The Disgrace of Minor League Baseball

[Jim3k]

The MLB has multiple ways to underpay minor leaguers and to hold them back to take advantage.

Michael Baumann of The Ringer has a nice piece on this exploitation.

[Reilly]

I've always admired companies with rules about the CEO not making more than 7x the lowest-paid employee. All are contributing to the enterprise.

The entertainment value and skill on display at a minor league game as compared to a major league game is not a $6K:$4M difference.

Is it 600x more enjoyable to go to a MLB game?

Are the players 600x better?

[Channing]

I've always admired companies with rules about the CEO not making more than 7x the lowest-paid employee. All are contributing to the enterprise.

The entertainment value and skill on display at a minor league game as compared to a major league game is not a $6K:$4M difference.

Is it 600x more enjoyable to go to a MLB game?

Are the players 600x better?

I think clearly the tv rights can command 600x more...

[Mal]

I remember reading about this issue several years back, and there were some pretty brutal sounding, but ultimately difficult to overcome economic arguments coming from minor league team owners. They insisted there were several factors that drove them to the barely minimum wage and arguably below that payscale for their players:

- they were convinced of the inelasticity of demand for their on-field product. Minor league operators believe that the coziness, the food and beer, the family-friendly atmosphere, and the outdoors for a relatively inexpensive night out of it all is what really drives people to their ballparks. Not the likelihood of seeing really good baseball or the next Giancarlo Stanton before he hits the bigs. Especially in rookie or A league play. Consequently, they could theoretically have the players paying them for the opportunity to play in front of scouts and fans on a nice field, or fill the team year-in-year-out with middling collegiate level players with no hopes of ever reaching the bigs
- there are so many players out there, that there will always be plenty of them willing to live like this in order to take a shot at their dream
- for guys coming from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela and the lower strata of economics in the U.S., it's not as "bad" a living condition as it is for a middle class American kid who's gotten used to the dorms at Auburn
- there's no alternate route to MLB other than to toil in its minors - that's changed a little with more guys taking a path from 4 years of college ball and skipping through the lower levels of the minors, but there's no Euro league, Canadian league, etc.

The inelastic demand argument would seem to be short term thinking, but it's not clear that minor league teams are losing money or value, so that bears out for the time being. As long as they're affiliated with specific major league teams, there's some subsidization there. And the rest of the factors, to me at least, just cry out for a change in the organization on the labor side of baseball. So far as I know, there's only a players union for the major leagues, rather than a professional baseball players union. Market forces are battering the labor on the minor league level but for whatever reason (perhaps the antitrust exemption, perhaps just the general decline in the union movement in America, perhaps the transience of minor league baseball life, I don't know) the minor league players haven't organized.

The people who could fix this, that being major league players who have significant amounts of leverage and power, haven't. If Bryce Harper and Mike Trout were to raise a huge stink about this, or the MLBPA expanded to include minor league players and pushed for a legitimate minimum wage for them, it would happen quickly.
But outside of moral and ethical appeals, they're not incentivized to use that power. And we all know how far moral and ethical appeals with nothing else go in our world today. Whether giving a monetary leg up to minor league players would come at the expense of ownership or current major league players, or both, is a risk factor keeping everyone from taking such action, most likely.

Clearly, there's more than enough money around to change this situation, though. If you took just 7% of the average of $4M/year of each of the 800 guys on major league rosters, for purposes of supplementing the income of 7 minor league players, that would filter down $40k/year to every single guy throughout each level of the minors. Obviously, it's easy to sit here and tell Clayton Kershaw he should be willing to give up a couple mil of his $32,000,000 salary so that the future Clayton Kershaw out there doesn't have to sleep on the floor of a studio apartment in Hoboken that he shares with 3 roomates and eat ramen noodles every night. It's another thing to make that happen.

ETA - I don't want the above to come off like I'm calling existing major league players selfish or spoiled or anything. They command what the market can bear. I don't begrudge their salaries, though I do question the society in which market forces drive those salaries.

