MLB Steps Up For Minor Leaguers in a Moment of Crisis

Minor leaguers will get the spring training expense money they were otherwise entitled to receive, and plans are revving up to see they get paid while baseball is shut down.

As much as Major League Baseball players are impacted by having the start of the 2020 season delayed indefinitely by the COVID-19 coronavirus, minor leaguers hurt more.

During spring training, players both major and minor get expense money only; no salary. The big-league players, of course, get more money. Everybody starts getting paychecks beginning opening day.

So, as one might imagine, minor league players are in particular getting slammed by the shutdown of spring training and the delay of the season’s start. The money they get in spring expenses helps them get by until the season starts.

The news that came out Thursday that MLB was stepping up to the plate to help out had to be celebrated by those in the A’s minor league system and throughout baseball.

MLB said it would be compensating minor leaguers for the expenses missed with the closing of spring training camps and that some form of pay for when the season was scheduled to start of April 8.

Who gets paid? Players who aren’t on the 40-man roster and who weren’t in spring training with the big club at the time of the shutdown; those players were getting big league expenses.

Here’s the bulk of the announcement:

MLB ANNOUNCES INTERIM SUPPORT FOR MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS, MORE TO FOLLOW

Since last week, Major League Baseball has been engaged in a variety of discussions with stakeholders to identify ways to blunt the wide-ranging impact of the national emergency resulting from the global coronavirus pandemic. As those conversations continue, MLB is announcing today a league-wide initiative that will create a level of uniform compensation for Minor League players, covering the period between now and the originally scheduled start of the minor league season. MLB is taking this initial step today because of the effects of the season’s postponement on Minor League players and their families. MLB intends to continue king with all 30 clubs to identify additional ways to support those players as a result of the delayed 2020 season.

Each player who is under a Minor League Uniform Player Contract will receive a lump sum equal to the allowances that would have been paid through April 8. The exceptions to this plan are non-40-man roster players who are already receiving Major League allowances, players who are currently receiving housing food or other services from the Clubs, and players who were not participating in, or expected to participate in Minor League Spring Training. MLB remains in communication with Clubs on the development of an industry-wide plan for Minor League player compensation from April 9 through the beginning of the coming season.

MLB takes the community impact of this crisis seriously. We will continue to monitor ongoing events and undertake the precautions and best practices recommended by public health experts to protect fans, players and ballpark workers, and we urge all baseball fans to follow suit.