Reese Kaplan -- For Many, The End is Now Here

It’s either happened to us directly or to someone we care about deeply.  You’re going through your life, filled with the various ups and downs of things that happen beyond our control.  Still, for the most part we’re more happy than sad.  What can change to throw everything into utter uncertainty when we haven’t done anything ourselves to cause this transaction to unfold?  

It’s very different, of course, if we hate our job and gradually begin to under perform, show up late, miss deadlines or act unprofessionally.  Then we are the cause of the subsequent black hole into which we will fall.  That’s understandable and should be expected.

However, if you’re giving your all, work quality not always what we hope it could be, but still we are trying our hardest to deliver what our employers want and then, out of the blue, we get the faintly expected yet not analyzed announcement that our services are no longer required.  

Huh?

Imagine you are one of the minor league ballplayers who late last week got the proclamation of their immediate unemployment.  Most of the major league teams on Friday published lists of players who would be cut from the organization due to the lack of revenue and the major league’s ponderous decision to eliminate 42 minor league affiliates from the mix of teams preparing youngsters for “The Show.”  You can evaluate the plan from the commissioner’s office about which clubs had insufficient stadiums, which teams were no longer relevant or which franchises could best withstand the contraction.  The fact is that no one was looking for the actual day coming when the league would move forward with the pink slips.

Now none of this interaction in late May had to do with the COVID-19 pandemic.  Many will hear about reduced revenues, empty stadiums and burgeoning red tape, but the fact is that the elimination of minor league teams was on the table long before the announcements came out of Wuhan about an uncontrollable virus that would threaten the world economy.  

The first team to enter the fray was the Moneyball darling, the Oakland A’s.  They announced that they would be eliminating paychecks to all minor leaguers immediately and suspend the whole season for everyone.  That was immediately followed by some other clubs taking similar actions resulting in at least one conspicuous act of generosity by new Los Angeles Dodger David Price offering to pay $1000 to each of the now unemployed minor leaguers out of his own pocket.  

Quickly on the heels of the shutdown by some clubs came the cuts that are indeed affiliated with the MLB dissolution of many minor league affiliates.  The Mets announced their pink slips on Friday and while there were no hot prospects on the list, it still was a gut punch to read about familiar names like Andrew Church no longer a part of the Queens spectrum.  Church was obviously hurt by the action and drew national headlines calling attention to how the Mets would forestall the development of other minor leaguers by continually making room for a certainly celebrity former quarterback to help sell tickets and jerseys.  

However, what do you do now if you are among the list of unemployed minor leaguers with fewer job opportunities (thank you, major league owners) and the coronavirus shutdown eliminating many other potential opportunities?  Do you take your gig to South Korea as many former major leaguers have done (including former Mets Aaron Altherr, Chris Flexen and Drew Gagnon)?  Do you head to Central America, South America or the Caribbean?  Do you look to hook up with an unaffiliated Independent League to keep yourself in game shape ready to return to the affiliated organizations?  Do you look to transition from a playing career to a green-behind-the-ears coaching gig?  Or do you become an Uber driver?

We are entering a brave new world for a great many minor leaguers and there are no answers on anyone’s lips as to what will happen to them now.  More importantly, the owners of the clubs are showcasing their own profit motives above all.  If baseball wasn’t already in trouble accumulating fans and revenue, they’ve taken steps to make it that much more difficult to do so.