Report: MLB Teams To Pay for Minor League Housing in 2022
Major League Baseball teams will be required to provide housing for its minor league players, beginning with the 2022 season.
ESPN.com was the first to report the news, which is significant for minor league players in the game’s 120 affiliates.
MLB agreed to the change after pressure for advocacy groups for minor league players.
This means players for the Rangers’ four minor-league affiliates will have the housing burden taken off their shoulders in 2022, both at home and on the road. The Rangers have affiliates in Kinston, North Carolina (Down East Wood Ducks, Low Class A), Hickory, North Carolina (Hickory Crawdads, High Class A), Frisco, Texas (Frisco Roughriders, Double A) and the Round Rock Express (Round Rock, Texas, Triple A)
It’s not clear how MLB teams will handle paying for the housing. But, ESPN quoted a pair of baseball executives who said that it would cost an MLB team less than $1 million per year.
This is the latest development in a multi-year effort on MLB’s part to restructure the minors. That included doing away with minor league affiliates, restructuring leagues and improving player salaries in 2021 by 38 to 72 percent, per MLB.
However, salaries are nowhere near what players receive at the MLB level.
Harry Marino, executive director of Advocates of Minor Leaguers, told ESPN that, even after the increases, most player salaries are below $15,000 per year. Also, players don’t receive pay between the end of one season and the beginning of the next.
Those salaries range from $290-500 per week at the Low Class A level to $502-$700 per week at the Triple A level.
This movement actually began in 2021. The Houston Astros were the first MLB team to cover all lodging, at home and on the road, for all of its minor league players. Other teams provided stipends or free accommodations at certain affiliates.
The Rangers have housed players who work out at their spring training complex in Surprise, Arizona with a dormitory-style housing facility called Rangers Village. The complex opened in 2020.
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