.”
Advocates for Minor Leaguers has posted accounts from anonymous minor league players that detail housing crises, subpar meals and other examples of players struggling to get by. Marino said for every story tweeted, he hears a handful of stories from players who then ask him not to share them publicly. Fear of retribution, even for those who come forward anonymously, remains high.
Marino said his organization's strategy is to force teams to take action by illuminating the hardships players face, even if only a small portion of the stories he hears make it to the group's Twitter account.
“I think that publicizing these things works simply because there's no real response on the team side on this stuff,” Marino said. “It's not like they have a real explanation of why players should be treated this way.”
The Houston Astros have tried to relieve some of the financial burdens on their minor leaguers by providing housing. The New York Yankees offer housing stipends to players in the Florida Complex League that extend beyond the competitive season, and they cover housing for their High Class A Hudson Valley team. The Philadelphia Phillies offer housing stipends to minor leaguers. But in many places, players are on their own.
“Coaches apologize to the players. Like, `I wish they would do more for you guys.' Same thing with Assistant GMs or farm directors. They're always like, `Well, I wish we could do more,'” Condra-Bogan said. “I know you personally might not be able to, but there definitely are people that can.”
“I think that there are 30 people who are responsible,” Marino said. “To me, this ultimately comes back to the 30 MLB owners, because they're the ones who have got together and said, `This is how we're going to do it, and let's underpay these guys.' And they're the ones that can fix this overnight.”
When I retired, I was one of the best 500 relief pitchers in the world. And I can't even get minimum wage.