We have continued to see minor league signings even with the lockout still limiting most offseason business, though The Athletic’s Eno Sarris and Brittany Ghiroli note that the total number of minors contracts signed this winter is naturally much lower than usual compared to past offseasons. While the lockout extends to MLBPA members, players on MLB contracts, and players on 40-man rosters, some players within these parameters are stuck in a strange middle ground, like Sam McWilliams. Since the righty signed a Major League contract with the Mets last winter but hasn’t actually appeared in a big league game in his pro career, he is both locked out and not an official union member.
It isn’t known exactly how many players are in McWilliams’ status, which is part of the confusion shared over which players are exactly “covered” by the lockout regulations. As a result, some offseason throwing showcases have had to stagger workout times (since MLB scouts aren’t permitted to even observe locked-out players) or even prevent some “covered” players from attending these showcases. McWilliams and others might therefore have even more of an uphill battle in landing a contract during what is expected to be an absolute frenzy of transactions once the lockout is finally over. [UPDATE: Ghiroli tweets that the MLBPA has adjusted its qualification standard for stipends to include McWilliams and other players in his situation]
More from around baseball…
- Niko Goodrum is one of the many free agents still waiting to land his next contract, though the utilityman told The Detroit News’ Chris McCosky that he had plenty of interest prior to the lockout. The Tigers outrighted Goodrum off their 40-man roster in mid-November and he chose to test the open market, saying “we had been in contact with 10 teams….Seven of them were looking to offer big-league deals.” Goodrum’s multi-positional versatility would certainly make him a good fit on many rosters, even if his bat has fallen off over the last two seasons. In 504 plate appearances in 2020-21, Goodrum hit only .203/.282/.350 — a significant dropoff from the .247/.319/.427 slash line he posted with Detroit over 964 PA in 2018-19. Goodrum has no hard feelings towards the Tigers for parting ways, and is now just looking forward to his next big league opportunity.
- Tyler Zombro is planning to attend the Rays’ minor league camp, and tells The Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin that “within the next month to two months, I certainly will be 100 percent” recovered from a skull fracture. In a horrific incident during a Triple-A game last June, Zombro was hit in the head with a line drive, suffering both the fracture and a seizure on the mound. After emergency surgery and a long recovery process, however, Zombro was given medical clearance by MLB last month and got back onto a mound for the first time since the injury.
I appreciate the McWilliams note because it just had orrcured to me too. these players are caught in such a bad spot. if we’re honest, the logical solution would just be to let them play, but here we are.
100% agree darkside. I was wondering the same thing and finally see some clarification. If you’re not an official union member cuz you haven’t been promoted from a major leagur deal and played in the show(which is a huge deal to the little guys busting their hump to get there) then no way you should be locked out. If they had played one game, and thus an official union member, then it’s warranted. But if not, they haven’t experienced what they’ve been working for the whole time and, in turn, shouldn’t be punished by lack of development time due to a lockout that has no end in sight. If the lockout drags on players like McWilliams may lose half a year or more of development that makes the goal of being a major leaguer much harder by no fault of his own while other players he has always played with get to play and hone some skills to pass him by.
Would like to see the Orioles sign Niko
Hoping Goodrum gets a chance to play with whatever team signs him. The man has tools!
Jack of all, master of none
Jack of all trades and a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.
The only group that I really feel for are the minor leaguers or guys like McWilliams who is a minor leaguer in every sense but this important one.
That group is vastly underpaid and deals with housing and travel that might be close to what they had in the movie major league.
I really can’t get behind major leaguers who even at minimum make more then I’ll see in a decade, and especially not guys like Soto who can turn down 350 million knowing that they’ll likely be in line for more.
Oh no he won’t be able to buy his children their personal island paradise.
Yes they make far less then the owners, but it isn’t like it use to be where even star players had to have winter jobs to get by.
Make it so that if a team gets revenue sharing money they have to spend a certain portion of their teams own revenue plus all of the revenue sharing money on players.
Reward teams for signing home grown talent….casual fans need familiar faces, players that teams can build around.
And give the minor leaguers enough of a salary that they can live comfortable lives in the area where they play. Even going six figures would be a drop in the bucket for most teams.
All these lockout/strikes seem to do is help the guys that are at the top of the pile, either the owners who make extreme profits when they sell the team and don’t do badly year to year till then, or the upper tier of players who are already making generational money.
In the end they’ll help the little guy a little, trash baseball more for the smaller market fans , the owners will still get theirs and players like Harper, Machado, and Soto will get a extra 25-50 million to their contracts.
When you have skills that generate billions in revenue and you are the top .0001% of people doing your job, get back to us. Maybe if you care so much about the little guys you could pony a few bucks up for a mlbtr membership rather than take their work for free. Yeah, I didn’t think you would.
Is that you Aaron Rogers?
I do not see how these are the same. The company I work for hadnt given even cost of living raises for near a decade but asked us to congratulate the ceo for his 20 million dollar bonus. So yes I do know what it is like to be underpaid and trying to figure out how to arrange bills to keep the lights on roof over head and food in bellies.
No I don’t pay for mlbtr but I have also been here since nearly day 1 and I like to think that in a small way I helped get them to where they are now. If they were faced with closing of the site unless people paid I would
Even the worst of players who get to ten years make millions
Mlb players are fine. I believe there are minor league players that aren’t even getting minimum wage
Agreed, Schellis. I’ll add this: EVERY worker makes less than the company’s owner. And any exceptions to the rule (Hollywood, maybe) do nothing to alter how absurd it is for fans to complain that players are underpaid because owners make more.
