Not much, but a start: MLB raises minor league salaries

Yeah it’s better. It’s way better. Still atrocious as you said. They’re all getting at least a 30% pay raise, which is a considerable increase. Obviously the pay system needs a complete rethinking, but they moved the needle.

“Perfect” is the enemy of “good”.

Are you kidding?  Ticket prices are always just as expensive as the market is willing to bear, regardless of costs.  And this barely moves their costs at all.

So this is how the math adds up in terms of additional money spent by the organization (active players on the roster times increase in pay per week times weeks in the season).

(35 x 110) x 9=34,650 for the GCL

(35 x 110) x 12=46,200 for Lowell

(50 x 210) x 22=231,000 for Greenville and Salem

(25 x 250) x 22=137,500 for Portland

(25 x 198) x 22=108,900 for Pawtucket

That’s $558,250 spent cumulatively to increase the pay of every minor leaguer in the system. Even if you add in the increased number of players that aren’t on the active roster, it’s not going to move the needle that much.

The major league minimum salary is $563,500. So the teams are spending roughly the same amount of money to increase their minor league players salaries as they would on a single major league minimum salary. This is positive PR for the league while costing them basically nothing. While it’s a big deal for the individual players (maybe they can split their food between 3 guys instead of 8 now), it’s still a joke at this point.

Tone deaf bologna from the Mets





To be fair, it is an improvement. But when you’re starting as low as minor league players are, it’s tough to celebrate an improvement this dismal.

True. The Mets are a special kind of sh*t show. But do you honestly believe the other teams are all that much better?

I could be wrong, but I thought the price increase wasn't substantial? It's just irritating that they're raising prices while cutting costs and see this as a potential reasoning. They knew they were going to have a new expense and raised costs. Maybe this doesn't relate in anyway. Not saying it to justify it either.

Do players get free housing and are they fed at the facilities on top of their per diem?

Asking because I don’t know not because I’m suggesting it offsets the money.

This is what make me root for players like Trevor Kelley who signed for $1,000 to at least make it to the majors for a couple major league checks.

It is a good thing to speak up and advocate for them.

I don’t think they are related. They are cutting costs to avoid a tax and penalties. Owners like to avoid things like this, not just because it cuts into profits but because it’s inefficient and really teams have proven you can do it better. So if you’re making money but being inefficient doing it then you’re not really happy with your operation, knowing it could be better. They should NOT have raised prices this year though. They misread things, there are going to be a lot of empty seats. Unless of course they surprise and everything goes well and they compete (possible).

The ticket price increase is related to demand and demand only. It's not related to this or any other cost to the organization.

I can't imagine demand is up after last season and the team getting worse this off-season, but I'm not involved in financials with the organization and it's complete speculation and entirely baseless on my part.

More on the point, because of how bad their pay is, one of the great things about seeing a AAAA kid make the roster in an emergency situation is that they've earned free healthcare for life. It sucks their families can't use it, but at least that's one less concern for them. The cherry on top is getting extended time to get a fatter check.

I hope someone like Joe DeCarlo gets his cup of coffee for this very reason.

Really? That was like the one thing I really applauded MLB on. I'd like to know more details about this.