Major League Baseball is pursuing a “radical restructuring” of the lower minor-leagues, according to a report from David Waldstein of the New York Times. While the precise nature of the new arrangement isn’t yet written in stone, it certainly sounds as if significant change is all but inevitable.
Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper has yet more detail on the proposal, which could eliminate approximately one quarter of present minor-league affiliates. Numerous existing leagues would be reorganized in various manners to meet the various proposed goals.
Generally, the league seems to be pursuing a global rationalization and modernization of a system that came together over a long period of time in a somewhat ad hoc manner. There are surely some worthwhile goals in such an effort.
As deputy MLB commissioner Dan Halem puts it in his pitch, the aims include: “upgrading the minor league facilities that we believe have inadequate standards for potential MLB players, improving the working conditions for MiLB players, including their compensation, improving transportation and hotel accommodations, providing better geographic affiliations between major league clubs and their affiliates, as well as better geographic lineups of leagues to reduce player travel.”
There’d assuredly be costs here as well, beginning with the elimination of numerous independently owned ballclubs from the affiliated ranks. The concept would involve some of those teams in some form of “dream league” for undrafted players, though MLB and Minor League Baseball would own and operate the teams. It certainly sounds as if these proving grounds might also threaten the talent pipeline available to current indy ball outfits.
Notably, Minor League Baseball has advised its member teams against investing in any manner that relies upon a continuation of the existing arrangement beyond the 2020 season. That seems to be a fair indication of the seriousness of the principal actors here, even if there’s still uncertainty in the ultimate vision.
This effort has long been in the works. Commissioner Rob Manfred has certainly hinted previously at the possibility of major change, including in comments to Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription link) earlier this year. “I think that everybody understands that we have to look at the efficiency of the system that we’re running right now, how many teams, how many players, what we’re paying players, and all those issues are obviously related,” Manfred said.
Good that they are looking at the pay issue.
Yeah, but teams don’t want to pay more, so they just cut players and shuffle that money around.
I guess, but there’s not a lot of money being made in MiLB.
And any increases will come directly from the fans and not the billionaires that own the MLB franchise that owns the MiLB team.
No but there are billions being made in the major leagues. And where do those players come from?!?
LOL
stevenam;
MLB teams do not make a billion dollars combined each year. A good percentage of teams either break even, make a small profit, or lose a small amount of money.
As for MiLB teams, they lose money. That’s why their parent ML teams have to subsidize them.
MLB is not the NFL or NBA where colleges ready players for them. At least 80% go from there to a pro team. MLB teams pay to keep their minor league affiliates in business. You’ll also note that the overwhelming number of players that make the major leagues got a bonus to sign, some millions of dollars. Most guys playing in the minor leagues are like sparring partners for pro boxers – providing competition for those that succeed.
I mean depends if you count asset appreciate. A major league team from 2000 to now is almost peerless if you consider increase the total amount of money you would make.
Only three teams took a loss in operating income in 2018 per forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list/#header:operatingIn…. Please provide evidence for your statements such as :”A good percentage of teams either break even, make a small profit” in the future, thanks!
Yea…but so has their liabilities.
@assumesFactNotInEviden…
3/30 is 10% of the league. Show me any conglomeration of franchisees that would allow 10% of locations to run at an operational loss.
@AssumesFactNotInEvidence;
Do you know anything about business?
2/3’rds of the teams showed an operating profit under $50M for the year…..many under $40M, 30M, and some even losing money.
Do you know what ‘Operating Profit’ is? It’s the amount made BEFORE paying taxers, paying interest on debt, and distributing dividends to investors……among other financial outlays.
This is like saying that a large national chain such as Wal-Mart makes huge gobs of money each year. Sure. But when one breaks it down by the individual stores, the costs of infrastructure investment, supplies, salaries, interest on debt, dividends, etc. show that a profitable medium-sized one store local business is outperforming most Wal-Mart stores handily. (They make it up in volume.)
What’s stunning is how little the Yankees and Nationals made considering they are large market teams in affluent areas that had great seasons. Large payrolls are definitely killers. If MLB paid the salaries that the Union demands and increased their subsidy of MiLB franchises, at least half the teams would be losing money. Take one example – the Mets. They had a $30m operating profit. Reading comments on MLBTR boards, fans call them “cheap” and demand they increase the payroll as they play in a large market. And those fans are demanding minimum increases of $30m for the year. So the Mets are in business to break even or lose money? Do you do that with your money?
