Texas Rangers Will Pay Minor League Players Through September 7

The Texas Rangers have committed to pay their minor leaguers through what would have been the end of the minor league regular season.

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers will continue to pay their minor league players the $400 per week stipend through September 7, which would have been the end of what would have been the 2020 minor league regular season.

The minor league season was officially canceled on June 30 due to the financial impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Clubs across Major League Baseball have not been immune to the financial impact of the pandemic either. Rangers executives took the initiative at the beginning of the shutdown by taking a 20 percent pay cut. Eventually, the financial loss inevitably forced the Rangers to implement pay reductions to their baseball operations employees in May and furlough roughly 12 percent of their full time employees earlier this month.

MLB brought in roughly $10.7 billion of revenue in 2019. They will only make a fraction of that in 2020. As of now, fans will not be allowed to attend games, even in states where it is currently permitted. According to Forbes, over 39 percent of MLB's revenue came from gate receipts and other stadium revenue.

Shortly after MLB was forced to shut down operations due to the pandemic, they began paying minor league players the $400 per week stipend and all 30 clubs promised to pay it through the end of May. As the months rolled along, various clubs continued to pay the weekly stipend past the May 31 deadline.

With this announcement today, the Rangers join a number of other clubs that have also committed to paying their minor leaguers through what would have been the end of the minor league season.

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