Red Sox Aren't Paying Their Minor Leaguers Enough
- Thread starter JesusQuintana
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Marrero is on the 40 man roster and he has some MLB service time so he is paid more than the typical AAA player but nowhere near the ML minimum.
The link below explains the pay, it doesn't have 2016 numbers but I'm sure the salary didn't go up much, he's probably making $85k or so.
http://www.sportslawblogger.com/baseball/salary-information/minor-league-salary/
Marrero only gets played a MLB salary for the days he was on the 25 man roster. Once he goes back to the minors, he makes his regular salary which for him , being on the 40 man, is probably at least 80K per year (paid over 5-6 months). Those not on the 40 man or who did not sign FA contracts, they make 2200 a month for 5-6 months. That's probably most AAA players. They might get a meal when a major league players is on a rehab assignment but I doubt former major league players on minor league contracts are picking up expenses. Then you have a long offseason where they have to live in their parents basement and work while continuing to train, all without pay unless they are approved to play winterball, and most probably work other jobs if they dont
Since 1976 when MLB salaries began to climb due to free agency, minor league salaries have increased only 75% while inflation has increased 400% It used to pay much better, a living wage at least. Todays 2200/month AAA salary would be closer to 7K/month if it kept pace with inflation . Classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Of the 16 positional players listed on milb.com for Pawtaucket, 3 have major league contracts, and another player is on the 40 man. Another 6 hit minor league free agency. Only 6 of the 16 positional players in Pawtaucket are on their original minor league contracts, Ramos, Marrero, Mike Miller, Jose Vinicio, Jantzen White and Sam Travis.
I've tried doing a google search on the average AAA contract and all I can find is the $2200 min-2700 max scale that the original minor league contract abides to, with the note that once that contract expires and players aren't added to the 40 man, they become FA and can barter a better deal for themselves. A guy like Henry Ramos will need to be added to the 40 man at the end of the year. If he isn't and no team offers him a 40 man spot, I'd imagine there would still be multiple teams offering him a minor league contract of varying amounts, letting him get a salary closer to 6 figures than 4. He'd also have a very realistic chance of reaching the majors and all the financial benefits that entails.
It's the guys like Deiner Lopez and Chad De La Guerra that aren't getting paid and probably never will. They end up like Ryan Dent, where they hit minor league FA before they reach AAA. No one wants the services of a AA journeyman, where as a proven AAA journeyman/MLB scrub could be a break glass in case of emergency option for your big league club. Of course, I could be completely wrong and the average AAA player is broke as a joke, but it makes more sense that a team like the Redsox would give Sean O'Sullivan 75k a year knowing their pitching situation than risk losing him to the Brewers by offering $2700 a month.
FWIW - I used this data in my article. In addition, I emailed Jeff Blank (who was nice enough to reply, unlike so many others) and he let me know he didn't have any updated data for 2016.
I think it's safe to assume that if there was an increase between 2015 and 2016, it wasn't much.
In that article, it says "Salary for second year on 40-man roster or if one or more days of Major League service time." So does that mean they don't actually have to be on the 40 man or is it just poor wording? Using this as a reference, 19 of the 28 positional players to have played in Pawtaucket this year have a contract worth at least $82,000 as they have accrued at least 1 day of service time.
Honestly, how is it not worth $5 million or so to pay these guys a little bit better, get a better quality of minor league fodder, and provide them with meals that enable them to be their best?
Does anyone know how salaries work with callups? Did Mike Miller just earn one day's worth of the major league minimum for his one day in the bigs?
He gets the ML minimum for every day he was on the 25 man, which was 5 or 6 days. He would have then received a salary bump to ~$83k for being on the 40 man with ML service time, except they outrighted him off the 40 man, so now he's back to around $2400/month.
Edit: just realized I'm making an assumption on that last part; as bosox noted above the language is unclear.
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I was thinking about that with Pat Light too. The major league minimum pro rates to about $2,700 a day, or more than a no roster, non-free-agent in AA makes in a month.
That's a great article. Most who follow baseball prospects or baseball in general are aware of this but few, including myself, had ever seen the actual numbers.
I'd make a real point of providing meals, not just meal money. In any occupation where you get a per diem like that, there's always a group that lives on baloney sandwiches, kraft dinner and generic ramen and hoards the money meant for meals - which is exactly what you don't want your developing athletes to do (while the rest of the early 20's young men are struggling with their budding meal planning and culinary skills).
Better to feed them properly planned nutritious team-controlled meals, and let the per diem (which I presume is mandated in one contract or another) just be pocket money.
Truth is, if they were all getting year round housing, the athletic services a pro should get and three meals a day (also year round), the current salary would probably be plenty at every level.
We've had this discussion elsewhere and I agree entirely. If I were in charge of a major league team, I'd pay for all the minor leaguers to get three good meals a day, access to nutritional counseling so they know what to eat and what to avoid, access to training facilities and trainers, access to financial planning assistance, and access to general job training and placement assistance both for the off season and for after their career. That's in addition to helping foreign players acclimate.
If it turns one or two never will bes into journeymen every few years, it pays for itself. You'll be attracting a higher quality of minor league free agent, you'll be developing an outstanding reputation with international free agents, minor league free agents, and all those fringe guys everyone signs to split contracts every year. I wouldn't be surprised to see it result in 2-3 more wins per year averaged over a ten year span or something.
Plus...it's the right thing to do.