Yes. They do. Look up the numbers. It’s easy to do and the top teams in MLB make plenty.
Don’t try to bring truth or logic into this. According to the masses, the teams are making bagillions because they bring in more than pay the players. There is no concept to these folks of paying for the thousands of people doing work behind the scenes for every team.
No doubt some of the owners are rich, but they absolutely 100% did not get rich off baseball .. or owning any other sports team for that matter. It’s kind of like a baby-sitter asking for for 90% of your hourly income because you are still making money.
2black69
Actually allot of franchise companies run losses especially in a region. Retail, fast food, etc. I was a regional manager for a handful of years for a food chain. The percentage of franchises that took losses was way higher than 10%. Basically you just need a few to make the profits to offset the losses at the other stores. The other stores are there for brand recognition and looked as a whole it was very profitable. It’s similar to revenue sharing if you can follow the way it works.
Pay more but eliminate jobs (getting rid of some affiliates).
Backup plan so there’s still revenue when the work stoppage comes.
It’s all about pay. Minor leaguers are paid shockingly little. They might even be violating minimum wage laws.
They were given an exemption for whatever reason.
I think they are classified as seasonal workers.
Yup, the same as carnival workers…..
If it was all about the pay, the fix would be both simple and forthright. But it’s not. Facilities, housing and transportation are all major problems. Yes, their wages need to increase, but playing in rundown facilities, sleeping in rat motels and going to and fro in buses that shouldn’t be allowed on a highway are just as problematic.
At least this MLB front office is willing to do something about the problems instead of ignoring them like previous administrations.
You hear stories of host parents feeding entire teams dinner… that shouldn’t be necessary.
It’s true Connor. I’ve been told this by people in towns with MiLB teams. I think they like playing grandparent to these very young men, which is nice and genuine, but kind of sad.
I can vouch for this. I run the booster club for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. We have picnics and pack snack bags for the players for road trips. My wife and I house 2-3 players every year and make sure they are all well-fed. When they get a rare day off we feed as many players as possible so they have some real food in them when not at the ballpark.
Thank you for doing that, it’s done at every level and I’m not sure if the industry ever thanks you for doing that
That really is awesome that you do that. My family does that every year for Coast Guard recruits at the training facility in Cape May every Thanksgiving.
Not to sound stingy or be in poor taste, but more out of curiosity, do you get tax credits for housing the players?
Then the MLBPA should fork over some money. Afterall, these are potential new dues paying members.
Or how about MLB players giving back. They’ve all been there done that.
Please thank them for me! I was one of those coasties back in the fall/winter of 98 and it was incredibly nice to be out of basic for the day. Cheers!
Buses not road worthy? Smh Get real. They want to eliminate teams to save money. That money saved will go to remaining minor leaguers.
Sounds like the players would love this plan.
Ha, if that’s what actually would happen that would be great but it’s just a excuse for owners to save money
hope there will be dorms and decent meals for minor leaguers. those will make their lives much better than a few more cents in pay raises.
If they want dorms and meal plans they can go to college
You obviously don’t know anything about this subject so you should stop talking until you learn something.
These kids are making less than minimum wage, travel half of the time, spend more time at work than you do and often are relocated at a moment’s notice. They can’t sign a year long lease because they have no idea nor control over where they’ll be in a week or a month. Most of them have never lived away from home before and don’t know how to cook, as if they had time to shop and cook. They don’t. Many of them don’t speak much of any English.
Their lives are nothing like yours.
“You obviously don’t know anything about this subject so you should stop talking until you learn something.” Try not to be so judgmental stevenam…
No. MLB can provide it. They have plenty of money
Minor leaguers, in general, get enormous signing bonuses. For most of the minor league players it results in pretty high compensation levels across their minor league career.
This post from “martas” is not even close to accurate. A review of the last mlb draft tracker shows how many players got drafted, who signed and how much the signing bonus was for each player. There were 40+ rounds in the draft.. Please look at the signings for all rounds. Yes some got a large bonus. A majority did not. As for the J2 international signings, yes a handful of players got big money. Again the vast majority did not.
This is completely untrue.
The first couple rounds get big bonuses. The top slice of international signings get big bonuses. The vast majority of them do not, and most will never even come close to making the majors.
