Even with raise, minor-league baseball pay ‘still unlivable.’
Giants prospect calls it ‘good start,’ but salary still ‘unlivable’
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Minorleaguers will get a bump in pay starting in 2021, a good first step but hardly a giant leap, according to the lawyer and former Giants pitching prospect who is spearheading a classaction lawsuit on the behalf of thousands of players that seeks better compensation and back pay.
“It’s long overdue and just a first step, but it’s good to see them take the first step,” Garrett Broshuis told The Chronicle on Friday after the Associated Press reported that Major League Baseball sent a memo to all 30 teams formalizing the pay increase.
“The updated salaries still place most players below the poverty line, and it doesn’t do anything about the requirement that players work for free during spring training and instructional leagues,” Broshuis said. “But hopefully more changes will come.”
Owners discussed the pay hikes at a meeting last week, according to the Associated Press. They range from 38% to 72%.
Players in rookielevel leagues will have their minimum salaries raised from $290 to $400 a week. The other weekly increases: $290 to $500 at Class A, $350 to $600 at DoubleA, and $502 to $700 in TripleA.
Minorleaguers are paid only during their regular seasons, which last five months. The majorleague minimum is $563,500.
The memo to teams that the Associated Press obtained was signed by league executive Morgan Sword. It noted that while MLB and the organization that runs minorleague baseball will continue to negotiate a new affiliation agreement, “We can move forward unilaterally with our goal of improving compensation for minorleaguers.”
The current agreement expires after the 2020 season.
More light has shined on the issue of minorleague pay in recent years, especially when owners successfully lobbied Congress in 2018 to pass legislation that exempts minorleague ballplayers from minimumwage laws.
Giants minorleaguer Tyler Cyr, who is in bigleague camp this spring, also fueled the conversation in October when he posted his final 2019 pay stub on social media. It showed that he earned $10,275 for the entire season and netted $8,216. He spent most of the year at DoubleA Richmond, Va.
In an interview, Cyr also termed the coming pay hike as “good start,” but added, “That’s still an unlivable wage in all reality.”
He noted that the cost of living in Sacramento, where he finished the season with the TripleA River Cats, is relatively high, and “if your work is sending you to a city, you should be able to pay for housing, pay for proper food and pay for transportation to and from the field. You should also look at your statement and be able to have some money left over.”
Cyr said in October and reiterated Friday that the Giants have been more generous than other organizations by voluntarily covering some expenses that they are not obligated to pay, such as providing their minorleaguers with two meals a day instead of one.
Without offering details, Cyr said he spoke to Giants president of baseball operations
Farhan Zaidi, “and I actually know the Giants are going to be frontrunners on a few things” to help prospects further.
“I think that’s pretty exciting,” he said.
Zaidi did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Broshuis, a former Giants pitching prospect, filed his lawsuit on behalf of three players in 2014.
It could go to trial this year if the U.S. Supreme Court rejects an appeal from the league arguing that a federal appellate court in San Francisco erred by expanding the plaintiff class to all who played in Florida and Arizona, where spring training is held. That means the lawsuit covers thousands of players.
The league is expected to file its motion with the Supreme Court in March.
“For six years, our firm and our cocounsel have worked on behalf of our clients to try to increase the compensation of minorleague players,” Broshuis said. “We’ll keep working on it as our case continues to advance.”