WHAT MAJOR CUTS WILL MEAN FOR A’S
Team cut minor leaguers’ stipends, furloughed workers, deferred rent to deal with pandemic
Minor league baseball has taken a few hits recently. Perhaps the biggest blow came with news that teams would cut hundreds of players.
But, earlier in the week, the spotlight shined on Oakland when the A’s announced half their workforce — from business to baseball operations — would be furloughed or receive pay cuts.
The baseball operations cuts seeped into the player ranks, with Oakland becoming the first, so far, to utilize the suspended minor league Uniform Player Contract by declining to pay minorleaguers their $400 weekly stipend for the remainder of the suspension.
And this all came a week after news broke that the A’s deferred their $1.2 million rent to the Coliseum Authority. The negative PR, according to those around the league, outweighs the positives of saving money during the suspended season.
“Why would you drop a weight on your toe in the form of a rent spat, furloughs and larger issues of major league baseball and labor dispute?” former A’s executive Andy Dolich said.
WHAT ARE THE A’S MINOR LEAGUERS SAYING? » The A’s minor leaguers didn’t sign up for this, to answer for or publicly grap
ple with the organization’s penny-wise decisions. General manager David Forst’s email to those affected said the simple math of lost revenue justified the sweeping pay cuts.
Garrett Broshuis, who leads a non-profit called Advocates for Minor Leaguers, is guiding lost A’s players through unemployment.
“They are a bit shocked, they’re scared, they’re angry,” Broshuis said. “They feel deceived because the A’s, like a lot of teams, use the word family a lot. This is not how a family takes care of its own.”
Furloughed players wouldn’t typically be able to apply for unemployment — reasonable expectation that a minor league baseball season would happen disqualifies them from federal assistance. With no MiLB season in sight due to complexities COVID-19 present, players are cleared to apply for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
Some players, Broshuis said, were unaware of the benefits they were entitled to. Under minor league contracts, these A’s still receive benefits, but are still legally bound to the team. They cannot sign with a different team prepared to financially accommodate them and through their own means must stay in baseball shape in case ball is green lit.
“You do not see contracts like this in the modern American workforce,” Broshuis said. “This is an old fashioned contract that has language that’s been around for a long time and needs to change. The fact that the A’s are saying you have to honor the parts of the contract, but we’re not going to abide by our obligation, that’s backwards and unjust.
ARE THE OPTICS AS BAD AS WE THINK? » The A’s organization has a reputation as a haven for prospects to fast track their way to the bigs. They preach family. That reputation may have taken a hit.
“It would be hard to go back to that team and hear them talk about how they care about their minorleague players,” Stockton Ports pitcher Peter Bayer told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s all they ever feed us, but in a time of need they can’t even take care of us. I’ve completely lost respect for everyone involved in that decision.”
The A’s $225 million in revenue ranked 29th behind the Miami Marlins in 2019, yet the Marlins promised to extend the weekly stipend for their minor leaguers. As of Friday, 20 clubs committed to paying their minor leaguers through, at least June 30.
The A’s are the only team to announce cuts. Total estimated savings for that $5,200 per player: roughly $1 million.
In a rare public address, though still behind the comforts of a screen, A’s owner John Fisher sent an email to fans and the gutted A’s staff.
“I know that many of you will wonder why the A’s are cutting costs now,” Fisher said in the note. “Nobody knows how this pandemic will evolve over the long-term. What is clear is that our revenues will be dramatically reduced this year.”
“A’s cap is green. The amount of green that represents the gold is not very much,” Dolich said. “Why would you do anything to diminish a young player’s enthusiasm for working his way through the system?” IS THIS A FATAL BLOW FOR HOWARD TERMINAL PROJECT? » Not necessarily. Though the already ambitious goal of having shovels in ground by 2021 for a 2023 grand opening seems far out of the realm of opportunity.
“This is major. They’re not breaking ground — do you need to be a fortune teller to say that?” Dolich said. “The ultimate EIR is COVID-19. Until it’s more certain how it impacts our global environment, any talk of a new ballpark is a bit illogical. Has it suffered a significant blow? Clearly, yes. Is it over? I would reserve my judgment.”
ARE THE A’S IN THAT MUCH FINANCIAL TROUBLE? » It seems as though these moves are just cautionary, despite the backlash, for a hazy economy post-COVID. Three months without revenue takes its toll, and the A’s are entering their final season in a four-year phase out of revenue sharing checks.
Fisher took a fair share of backlash as a billionaire worth an estimated $2 billion letting employees fall by the financial wayside.
The answer might be simple: The A’s may be saving now, but they were heavy spending before the pandemic on efforts to put a shovel in the ground at Howard Terminal. They spent $85 million in Alameda County for half of the Coliseum property.
The team is not in the red, which makes the cost cuts to A’s staff and minorleaguers hard to swallow.