Baltimore Orioles: Do the Right Thing with Minor League Players

The Baltimore Orioles front office isn’t known for its generosity with player salaries, at least since getting burned on one particular long-term contract.

However, the Baltimore Orioles did show some decency today, when the front office announced they would pay their minor league players through at least June 30.

This move makes the front office look good, but is it the best one for the men on the minor league teams?

Roch Kubatko broke the news via Twitter:

A few days ago, the Orioles released 37 minor league players. Some argue that this is actually a better deal for the players, because they can collect more money through state unemployment agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. They can also potentially attempt to sign with another team. Someone like Jomar Reyes could actually do that.

On the other hand, for minor league players who want to move up in the organization, receiving their salaries of $400 per week keeps them safe with the team.

The Orioles move to pay their minor leagues comes after some teams received backlash for deciding to stop paying them altogether. The A’s were one such team. Others have already promised to pay them throughout the season. Those teams include the Mariners, Marlins, and Padres.

According to Steve Gardner with USA Today, this is how minor league players were expected to be paid in 2020:

"“Class A players were scheduled to make $290/week, Class AA $350/week and Class AAA $502/week. That comes out to roughly $4,800 for three-month short-season leagues to around $14,000 for five months at Class AAA.”"

The low pay is because the players are considered apprentices. They don’t become full-fledged members of the team until they reach the MLB. They are technically independent contractors. This normally would make them ineligible for unemployment, like gig workers – think Uber drivers or freelance writers (like me). But, with so many gig workers out of work due to the COVID pandemic, many states are allowing gig workers to receive unemployment.

And, in most states, unemployment is significantly higher than the $400 per week MLB teams are paying. If teams stopped paying their minor league players, Garner wrote:

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"“This would mean that not only would those players be eligible to receive unemployment once their parent club stops paying them, but they would also be entitled to the additional $600 per week Congress has authorized through July 31.”"

What does this decision cost the Orioles? It all depends on how many players they have to pay and which players are receiving some MLB compensation. Let’s make it easy and say the Orioles have 120 men in their minor league system from Norfolk to Aberdeen. Paying those men for one month costs the Orioles $144,000 (120 x $1200). For an organization that is worth $1.28 billion, that’s a drop in the bucket.

While there isn’t any easy answer about what to do with minor league players and their salaries in 2020, this issue is doing some good. People are talking about it. And, we all know that squeaky wheels get some grease. Maybe this will help teams come together to pay their minor league players a living wage.