Minor leaguers may get some housing help

Even as baseball season winds down with Bay Area teams outside the World Series, another group of ballplayers scratched out a win, advocates say — the minor leaguers.

Major League Baseball announced this month big league clubs would be responsible for housing their low-paid minor league players, a policy already adopted by some teams like the Giants in the highpriced Bay Area rental market but not by the A’s.

Owners unanimously agreed to provide housing to “certain minor league players,” according to an MLB statement released last week. “We are in the process of finalizing the details of that policy and expect it to be announced and in place for the 2022 season,” MLB said.

The shift breaks a longstanding policy of sending players to stay with host families or having them make their own arrangements — often in overcrowded apartments and discount hotels.

California’s tops-inthe-nation housing costs this year overwhelmed A’s young minor league players with the Stockton Ports, where a typical player makes $500 a week under a standard contract. Some lost money paying for lodging because they couldn’t find a four-month rental in the tight market and wound up paying to live in shared hotel rooms, advocates say.

At that level of income — paid only during the 41/2-month season — players would qualify for federal low-income housing vouchers. As it is, former players describe a handto-mouth existence pursuing a major league dream in the Bay Area and central California.

Minor leaguers have no control over where they play. “If they get assigned to a more expensive city,” said Harry Marino, a former minor leaguer and executive director of Advocates of Minor Leaguers, “tough luck.”

As the pandemic upended entertainment venues and housing options, minor league baseball players have become more vocal about low pay and inequities in housing.

The Giants this year recognized the region’s high costs and COVID-19 health constraints and rented units for their minor league players in San Jose.

At the A’s farm club in Stockton, players during the recently concluded season were offered small discounts on rooms at the University Plaza Waterfront near the ballpark, advocates said. Players had to pay for shared rooms, which were recently advertised for about $140 a night.

Players on the Ports declined to be interviewed; the housing struggles first were reported by SF Gate and confirmed by Advocates for Minor Leaguers. “The A’s have done nothing, essentially,” Marino said. The A’s did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The housing market for low-wage workers in Stockton and San Joaquin County is extremely tight and has only gotten more challenging during the pandemic, said Jon Mendelson, director of the nonprofit Central Valley Low Income Housing Corporation.