You’re comparing apples to bowling balls trying to compare any “regular” job with that of a Major League Baseball player.
I’m not really though (nice Phil Leotardo reference, by the way). The fact that players already take in huge chunks of revenue as salary covers that difference between baseball and “normal”. However, business is business. The concept of any worker making more than the company’s owner is odd and unusual. At least odd enough to make it an absurd thing to expect. It goes against the very grain of how business works. My main point being, if players want to fight for higher salaries, let them. But the idea that it’s somehow unjust or off base that owners make more than individual players do is ridiculous.
you are stuck at a low paying jobs because you did not study hard, have no other skills to even go to anorher company for a better pay or are just lazy and complain about highly skilled baseball players getting paid more than you ever will.
Pretty low class of you to make accusations of laziness. If you can’t back up your view with facts, resorting to slander doesn’t make your case. Especially with such a naive understanding of economics and labor. I’m just giving opinions and facts, you spew ignorance and insults.
If players prove they are major league worthy they will get generational money.
I am college educated but in a industry that is locked down by most companies going the contractor route instead of direct employment.
I’m just saying it isn’t like players are making 50000 a year with minimal hope of better.
If they are average 10 year players they are likely looking at a 50 million career if not more.
If they are among the top 25-50 they have a chance to make enough that they could consider ownership as well.
next…too long
Goodrum would be a good addition for the Rangers or Yankees.
Yes, Goodrum is an exciting player to watch. He can play a whole bunch of positions also. Who wouldn’t want him?
If he hit like he did years ago he’d have value but if you can’t hit your way out of a paper bag you’ll find it hard to keep a roster spot.
Detroit.
He’s a back of the bench guy. Either a team needs a bad hitting SS/utility guy or they don’t. Many don’t.
One gripe I have with the CBA is that players can’t take a pay cut in arbitration. The team’s choices are to risk overpaying for underperformance or cutting the player. Goodrum has value to everyone but the Tigers because they would be forced to pay him at least $2.1 mill. if they kept him. Anyone else can mark him to market, which would be a significant discount from $2.1 mill. (maybe $1-$1.3 mill., if even less for a utility guy who seems to have diminished defensive and offensive skills?)
I would suspect that a player would rather have the opportunity to negotiate a pay cut as a free agent than risk a bigger than market cut through arbitration. Players can negotiate a new deal with a club that non-tendered them just like they can with anyone else.
Plus the arb. process can be ugly so why flood it with pay cut cases?
I agree with this. If a player is faced with a major cut they would rather have a opportunity to see if a team would do better
Perhaps a midpoint would be allow this but allow original team a opportunity to match. Or say better by 1-5 percent since it would be player doing leg work
Exactly. Salary increases are baked into the Arbitration process, and the MLBPA likes it that way. Of course, that does tend to hurt guys like Niko who might find a long term home otherwise. Of course, they will say he can always agree to a lesser salary to keep his job but teams rarely will take that chance because the tendering requirements come much earlier than the arbitration process.
Players can be offered as much as a 20% pay cut in arbitration. It has actually happened a few times. Usually it was someone who was injured and missed a lot of time, or a player whose production dropped massively. But generally, yes, the yearly salary goes up every year even if production does not. It’s one of the reasons I think free agency should happen after four years, not six.
Goodrum could help a lot of teams. Not the best bat/glove but can play virtually anywhere on the field. Seems like an A’s type of player
What is that genius Al doing today?
Niko can help a lot of teams and should have a few more years left in him. But here is where the arbitration system hurts him. He was due a big raise in arbitration, $2.9M per MLBTR predictions. But his skill set, while valuable, is not worth that much money in today’s game. So Tigers really had little choice but to non-tender him and move on. Unless he can get a multi year deal with another team, he will go through this every year for the rest of his career. Or at least while he is still arbitration eligible, which will be through next off season at a minimum.
He isn’t really THAT valuable. He’s a utility guy who can actually field well but still, not that much more value than any other bad hitting utility guy. That skill set is overrated by fans. Most teams just take infielders that fail at becoming starters and convert them into poor fielding utility guys. Now if Niko could hit….
Just because he plays a lot of different positions doesn’t mean he can field the ball well He’s versatile, but not good anywhere. Not like they’re moving him around to keep that stick in the lineup. Brandon Inge-lite.
I know quite a few folks who’d say he’s a good fielder. Wouldn’t be too surprised to see that that’s not correct. I’ve never really watched him much so I can only go by what folks say. But there’s a certain logic that, if he were truly a good fielding SS, he’d have a starting job. So I can definitely believe that he’s a bad fielder.
Nico. Over rated. Poor fielder poor WAR. Yet people think he’s major league talent ?
He’s major league talent. Bottom tier, last guy off the bench, but he deserves a roster spot somewhere.
I played against goodrum in high school… it’s interesting, because in reality, he’s never really produce at any lvl. High school, he was meh. Good, but our region and state had significantly better talent. Then you look at his numbers in the minors and meh… not that good really. And in the majors he’s been pretty blah for the most part also. So the question becomes … how does a kid that’s never truly impress, make it this far and continue to get interest from teams. Hey, at this point, he has experience… which counts for something and he isn’t freaking awful by any means. But I question how he earned the opportunities that he did. Good luck to him, make that money! Keep proving guys like me wrong!