[dudog84]

I remember reading about this issue several years back, and there were some pretty brutal sounding, but ultimately difficult to overcome economic arguments coming from minor league team owners. They insisted there were several factors that drove them to the barely minimum wage and arguably below that payscale for their players:

- they were convinced of the inelasticity of demand for their on-field product. Minor league operators believe that the coziness, the food and beer, the family-friendly atmosphere, and the outdoors for a relatively inexpensive night out of it all is what really drives people to their ballparks. Not the likelihood of seeing really good baseball or the next Giancarlo Stanton before he hits the bigs. Especially in rookie or A league play. Consequently, they could theoretically have the players paying them for the opportunity to play in front of scouts and fans on a nice field, or fill the team year-in-year-out with middling collegiate level players with no hopes of ever reaching the bigs
- there are so many players out there, that there will always be plenty of them willing to live like this in order to take a shot at their dream
- for guys coming from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela and the lower strata of economics in the U.S., it's not as "bad" a living condition as it is for a middle class American kid who's gotten used to the dorms at Auburn
- there's no alternate route to MLB other than to toil in its minors - that's changed a little with more guys taking a path from 4 years of college ball and skipping through the lower levels of the minors, but there's no Euro league, Canadian league, etc.

The inelastic demand argument would seem to be short term thinking, but it's not clear that minor league teams are losing money or value, so that bears out for the time being. As long as they're affiliated with specific major league teams, there's some subsidization there. And the rest of the factors, to me at least, just cry out for a change in the organization on the labor side of baseball. So far as I know, there's only a players union for the major leagues, rather than a professional baseball players union. Market forces are battering the labor on the minor league level but for whatever reason (perhaps the antitrust exemption, perhaps just the general decline in the union movement in America, perhaps the transience of minor league baseball life, I don't know) the minor league players haven't organized.

The people who could fix this, that being major league players who have significant amounts of leverage and power, haven't. If Bryce Harper and Mike Trout were to raise a huge stink about this, or the MLBPA expanded to include minor league players and pushed for a legitimate minimum wage for them, it would happen quickly.
But outside of moral and ethical appeals, they're not incentivized to use that power. And we all know how far moral and ethical appeals with nothing else go in our world today. Whether giving a monetary leg up to minor league players would come at the expense of ownership or current major league players, or both, is a risk factor keeping everyone from taking such action, most likely.

Clearly, there's more than enough money around to change this situation, though. If you took just 7% of the average of $4M/year of each of the 800 guys on major league rosters, for purposes of supplementing the income of 7 minor league players, that would filter down $40k/year to every single guy throughout each level of the minors. Obviously, it's easy to sit here and tell Clayton Kershaw he should be willing to give up a couple mil of his $32,000,000 salary so that the future Clayton Kershaw out there doesn't have to sleep on the floor of a studio apartment in Hoboken that he shares with 3 roomates and eat ramen noodles every night. It's another thing to make that happen.

ETA - I don't want the above to come off like I'm calling existing major league players selfish or spoiled or anything. They command what the market can bear. I don't begrudge their salaries, though I do question the society in which market forces drive those salaries.

And do they want to be subsidizing the kid that might take their place? Not the Kershaws of the world, but many of the other guys.

In some ways it's like the NBA players union having a say in when high school/college kids can join their league through the collective bargaining agreement.

Me, I just wish I'd had the athleticism to have been in the conversation.

[Reilly]

... Obviously, it's easy to sit here and tell Clayton Kershaw he should be willing to give up a couple mil of his $32,000,000 salary so that the future Clayton Kershaw out there doesn't have to sleep on the floor of a studio apartment in Hoboken that he shares with 3 roomates and eat ramen noodles every night. It's another thing to make that happen.

ETA - I don't want the above to come off like I'm calling existing major league players selfish or spoiled or anything. They command what the market can bear. I don't begrudge their salaries ...

Could the parent MLB clubs, in running their businesses worth hundreds of millions, decide to commit to spend $X each on minor league talent -- giving the minor ballplayers a more decent living wage -- and then that would give the parent clubs that 5% less, so they'd only be offering Kershaw $30,400,000 b/c that's what the market could bear, given some of the market's resources were tied up in paying minor league talent.

Heck, I'd rather see every draftee/minor leaguer get a $20K salary than see the first 60 get million dollar bonuses. Save the millions for those who make it higher in the system or get to the majors.

[Reilly]

I think clearly the tv rights can command 600x more...

I guess, but the inherent appeal/value of the spectacle/entertainment is not 600x more entertaining or valuable, to my mind. I went to some of the men's D3 hoops tournament this year -- sport is sport, at some level, and it had a lot of the drama and excitement of Duke/Carolina in Cameron, or the NBA playoffs. And NBA players may very well be 600x better than a D3 hoops player. But I don't think Duke/Carolina or the NBA playoffs offered that much more in overall entertainment or thought-provoking value.

