MLB has long been content to take advantage of its minor league labor, leaving players to fend for themselves for basic necessities like food and housing with many subject to untenable living conditions, sharing cramped one and two-bedroom apartments with multiple teammates while struggling to make a living wage. In response to backlash, MLB has made some concessions to minor leaguers in recent years, though many of the same problems persist with players still fighting for every penny, powerless to stop their corporate overlords from railroading them at each turn.
Elise Bloom, a lawyer for Major League Baseball, presented the argument in federal court Friday that minor leaguers should not be paid for spring training, contending that players who attend minor league camp aren’t actually employees. “It is the players that obtain the greater benefit from the training opportunities that they are afforded than the clubs, who actually just incur the cost of having to provide that training,” said Bloom, who is representing MLB in a class-action lawsuit that will go to trial this summer. “During the training season, the players are not employees, and would not be subject to either the Fair Labor Standards Act or any state minimum wage act.”
According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, an expert hired by MLB recently determined that “training” provided by teams is worth roughly $2,200 per week, an estimate based on what it would cost players to attend an independent “prospecting camp” rather than spring training. Though consistent with MLB’s past stances on minor league compensation, many in the baseball community were outraged by this sentiment, taking particular offense to players being diminished as mere “trainees.”
MLB and the union remain deadlocked in what has been a bitter labor dispute between players and owners with no clear resolution in sight. The current work stoppage only applies to MLB with minor league players still expected to report to spring training in the coming weeks.
LISTEN NOW on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram