When Major League Baseball began operating the minor leagues in 2021, it ushered in a new era for players.
Even before MLB and the newly-formed minor league division of the MLB Players Association reached a deal on the first-ever minor league collective bargaining agreement in 2023, pay and standards of living had improved.
Once the CBA arrived, the transformation was complete. Players who remained after the minor leagues were scaled back and
reorganized are now experiencing the best working conditions any minor league player has ever experienced.
Food? Two meals a day are now provided, and nutritious snacks and protein powder are also available whenever players are at the ballpark.
Weight rooms? Upgraded.
Batting cages? Covered and upgraded.
Stadium lighting? Improved. Salaries? Year-round, and at the highest level in minor league history.
This does not mean that minor league players are living the easy life. It’s a pressure-packed job in which success or failure is apparent to thousands of fans every time they step on a field. The pressure to perform is even more intense now, because stricter player limits require players to justify their roster spots like never before.
For players who didn’t receive a large signing bonus, salaries are still modest, but even those are dramatically improved from where they were five years ago. And players no longer face the decisions that tormented them in past decades.
Today, players can focus on playing their best, instead of figuring out whether they can afford to keep playing.
No longer do players have to rely on a spouse’s salary, family help or an offseason job to figure out how to earn enough in the offseason to support their main job: playing professional baseball.
No longer does getting married or having a child create a decision point on whether a player can continue to pursue his dream of a big league career.
“The old system was pay-to-play,” said Chris Betts, a catcher who spent 2016 to 2022 in the minors.
There have been tradeoffs. Significantly fewer players get a chance to play in affiliated baseball. As part of the minor league CBA, major league organizations may have 165 active players on domestic minor league rosters. As recently as 2019, some had 240 or more minor league players under contract.
But overall, minor league players have never had it better.
“I think the CBA had mostly pros. The cutting of dozens of teams was the tradeoff, it seems. And being on the wrong side of that stinks,” said lefthander Rob Kaminsky, a 2013 draftee who reached the majors in 2020 and then played in the new minor league system until 2023, when he was released.
“But, for the greater good of the game and unreal talent in the sport, I think (the CBA is) a net positive.”
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1398697516/1716204865/articles/gOKVU6inr1716978952320/fgl0agb5S1716979919416.jpg]
As recently as 2019, a professional player on a short-season or Rookie-level roster could make less than $4,000 for the entire year. They wouldn’t get paid for spring training, extended spring training or instructional league. With meager per diems, clubhouse dues and housing costs, playing affiliated baseball could be a money-losing experience.
Today, that same player will make a minimum of $19,800. Anyone in full-season ball earns a minimum of $26,200. Those numbers will increase for cost-of-living adjustments in 2025.
That’s still a modest salary—though it does allow players to continue to work a second job for part of the offseason—but it also comes with numerous new benefits.
In 2019, there were no guarantees of team-provided housing. There could be host families in some situations, but players were generally responsible for finding a place to live in-season. Usually, that meant cramming a large number of players into a small apartment.
If a player was promoted or demoted, he was responsible for breaking the lease and finding new housing with his new team. It created the bizarre scenario in which a player had no control over where he lived, but could be responsible for housing even if a team shipped him to four different cities in a single season.
Now, teams are required to provide housing for all minor league players throughout their seasons. In Class A, players can be asked to share a bedroom, but in Double-A and Triple-A, each player is guaranteed his own bedroom. Utilities are paid for by their MLB teams as well.
The per...
Even before MLB and the newly-formed minor league division of the MLB Players Association reached a deal on the first-ever minor league collective bargaining agreement in 2023, pay and standards of living had improved.
Once the CBA arrived, the transformation was complete. Players who remained after the minor leagues were scaled back and
reorganized are now experiencing the best working conditions any minor league player has ever experienced.
Food? Two meals a day are now provided, and nutritious snacks and protein powder are also available whenever players are at the ballpark.
Weight rooms? Upgraded.
Batting cages? Covered and upgraded.
Stadium lighting? Improved. Salaries? Year-round, and at the highest level in minor league history.
This does not mean that minor league players are living the easy life. It’s a pressure-packed job in which success or failure is apparent to thousands of fans every time they step on a field. The pressure to perform is even more intense now, because stricter player limits require players to justify their roster spots like never before.
For players who didn’t receive a large signing bonus, salaries are still modest, but even those are dramatically improved from where they were five years ago. And players no longer face the decisions that tormented them in past decades.
Today, players can focus on playing their best, instead of figuring out whether they can afford to keep playing.
No longer do players have to rely on a spouse’s salary, family help or an offseason job to figure out how to earn enough in the offseason to support their main job: playing professional baseball.
No longer does getting married or having a child create a decision point on whether a player can continue to pursue his dream of a big league career.
“The old system was pay-to-play,” said Chris Betts, a catcher who spent 2016 to 2022 in the minors.
There have been tradeoffs. Significantly fewer players get a chance to play in affiliated baseball. As part of the minor league CBA, major league organizations may have 165 active players on domestic minor league rosters. As recently as 2019, some had 240 or more minor league players under contract.
But overall, minor league players have never had it better.
“I think the CBA had mostly pros. The cutting of dozens of teams was the tradeoff, it seems. And being on the wrong side of that stinks,” said lefthander Rob Kaminsky, a 2013 draftee who reached the majors in 2020 and then played in the new minor league system until 2023, when he was released.
“But, for the greater good of the game and unreal talent in the sport, I think (the CBA is) a net positive.”
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1398697516/1716204865/articles/gOKVU6inr1716978952320/fgl0agb5S1716979919416.jpg]
As recently as 2019, a professional player on a short-season or Rookie-level roster could make less than $4,000 for the entire year. They wouldn’t get paid for spring training, extended spring training or instructional league. With meager per diems, clubhouse dues and housing costs, playing affiliated baseball could be a money-losing experience.
Today, that same player will make a minimum of $19,800. Anyone in full-season ball earns a minimum of $26,200. Those numbers will increase for cost-of-living adjustments in 2025.
That’s still a modest salary—though it does allow players to continue to work a second job for part of the offseason—but it also comes with numerous new benefits.
In 2019, there were no guarantees of team-provided housing. There could be host families in some situations, but players were generally responsible for finding a place to live in-season. Usually, that meant cramming a large number of players into a small apartment.
If a player was promoted or demoted, he was responsible for breaking the lease and finding new housing with his new team. It created the bizarre scenario in which a player had no control over where he lived, but could be responsible for housing even if a team shipped him to four different cities in a single season.
Now, teams are required to provide housing for all minor league players throughout their seasons. In Class A, players can be asked to share a bedroom, but in Double-A and Triple-A, each player is guaranteed his own bedroom. Utilities are paid for by their MLB teams as well.
The per...
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Baseball America (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2024