We all love to do a bracket come March. If a spotlight were on the D3 bracket and everybody talked about it, it might be just as fun to do and follow. It's not the quality of the D1 players that makes all the non-hoops people do a March Madness bracket. It's the stories, the upsets, the close games, the bracket itself, the fact that many are doing it -- and those factors could equally apply to D3.

I saw a C.S. Lewis quote referenced recently here: "But not only are there no “worthless” people, there are, as C.S. Lewis remarked in his sermon The Weight of Glory, “no ordinary people.” Those “we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit” — those we mock on Twitter, those at whom we direct contempt, those we “throw away” — are “immortals” and “everlasting splendours.”" (https://magazine.nd.edu/news/life-affirming/)

I guess I come down on the side that there are no ordinary baseball games (at least at the professional levels)-- they are all immortal and everlasting splendours -- so it's hard to justify the wide disparity in pay to the players at the different professional levels.

[Mal]

I guess I come down on the side that there are no ordinary baseball games (at least at the professional levels)-- they are all immortal and everlasting splendours -- so it's hard to justify the wide disparity in pay to the players at the different professional levels.

Good points, and I never thought I'd see C.S. Lewis quoted in a baseball thread! Kudos.

Just to add: the quality of play in the majors is fed by the players there honing their games and receiving excellent coaching and training...in the minor leagues. It's the same ecosystem in a way that D-I and D-III hoops are not, which I think only enhances your point that while the money is entirely attached to the MLB product on air, that's in large part because the system's been built and marketed that way.

[Reilly]

Good points, and I never thought I'd see C.S. Lewis quoted in a baseball thread! Kudos.

Just to add: the quality of play in the majors is fed by the players there honing their games and receiving excellent coaching and training...in the minor leagues. It's the same ecosystem in a way that D-I and D-III hoops are not, which I think only enhances your point that while the money is entirely attached to the MLB product on air, that's in large part because the system's been built and marketed that way.

If it's really about the journey and not the destination, then the minors are the more compelling (entertaining?) story, in many ways. "Bull Durham" doesn't work in a MLB setting. That said, we like to take in excellence, and the Majors offer that.

That Lewis quote from that essay popped into my head, but I had to hunt it down, b/c while the quote popped into my head reading this thread, I thought it was Chesterton that had been quoted.

[Duke79UNLV77]

Wait. I thought college basketball was taking advantage of athletes, and baseball, with its minor league system, was the cure to all evils? No???

[Jim3k]

Frankly, I fail to understand discussing this problem in terms of the marketplace or the quality of baseball being offered. All of the minor league players are employees, many of whom have been drafted by a major league team. There is money for these players to be paid a livable salary while competing. Why isn't the industry stepping up to do it? The AL and NL teams can afford to cover those costs, if the minor league owners cannot. I'm pretty sure at least some of these young players, often immigrants, aren't even being paid federal or state minimum wage. These guys are nearly starving. Certainly they are not eating healthily, not to mention inadequate housing allowances, forcing the players to scrounge for a roof.

And no, the antitrust exemption does not free professional baseball from the obligation to comply with the minimum wage laws. That's Sherman Act stuff, totally irrelevant to salary.


AFAICT, field performance and gate success have nothing to do with the proper remuneration of these employees. Even failing businesses are obligated to pay minimum and contractual wages until they fail, whether they can afford it or not. Wage exploitation is the issue for minor league baseball, not business success.

[Reilly]

... Even failing businesses are obligated to pay minimum and contractual wages until they fail, whether they can afford it or not. Wage exploitation is the issue for minor league baseball, not business success.

Page 1967 of this federal law passed last month exempts the minor leage players from getting the traditional FLSA minimum wage:

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek...-RCP115-66.pdf

[dudog84]

Page 1967 of this federal law passed last month exempts the minor leage players from getting the traditional FLSA minimum wage:

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek...-RCP115-66.pdf

That was a fun read...all 2000+ pages. Love the title on page 1967.

[Jim3k]

Page 1967 of this federal law passed last month exempts the minor leage players from getting the traditional FLSA minimum wage:

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek...-RCP115-66.pdf

Nice to see one of us is on top of this. But the issue has now turned from being cheap, to being unnecessarily greedy. I guess this issue shouldn't stop a budget vote, but it is truly rotten.

