Minor Leaguers Lack a Safety Net. A New Group Wants to Create One

Then on Thursday, M.L.B. announced that each minor leaguer would receive a payment equal to what he would have received for the canceled portion of spring training. According to news media reports, each player will get $400 a week for three weeks — more than the usual spring training allowance of $100 to 200 per week. M.L.B. said it would continue discussions about how to compensate players from April 9, the original start date for the minor league season, to whenever the season actually begins.

But the pandemic and emergency measures aside, the leaders of Advocates for Minor Leaguers see many longstanding injustices to address. Broshuis said the effort to form the nonprofit — which is registered in Missouri and has federal tax-exempt status — was galvanized in the off-season when M.L.B. proposed severing the major league affiliations of 42 teams in lower levels of the farm leagues. He noted that 1,000 minor league player jobs were at stake.

Ultimately, Broshuis would like baseball’s minor leaguers to have their own union, so they can collectively bargain with major league franchise owners.

“But in the interim, we’re not going to stand by and just hope and pray that a union forms,” he said. “We’re going to do what we can as a nonprofit advocacy group, and there’s a lot you can do.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/sports/baseball/minor-league-advocates.html