The vast majority of prospects that don’t get large signing bonuses also don’t last more than a year or two. Every year a new batch of 1,500 players arriveb(50!rounds x 30 teams). It’s not that different than post-graduate students working at McDonalds as they work on their mba’s.
Most minor league players don’t get large bonuses. The names you might know and hear about, that go in the first and second rounds might; but look at how many guys are drafted beyond those points who might end up with anywhere from just $5,000.00 to maybe $125,000.00 (if they’re lucky) in bonuses.
Minor leaguers in General do not get major signing bouses
Quite nice signing bonuses through round 10….probably pretty decent bonuses for rounds >10 too seeing as bonus for round 10 average around 139K. This stuff is easy to look up but guess it is even easier to just say :Golly, that is not true!!!”
mlb.com/news/2018-mlb-draft-bonus-pools-pick-value…
Are minor league affiliates making money? Minor league players make more than they are worth. Yes it’s tough, but that’s the truth.
It’s a great job, but it’s also a tough job. If players don’t have the talent, they are better off moving on.,.. and they should.
Truth
No one forces them to play baseball for a living.
Great idea. The stuff that guys go through in the minors in borderline exploitation. I still remember Carlos Carrasco saying that he ate pizza at the same place while in the minors for an entire season because slices were $1 and he had no money to eat anywhere else.
So then when Carasco get paid millions, how much will he donate annually so that the next generation of kids do not suffer the same fate?
So, fewer teams, fewer players. More money for those who are recognized early, but the earlier end of a dream for the others.
Minor league players don’t make much money, but no one is forcing them to do it. They play because they love the game (hopefully) and because they hope to make it big.
My initial thoughts as well.
You have to expect that there will either be a corresponding contraction of the draft, or, many more drafted guys who are let go after the one season.
In turn, I’d be concerned about players having more pressure not to report injuries and make bad situations worse, physically, at the lowest levels.
AtlSoxFan
According to the BBA article MB wants to contract the draft to 20-25 rounds
Realistically isn’t everyone who signs after round 25 just a HS player offered a large bonus anyways? They can just declare in college or sign undrafted under a new system.
Sounds like the players would love this plan.
No players signed in round 25 or later are not offered large bonuses. $100k max if that
Don’t love this, it screams Portland Mavericks and thumbing their nose at independent baseball while trying to economically ruin them with their might.
It’s good to address player payroll, but centralizing teams Into demographic and geographic areas hurts fans in the upper Midwest who maybe only can see minor leaguers cause the closest major league team is 200 miles away.
Because the Independent Leagues operate outside MLB authority how can they ruin the Independent Leagues?
If anything, the talent pool will be bigger for Indy ball.
Re: teams in the upper Midwest
This is a valid concern, but there will be interest in keeping many of the Midwest league teams because of their strong facilities and attendance. Supply will meet demand.
This is all prep for the next contract negotiation and a possible strike.
The front end argument against service time manipulation is that it costs players thousands of dollars by forcing them to make paltry salaries in minors. They have to start rectifying that issue and start paying guys, especially in higher levels.
Not likely. The Players Association does not represent Minor League players.
but minor leaguers are those who they will later represent. even if they arent negotiating for them specifically, Minors saleries are of some interest to them.
Of interest, yes, but they’re not going to give up something in negotiations that does affect them for something that does not.
” threaten the talent pipeline available to current indy ball outfits.”
If MLB is reducing minor league teams by 25% then the talent pipeline for indy ball will expand.
“The concept would involve some of those teams in some form of “dream league” for undrafted players, though MLB and Minor League Baseball would own and operate the teams.”
MLB and MILB would own all the teams being cut from official minor leagues and use them as their own independent league. Much like they took over the independent Atlantic League this year to use as a testing ground for new technology and rules.
Agreeing to play with altered rules is different than literally owning the Indy franchise
Read the article. MLB and MILB would jointly own the entire league. All the teams.
I believe antibelt is referring to the Independent Leagues which have no affiliation withe any MLB team.
Specially the reference that MLB “took over” the Atlantic League.
Not if MLB saturates the more popular Indy ball markets with more MILB teams while shrinking their footprint in more remote areas.
Yeah, they need to be paid better, I’m sure, and let’s face it……….there are a lot of kids playing ball in the low minors who have NO SHOT at EVER playing in the major leagues. I understand that you need organizational filler players, but there has to be a glut of guys playing that should be coaching or selling real estate or something besides playing ball.
