Real Cost of being a minor leaguer - Todd Van Steensel's Checkbook!

[Seth Stohs]

This is an incredible milb.com blog on the real cost of being a minor leaguer. I know we've written and discussed minor league (lack of) pay many times, but this story highlights it. 

 

Miracle RP Todd Van Steensel itemized his spending through the season's first half. Check out what it's like for a minor leaguer here. 

[Twins Fan From Afar]

That's a must-read.

[diehardtwinsfan]

that's less than minimum wage.  That's why MLB is probably going to lose that lawsuit. 

[twinssouth]

That's a great article and I love his attitude, especially the raw eggs. Thanks for sharing Seth. With the contracts the MLBers are getting, you would think they would share, just a little, with the Minor Leaguers. After all, they were 1 at one time.

[drjim]

It seems so counterproductive for mlb teams to pay so little.

 

I'm not saying minor leaguers should make huge money but providing them with some reasonable resources would only help in their development.

[Shane Wahl]

I cannot for the life of me understand how a business (and I get disgusted when I refer to the Twins as one) would make its human investments struggle like this. This is worse treatment than fast food employees get.

[Shane Wahl]

 

That's a great article and I love his attitude, especially the raw eggs. Thanks for sharing Seth. With the contracts the MLBers are getting, you would think they would share, just a little, with the Minor Leaguers. After all, they were 1 at one time.

 

They do when they come down for rehab assignments and whatnot.

[Shane Wahl]

I mean . . . just have a housing and meals program that takes care of these things for them? If you have ever had the stress of rent costs and paycheck to paycheck living you will understand . . . but this is often without a college degree and certainly without any guarantees of ever getting even AA and AAA contracts.

[TheLeviathan]

 

It seems so counterproductive for mlb teams to pay so little.

 

I'm not saying minor leaguers should make huge money but providing them with some reasonable resources would only help in their development.

 

Right and the cost to provide just a dorm-level lifestyle for these guys would be peanuts compared to their profit margin.

 

It's atrocious and I hope MLB gets flooded with lawsuits.  One part of this I don't like, however, is that the owners will take almost all of the blame when it should be shared.  The player's union is a huge part of the problem.

[nicksaviking]

Um, that article is being carried by MLB.com written by a writer for MiLB.com.  Do they not read their own content? 

 

Either they are extremely flexible about free speech, or there must be some kind of push for change.  There must be some franchises that would support a wage increase, perhaps this is a shot across the bow to the dirtbags that are still against it.   

 

Another article last year linked or written by a TD member showed how much under minimum wage these guys are paid and I did the math (likely poorly) and it was something like 1.5M each franchise would need to pay extra to get thier minor leaguers to federal minimum wage standards.  That's like what the Twins are paying Jordan Schaffer not to play this year.

 

Edit:  It was fangraphs, and I guess I was the member who linked it.  Man I'm losing it.

 

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/16267-fangraphs-article-on-milb-players-fight-to-gain-minimum-wage-protection/

 

And my (likely bad) math showed about $1M more, so that would be 2/3 of a Jordan Schaffer. 

[TheLeviathan]

 

Um, that article is being carried by MLB.com written by a writer for MiLB.com.  Do they not read their own content? 

 

Either they are extremely flexible about free speech, or there must be some kind of push for change.  There must be some franchises that would support a wage increase, perhaps this is a shot across the bow to the dirtbags that are still against it.   

 

Maybe this is more about the player's union than we thought and this is the way the league is going to start building the case to lay the blame on them?

[mickeymental]

i imagine that it must be a bit uncomfortable for a guy like van steensel to sit on the bench or bus next to a first-round multimillionaire draft pick ...

[Mike Sixel]

It's shocking that it turns out a huge multi-billion dollar industry doesn't care about it's employees. Shocking.

[Steven Buhr]

Great article, thanks for linking, Seth.

 

I've written on this topic a couple of times and what always surprises me is the number of comments/tweets I get back giving me crap for taking the players' side in the issue, because, yanno those players knew what they were getting in to and they made the choice and they're playing a game for a living, let 'em get a real job, etc.

 

I think it will be interesting to see what changes come to minor league baseball through the combination of outstanding legal battles, the next MLB CBA and the next MLB/MiLB contract. All should be resolved in the next 3-4 years.

[James]

This is a great article.  

 

Is it the major league team that pays the minor league salaries, or is it the team?  I could see the minor league teams not being interested in paying more, as they don't have nearly the revenue that a major league team does.  With that being said, the major league team could always pay the salaries if they don't already.

 

I don't know why I thought of that, but it's just a question I had.  I do believe that minor league players should be paid more.  

[Steven Buhr]

 

This is a great article.  

 

Is it the major league team that pays the minor league salaries, or is it the team?  I could see the minor league teams not being interested in paying more, as they don't have nearly the revenue that a major league team does.  With that being said, the major league team could always pay the salaries if they don't already.

 

I don't know why I thought of that, but it's just a question I had.  I do believe that minor league players should be paid more.  

Salaries of players, coaches and training staff (and, now, the cost to have someone run the TrackMan system) are all paid by the major league affiliate.

[nicksaviking]

MLB is always complaining about not being able to attract urban kids any more. Maybe if ALL professional players made good money, not just the few who made it.

[Willihammer]

 

It seems so counterproductive for mlb teams to pay so little.

 

I'm not saying minor leaguers should make huge money but providing them with some reasonable resources would only help in their development.

Like a $10/day apartment? I wish I could rent for that!

 

OTOH clubhouse dues seems kinda dumb.

[diehardtwinsfan]

apparently it's for the union that doesn't represent them.

[Platoon]

It's shocking that it turns out a huge multi-billion dollar industry doesn't care about it's employees. Shocking.

It is shocking, but should not be anymore.