Minor league players in the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies farm systems on Saturday wore teal wristbands to protest pay that they say is insufficient.
At least 10 players from the Brooklyn Cyclones and Jersey Shore BlueClaws wore the wristbands — which feature the hashtag #FairBall — during their High-A game in New York.
The demonstration was organized in part by Advocates for Minor Leaguers, which also handed out the wristbands to fans and distributed pamphlets detailing the financial issues faced by players.
“Minor League Baseball players have been severely underpaid and silenced for decades,” players from both teams said in a joint statement released by the advocacy group.
“We love the game of baseball, but it needs to evolve. It is time for every minor leaguer to be paid a living wage,” it added.
High-A players make a minimum of US$500 per week and are only paid during the six-month minor league season.
Although some players receive signing bonuses worth hundreds of thousands — even millions — of dollars upon entering pro ball, many sign for as little as US$1,000.
The financial burden has prompted players to sleep on sofas, air mattresses or floors in overcrowded apartments, play with tattered equipment, and seek charity from fans and more fortunate teammates.
“The players who donned wristbands in Brooklyn today will make less than $12,000 this year,” the statement said. “The MLB teams they play for are worth well more than US$2 billion. There is absolutely no excuse for this.”
The group said it had volunteers handing out wristbands and pamphlets to fans outside minor league stadiums in Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska and California, along with Brooklyn, which had the only on-field player protest with the wristbands.
The pamphlets say that MLB teams extend pay to players during the offseason and provide players with housing and three meals per day during the season.
While major league players make a minimum of US$570,500 per year, players with minor league contracts are not part of the MLB Players’ Association. Prior to this season, players at the lowest levels of the minors made as little as US$4,800 per year.
Garrett Broshuis, cofounder of Advocates for Minor Leaguers, has said he would like minor league players to eventually form their own union.
The MLB raised minor league salaries for this season, with full-season minor leaguers earning from US$12,000 to US$16,800 per season. The federal poverty line is US$12,880 for individuals.
The raise came amid a shakeup of the player development pipeline that included chopping the affiliated minors from 160 to 120 teams.
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