Agreed. Let them play Indy Ball to get their skills up, and coach or sell to supplement their income. But we have too many minor leagues filled with players who are being fed a false dream. I realize they are making a choice to pursue a career in baseball, but it still doesn’t seem right.
Time for revenue sharing. Not just the owners but the players too. Top players making so much that they can skim a little of that cream off the tops of their contracts to kick into a player association support fund for minor league players. MLB should just impose a hard cap anyway. If players don’t like it, then head for Japan and try your luck there.
Why should any MLB player have to give up ANY of the salary that they worked hard for just to give some of it to someone who didn’t earn it? Would you give 15% of your paycheck to the bum on the corner just because? No, you wouldn’t and you shouldn’t because YOU earned that money. The current revenue sharing between the franchises for competitive balance is already generous, no need for the players to do it too.
Imposing a hard cap is also stupid as MLB has proved time and time again that there is parity between the big market teams and the smaller market clubs. The NBA and the NFL both have salary caps and both leagues have been dominated by a single franchise for over a decide. Salary caps don’t work.
Woods Rider must be a budding Socialist.
Sorry to disappoint Charles (assuming you are being serious), but I am the exact opposite.
MLB has no authority under the Collective Bargaining Agreement to force a hard cap on the players.
that’s strike fuel right there.
Absolutely, as well it should be.
It’ll NEVER happen.
The strike or the cap?
The hard cap, or any kind of cap. The union would never go for it.
Completely agree, they shouldn’t. I truly hope it never happens.
What about the Caps in other league? They are all thriving in the eracof salary caps.
If you read my full comment (the first one you replied to), you would see my take on that.
Yet the leagues with a cap (NFL and NBA) have pushed “America’s Past Time” into 3rd rate status.
I have to search the menu to find what channel is televising a playoff game. Not so with the NFL or NBA.
Those leagues also have NCAA to grow their talent base. MLB better wise up before we’re back to only getting games on the radio.
How about billionaire owners simply pay their employees better instead, madmanTX? Do you contribute any of your salary to lower paid employees at your job, or do you expect the boss to do that?
I have an idea… how about use the same baseballs in the minors as they do in the majors so pitchers don’t have to make what can be an enormous adjustment as soon as they make it to the big show?
Good there’s no need for multiple levels of single A baseball.
Why isn’t there? Plenty of late bloomers have played the game. Josh Donaldson immediately comes to mind. He played 5 years of minors ball, with 3 separate stops in A ball. He eventually became a MVP. Does he get the same chance, along with countless other guys, with less minor league teams?
I’m not against it
maybe they could lower the number of rounds in the draft
how does fewer players help here? yes guys still around get more, but teams will be leds likely to take risks on long shot prosects and give some fringe guys looks. just mandate they pay more, that’s all you need to do.
One player benefit would be more movement for them.
I casually went through several posts and there is a LOOOOOOOOT of skepticism from everyone but I don’t blame them.
Reducing the minor leagues in size and players probably means some players are out but this could also be seen as a mercy killing. The players that will go will be the ones with the worst chances to make ths majors. Rather than these guys wasting their time and youth on something that is simply not going to happen they can go and find something else.
The Anti Christ (The Commissioner) is at it again. Revolutionizing the game for the worse. Him and NY have no clue again
Can’t upvote this enough. He keeps trying to reinvent the wheel rather than just leaving it alone.
Hands down the single worst MLB Comissioner I have ever seen.
This game has constantly evolved. It’s a completely different game today than it was in the 60s and that has nothing to do with who the commissioner is.
The game isn’t the same it was as little as 1o years ago! I’m not even going to get into the 80’s or 90’s.
Attendance has dropped by an average of 6% over the last 3 seasons. Why?
Manfred is trying to reproduce the HR Race of ’98 trying to save baseball again. Instead of the players being juiced, it’s the balls. It’s no coincidence that the balls are different in the postseason than they were during the regular season. It’s also no coincidence that MLB owns Rawlings and can do to the ball what they want when they want.
His ideas on pace of play are also garbage. Games are longer now than they were 10 years ago. Mound visits? What a joke. It’s these constant pitching changes that lengthen the game. Replays take way too long on some of the simplest calls. The only thing that guy got right was the intentional walk with having to throw the meaningless 4 pitches.
