Orioles prospect Cade Povich pitches for the Bowie Baysox in a game against the Somerset Patriots in August. Povich said of the increased minor league salaries, “It’s definitely a step in the right direction." (Barbara Haddock Taylor, Baltimore Sun)
When Orioles left-hander Cole Irvin first got called up to Double-A as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies organization, he adopted the lease of another minor leaguer who had been moved to Triple-A. Irvin took his place as one of five players living in a two-bedroom apartment, the group unable to afford more comfortable accommodations.
It’s hopefully not a situation minor league baseball players will face going forward. On Monday, MLB owners unanimously approved a five-year collective bargaining agreement with minor leaguers that will more than double players’ salaries at each minor league level. The first labor agreement focused solely on minor leaguers’ benefits comes months after the Major League Baseball Players Association, which represents major league players as their union, became minor leaguers’ bargaining representatives in September.
“Minor leaguers deserve it,” Irvin said. “They’re in the entertainment business as much as the big leagues is. I think for them to get above a living wage is at least respectable, but I don’t think they’re done yet. I think it’s a good step in the right direction.”
Minimum salaries will rise from $4,800 to $19,800 at Rookie levels, $11,000 to $26,200 at Low-A, $11,000 to $27,300 at High-A, $13,800 to $30,250 at Double-A and $17,500 to $35,800 at Triple-A. Notably, players will be paid in the offseason for the first time. That’s “an absolute game-changer,” Baltimore right-hander Bryan Baker said.
Drafted in the 11th round in 2016 by the Colorado Rockies, Baker signed for $100,000, a relatively modest amount. He spent his first two offseasons as a professional player living with his parents and working at a Destin, Florida, golf course. Instead of devoting his time solely to preparing for the upcoming seasons, he cleaned carts and clubs and picked the driving range in the morning, getting in throwing and workouts in the afternoon.
He managed to save enough from staying at home that he was able to shift to training-focused offseasons from 2018 on, but he knows of others who haven’t had that fortune.
“Hopefully, that [agreement] keeps some guys around in the game that possibly wouldn’t have had as much time to give this a run,” Baker said. “I think that’s part of the beauty of the game is getting guys from all walks of life that get a plane ticket and a chance to try to make it to the big leagues. I think those kinds of stories are good for the game.”
The agreement is welcome news for players currently in Baltimore’s minor league system. The organization, like all 29 others, was required to provide housing beginning last year, an effort that will continue until the new labor contract. But the change in pay structure offers further peace of mind.
“It’s been something that people have been fighting for for a while,” Double-A Bowie left-hander Cade Povich said. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction, and hopefully, it’s just that first step to even more.”
Soon after the Minnesota Twins drafted Povich in the third round in 2021, he got a text from a former college teammate at Nebraska, Atlanta Braves prospect Spencer Schwellenbach, with information about minor leaguers’ budding efforts to gain representation. He passed it along to every other Twins draftee — “I was like, ‘Hey, let’s try and get this going’” — and after he was traded to the Orioles in August, he joined a GroupMe with several of the organization’s minor leaguers where information from the MLBPA is shared.
“The way it’s kind of trickled down and just spread out like a wildfire has definitely been a big part of it,” said Povich, one of Baltimore’s top pitching prospects. “It’s definitely continuing to grow.”
Povich and Irvin noted the importance of monitoring what works and what doesn’t in this initial five-year deal, with Irvin saying “there’s more on the table” for players. But the gains already made are significant.
When Bowie right-hander Nolan Hoffman first heard about the efforts to improve conditions for minor leaguers, his feelings were, “I’ll wait and believe it when I see it,” he said. Living situations such as those Irvin experienced have long been synonymous with minor league baseball, and the lack of offseason pay has left some players such as Baker sacrificing training time to work a job in the winter. But with the agreement in place, Bowie outfielder Heston Kjerstad, Baltimore’s second overall pick in 2020, said it’s “a revolutionary period for minor leaguers.”
“I know a lot of people that have to really work in the offseason to literally just put gas in their car,” Hoffman said. “For a lot of guys, it’s life-changing.
“At the beginning of my career, I wouldn’t have thought anything like this would have happened, and to now just have some sort of representation, it’s really amazing. … We really changed baseball this year, and to be a part of that, it’s pretty incredible.”
The agreement and its benefits were “long overdue,” Orioles utility player Terrin Vavra said. He hopes players crammed into apartments or being financially unable to continue their careers are no longer aspects of the climb to the major leagues.
“Hopefully, those stories can be looked back upon and be a ‘remember when’ thing,” Vavra said. “Hopefully, guys are able to live comfortably.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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Originally published at Tribune News Service