Minor League Baseball Players Vying for Unemployment Benefits
Minor Leaguers normally don't qualify for unemployment benefits as they are considered independent contractors by the MLB, but unemployment benefits have expanded since the coronavirus shutdown and out of work MiLB players are hoping it now can apply to them.
Robin Lundberg: Perhaps no aspect of sports has been ravaged more by the Coronavirus pandemic than minor league baseball. For more, I'm joined by our Emma Baccellieri. Emma, we've seen some teams stop paying minor leaguers. We've seen some major leaguers step up to try and help them. But now there is a quest to get unemployment.
Emma Baccellieri: Yeah. So traditionally, minor league baseball players have not been a group of people who can file for unemployment benefits based on the way that those regulations are structured. But right now, with some of the legislation that we've seen passed to expand those benefits to more workers, to gig workers to independent contractors, which are exactly what MLB has long argued that these players are. There is an avenue for minor leaguers to be able to file for unemployment and to be able to get those six hundred dollars a week, which is a a pretty huge sum for a minor leaguer, considering that is higher than even the salaries you see at triple-A.
Robin Lundberg: How do we expect minor league baseball to bounce back from all this, if at all?
Emma Baccellieri: It's gonna be really tough. Frankly, they're probably going to be a lot of franchises that that don't make it. Something like short season ball, that probably is not going to exist as we knew it. It's a tough time and it's going to be really hard for a lot of these clubs coming out of it.
Robin Lundberg: Obviously, you know, we see the effects with the unemployment story that you have as well. Emma, appreciate your time, as always. Thanks.
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