Why are so many guys getting thrown at in the head? More now than ever and it’s not entirely intentional. Again, refer to my comment about the change in baseballs. Smoother seams leave less control for the pitcher. Would you want someone throwing 95 up and in to you unless they have good control of the ball? I don’t think so.
Lol
google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/sports…
The anti christ is at it again(the commissioner) him the ivory tower in NY keep coming up with ways of ruining baseball
With all the money coming in. It sounds like this is well overdue.
Indeed. Mike Trout’s new contract pays out an average of $219,135 per game, guaranteed. The average Single-A player makes about $1300 per month during a regular season. That works out to about $5.80 per hour. If the industry can support paying high end player like Trout the money he gets, it can and should support a living wage for lower level MiLB players.
Unlike the Socialist you seem to be, major league baseball is a for profit business that has little or no financial connect to Minor league baseball.
So you like labels? Alright. You call pay fair wages for workers/employees socialism? I call the current system slavery.
Slavery would be implying that these ballplayers:
1.) Are playing ball against their will.
2.) Are playing ball without being compensated.
If applying a label, apply the correct one. Especially in a retort.
Slavery is exploitation. There are various forms of slavery. Indentured slavery, for instance.
What nexts? Increase the pay of stand up comics because they are next break out stars? Pay increases for those doing theatre in the park?
Indentured servitude? Love how SJWs just try to change what words mean when they lose an argument.
Contraction, which definitely seems on the table, means fewer jobs, and we should not expect owners to make sure all the savings from contraction are upstreamed to the players who are not contracted. As to the assertion that most players are living high on the hog off of gigantic bonuses, this is demonstrably untrue. The bonus slots only go through Round 10, if I’m not mistaken, and, after that, you sign for what you can get, whatever that is. Remember most high draft picks take several years to get to MLB level. And it’s a one shot, And the slots themselves are not binding on the teams. We ought to wait to see the details before jumping in.
But I still don’t understand some fans beating up on the players, rooting for them to fail, rooting for them to be underpaid. Would any of us accept that if we could throw 98MPH? No, we wouldn’t. We’d say we had a talent few could match and we ought to be paid for the scarcity of that talent.
Sounds dehumanizing. Plenty of money to make things right. Glad the MLBPA and the MLB have decided change is needed.
Actually, the MLB deserves all the credit, since MiLB players have no union representation.
Part of the reason they don’t pay MiLBers much is there’s just so damn many of them and the majority of them aren’t likely to even get to the serious developmental levels of the league let alone the majors. So I guess on its face it makes some sense.
I just have a bad feeling about this.
It’ll be interesting to see what this plan actually looks like when finished, if it comes to fruition. As someone who is generally skeptical of the Commissioner, and MLB owners intentions, I think this is a clever way of P.R. framing. They’re just not that altruistic. They devised a shell game where they’re going to essentially let go of who knows how many minor league players, front office staff and coaches; and they’re going to stop feeding minor league talent through who knows how many towns nationwide. They’re going to bury the lead though here by finally giving minor league players long overdue raises, and facilities more closely resembling pro facilities. Instead of taking money out of their own pockets however, they’re going to take it from these guys’ peers. I’ll hazard a guess that owner’s profits will rise under this scenario, too.
Imagine your boss calls you in and says, “Good news, we’re developing a plan to give some raises here.” Then just casually mentions, “but we’re going to have to let 20% of you go as a result to fund it..” Does that come off especially generous?
The rich teams will have baseball teams in DR or South American and sign then just like they do for Mexico teams. Teams like Yankee, Dodgers, and Chicago cubs will get richer in talent
If all the upset SJW’s above complaining about MiLB salaries would pay to see 3 MiLB games a year, then maybe those teams could afford to upgrade facilities and pay players more money.
There’s a channel on YouTube (‘Antonelli Baseball’ if anyone interested) and has a few videos of him talking about being in minor leagues and how bad the pay was
How about a poll on this question?? I would suggest raising minor league pay to like 40k for A, 45k for AA, 50k for AAA, keep ALL the minor league as is and drop major league players salaries 4% or 5%, whatever is needed to keep players and coaches in a job.
Is there a website that I can send money to to support these players? Kind of like a UNICEF for minor leaguers? ::sarcasm::
No one is forcing them to play baseball! It’s their choice!
This will be bad for the lower level players and their hard work. It helps smaller communities support baseball.