Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: MLB must join this groundswell to support minors

It finally looks like it could happen… minor league baseball players might actually be able to afford to concentrate on baseball instead of how to make ends meet.

We aren’t new to this subject.  This site has advocated the idea of paying minor league players more – much more – than they currently receive, and we’ve noted how the Atlanta Braves and all other teams could do this without hardly even noticing the impact.

Perhaps… change is in the wind now.

I am hoping is that the lesson of Kyler Murray has been instructive to the sport.  Here’s a young, top athlete drafted high in the 1st round who looked at both the math and the coming grind… and opted for the immediate payday and immediate play-day in the top professional football league.

Baseball is being left on the outside as a spectator.

The fact that Murray also happens to be an African-American athlete is a double blow for baseball, but continues a trend in which some of the best athletes in the country choose other sports – chiefly basketball and football – while African-American participation in baseball dwindles.

"In 1981, 18.7% of the league’s players, and 22% of the All-Star game rosters, were African-American. On opening day this year, African-American players made up 8.4% of the league, and recent All-Star rosters were less than 5% African-American.Meanwhile, African-American athletes dominate the NBA (74%) and the [NFL] (over 65%)."

Following the Money

There’s a lot of reasons for this, and most of them are economic.  Baseball has started some meager efforts to trying and reach the inner cities and elsewhere with the game, but this initiative is a long way off from being effective.

In bullet-point form, here are the main problems:

• High school baseball programs aren’t nearly enough to get an athlete noticed.  The costs of travel ball, year-round programs, and equipment represent a barrier to entry into the sport for many.
• Lack of Scholarships.  Never mind that the best players need to be drafted out of high school, but College baseball programs are severely handicapped in the financial assistance they can offer to players compared to football:

"Division I college baseball teams are allotted 11.7 total scholarships for a roster of 25 or more, and thus, most, if not all, players are awarded partial scholarships. Limited scholarships mean that families have to pay a substantial cost to attend college.Cash-strapped families-Black, Brown, or White-cannot afford college without a full athletic scholarship. Some African American athletes, as a result, tend to gravitate towards football and basketball where full athletic scholarships are offered."

By contrast, FBS Universities can offer 85 scholarships… all of these being full rides.  That doesn’t take a lot of thought to make a decision.

• The Minor League grind.  Baseball is so much different from basketball and football in that once the school years are done, athletes aren’t immediately inserted into a starting lineup at the elite level:  it’s usually 3-5 years of serious work under tough conditions.

Those tough conditions include below-poverty-level wages that make players have to work in the off-season simply to make ends meet.

While that’s the basis of this discussion today, all of the above underscores why many athletes – and particularly the African-Americans – choose another path.

That’s just 1 crisis of our sport.  But here’s some positive news about that final bullet point above:

A light in the Tunnel?

This news broke on Sunday:

Well, that’s a start.  Frankly, it’s not nearly enough, but it’s something.

Then this news hit on Monday evening, courtesy of ESPN’s Jeff Passan:

"Major League Baseball suggested sweeping changes to the minor leagues — including a significant increase in salaries, a higher standard of living conditions and better transportation — during an initial collective-bargaining session with the group that oversees the minors, sources familiar with the meeting told ESPN."

The matter, he goes on to say, is still in negotiations, so we will have to see what the phrase ‘significant increase’ really means.  Nonetheless, I’m glad to see a move in the right direction.

Only a precious few – close to 70 – draftees get million dollar signing bonuses.  The vast majority will be offered $10,000 or less.  It’s a 1-time deal and then all salaries from that point onward are capped in a draconian manner until (and if) a player hits the majors.

This is for players who are supposed to be ‘professionals’ – dedicating their lives to their new professions as athletes.

Even after that – with $555,000 major league minimums in 2019 – only a relative few get here.  Even less get through 3 years of automatic salaries to the arbitration years.  Only then does the money actually start getting interesting.

By then, most players are already in their mid-to-late 20’s.

Don’t Take Advantage of the 90%

In that discussion from 3 years ago, I advocated something on the order of $15 to $20 per hour equivalent for minor league salaries.  That would be around 3-4 times current rates… yes:  fast food handlers make more than minor league baseball players, and it isn’t close.

Baseball could (and should) do this and also promote marketing opportunities for these minor leaguers, which could allow them the chance to earn additional monies while promoting the sport.

After all, around 90% or more of their minor leaguers will never sniff the majors, and thus most are ultimately present to provide what is still a necessary service: fill out the rosters for the 5-10%.

What if a significant portion of these players simply decided that it wasn’t worth their time and effort?  Many already make that call each year (check the signing rates below draft round 30).

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• Braves News: Braves re-sign Stephens, Will Atlanta extend Max Fried?, more
• Notable Atlanta Braves Reunions Since 2003: Pitcher Edition
• Braves News: Braves re-sign Jackson Stephens

Given the increases in revenues to the clubs over the past several years, this would truly be inconsequential to most clubs… and the investment would surely pay great dividends:

• Better athletes would be drawn to baseball (likely in direct proportion to the increased salaries)
• Better athletes would stick with the sport for longer periods of time
• If baseball truly wants to expand to 32 teams, more players will be necessary regardless… this action would serve to prevent talent dilution (i.e., it would keep a better end product on the field over time)

So it’s all linked… and it’s linked by money.  This is a problem that has gone on far too long.

Hopefully baseball management at all levels figures out that they need to do the right thing by these players who essentially put their lives on hold for a dream.

Many never get to fully realize that dream, but they surely support those who do get there.  The sport should do so as well.