Mike's Mets - Upgrading Minor League Living Conditions Just Makes Sense

 

By Mike Steffanos

This offseason figures to be one of the most consequential in New York Mets history. Steve Cohen and Sandy Alderson will need to decide on the person responsible for laying a foundation for what the Mets will be for the foreseeable future. The manager and most of the coaching staff will be new next season. There will be promotions and demotions along with hirings and firings up and down the organization. The team on the field wearing Mets uniforms will undoubtedly look very different next year, as will the folks making the critical decisions behind the scenes. Unlike last year, Cohen and Alderson will have plenty of time to accomplish the tasks before them, with no excuses if they can't get the job done.

I'm sure there will be a lot to write about this offseason. We'll put in our two cents on candidates for the PBO job and who should be the next manager, as well as which players the Mets should keep and who they should take a pass on. We'll follow everything that happens with great interest and write about as much of it as possible. I still believe that this team can have a great future with effective leadership in place.

But I'd like to take a step back for a moment and share some thoughts on a story that's been ongoing all year, playing out in the background of all of the happenings in Major League Baseball. While MLB players vie for multi-million dollar contracts, players in the Minor Leagues still struggle to make a living wage from the game. MLB's decision to contract the number of minor league affiliates was made for a number of reasons, primarily to benefit the bottom line of major league clubs, of course. But MLB also claims that a goal of the changes to the minors was for players to have better facilities as they climbed the ladder of affiliated baseball.

It may very well prove to be the case going forward that the playing fields, locker rooms, and training facilities that the players utilize are better than they were before the reorganization. However, minor league baseball players are still forced to endure harsh living conditions. A couple of recent pieces on ESPN.com and The Athletic document the continuing problems with how these players are treated by the multi-billion dollar industry.

Earlier this month on The Athletic, Sam Blum had a piece on the struggles of minor leaguers in the Angels' organization. Players are given a small salary from which they're forced to pay their own housing expenses. This forces players to live out of their cars at times. When they do find housing, they have to crowd into small apartments with several other young ballplayers. The players' hotel rooms are paid for on road trips, but they need to feed themselves on the less-than-generous sum of $25 per day. The pressures of that lifestyle are crushing dreams for these kids.

Blum gives the example of Michael Cruz, a Double-A catcher in the Angels' system:

The 25-year-old has been in pro ball for six years. He has survived on less than $15,000 a season. He has lived out of his car. He has lived in homes where roommates are crowded but furniture is sparse.

For Cruz, who is not considered a prospect, the pursuit of his baseball dream has been debilitating. Housing insecurity, inadequate nutrition and a paycheck below minimum wage — common realities of minor leaguers — have created mental health struggles and physical hardships.

Baseball's tradition of treating minor leaguers poorly goes back many decades. Most of the young ballplayers under contract to Major League teams are not prospects. Only a tiny percentage will make it past A ball. Few of those will even earn a brief promotion to the big leagues. But many decent ballplayers continue to hold onto their dream as long as possible, which allows the real prospects to face solid competition as they move up the ladder to the majors.

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