[Reilly]

I guess the minor league players, every week, do get the federal minimum wage ($7.25, last increased July 2009) x 40 (so, $290 before FICA is paid and taxes witheld) for the regular season weeks. They don't get any compensation (much less 1.5x the min wage) for any hours over 40. And it looks like they are not paid the min wage for spring training(?). And I guess this exemption from the FLSA prevents a state or locality from requiring a minor league club to pay a higher, local minimum wage (?).

A couple summers ago, I wanted to teach one of my kids about wages, taxes, etc. so set up a min. wage structure for doing some exterior scraping, washing, sanding, painting, and deducted FICA and federal and state taxes and whatnot. I didn't appreciate the constant threats of a strike, or the tardiness to start the work day. I'm thinking I'll lobby Congress to slip a little provision into the next budget bill to give me more flexibility so I can better handle my situation.

[PackMan97]

Nice to see one of us is on top of this. But the issue has now turned from being cheap, to being unnecessarily greedy. I guess this issue shouldn't stop a budget vote, but it is truly rotten.

Bad policy is bad.

I have much respect for the movie and TV industry which at least makes sure extras are treated not horribly for a job in which there are millions that would happily do it for free.

[kmspeaks]

Frankly, I fail to understand discussing this problem in terms of the marketplace or the quality of baseball being offered. All of the minor league players are employees, many of whom have been drafted by a major league team. There is money for these players to be paid a livable salary while competing. Why isn't the industry stepping up to do it? The AL and NL teams can afford to cover those costs, if the minor league owners cannot. I'm pretty sure at least some of these young players, often immigrants, aren't even being paid federal or state minimum wage. These guys are nearly starving. Certainly they are not eating healthily, not to mention inadequate housing allowances, forcing the players to scrounge for a roof.

And no, the antitrust exemption does not free professional baseball from the obligation to comply with the minimum wage laws. That's Sherman Act stuff, totally irrelevant to salary.


AFAICT, field performance and gate success have nothing to do with the proper remuneration of these employees. Even failing businesses are obligated to pay minimum and contractual wages until they fail, whether they can afford it or not. Wage exploitation is the issue for minor league baseball, not business success.

Maybe each team is handled differently but this was definitely not the case in my experience in minor league baseball. I was a summer intern for the Mets rookie league affiliate. The team arranged housing at a local apartment complex and two players shared a two bedroom apartment for $200 each, utilities included. They paid $50 every two weeks in clubhouse dues, some of which went to the pre- and post-game meals they were provided - things like subs, pasta, grilled chicken, etc. They may not have had personalized smoothies and team chefs like NCAA football and basketball players but they were far, far away from starving and borderline homeless. There are plenty of logical arguments to be made for paying minor league players more without using hyperbole.

[Jim3k]

I accept your observation that I was using hyperbole. I also accept your contention that things have markedly improved from the past. Years ago, I was exposed to minor leaguers and their naivete as they tried to find housing near their minor league park. Just kids. It wasn't pretty. Most didn't have much family support. Landlords ripped them off in some towns.

It's fiction, of course, but there is a fine ten-year old movie describing the difficulties a young Dominican pitcher has in the minors. Sugar (2008). Here is Roger Ebert's review. Fiction, but not far off. DVD, HBO GO

[Reilly]

... the pre- and post-game meals they were provided - things like subs, pasta, grilled chicken, etc. They may not have had personalized smoothies and team chefs like NCAA football and basketball players but they were far, far away from starving ...

... and I've heard of more recent minor league players who did not get their customary post-game PB&J b/c the parent club supposedly had not deposited funds in the affiliate's bank account ... seriously ...

[kmspeaks]

I accept your observation that I was using hyperbole. I also accept your contention that things have markedly improved from the past. Years ago, I was exposed to minor leaguers and their naivete as they tried to find housing near their minor league park. Just kids. It wasn't pretty. Most didn't have much family support. Landlords ripped them off in some towns.

It's fiction, of course, but there is a fine ten-year old movie describing the difficulties a young Dominican pitcher has in the minors. Sugar (2008). Here is Roger Ebert's review. Fiction, but not far off. DVD, HBO GO

I can imagine if the players were left totally up to their own devices then horror stories could occur, particularly for the foreign players dealing with a language barrier on top of everything else which is why I shared my one instance of first hand knowledge. It's also a lot easier to find affordable housing when making minimum wage in a place like Kingsport, TN than in other areas of the country. Of course it is entirely possible my experience with the Mets in 2009 is markedly different than the rest of minor league baseball but those guys were pretty well taken care of, especially considering they were the lowest level employees as far as baseball players were concerned. I was always driving guys around to the store or on other errands if they didn't have cars.